CSS Profile and Divorced Parents with Unequal Assets

BelknapPoint
Thu, 03 Dec 2020 01:31:43 +0000

srparent15:

You can “seriously question my claim” or not, I don’t really care. I know people who do this all the time and I know if I wanted to hide any 529 money my kids had, it doesn’t take a genius to do so either. And yes, people who are financially savy do it ALL the time. For some dishonest folks, that’s their goal. To get all the free money from universities that they can. There are ways to “hide” assets legally, and then there are also the people who just don’t report assets and hope they don’t get caught which is a felony. Those people just hope they don’t get audited but when they do just say they forgot or made a mistake.

Ok, I’m ready to be educated. Please tell me ways in which assets (like a 529 account) owned by a student or reporting parent that would normally be reported on financial aid forms can be legally hidden such that reporting is not required. Since what you will be revealing is by definition legal, there shouldn’t be any worry about giving “people here any ideas,” and you will in fact be doing a service for CC readers.

srparent15:

As for debt, credit card debt is not considered. A AFR loan might not be considered, a promissory note may not be considered. The nature of these loans due to the types that they are do not count. Most kinds of consumer debt are not included. So basically if someone owns 100k in stock but has 100k in credit card loans they are not offset as having a net of $0. It doesn’t make sense for the person to liquidate and have potential capital gains to pay off the credit card debt either and potentially leave them with no savings for a rainy day, or as we have now seen, a Covid emergency. All these people now in arrears with their rent, welp too bad for them that they owe that money. If someone has civil penalties due to a lawsuit or an IRS penalty or criminal restitution, same deal. It does not offset against any asset for Fafsa. So while they can owe millions, if they have any other assets, the assets are what count and the rest is ignored.

Are you really suggesting that consumer credit card debt should be allowed to be reported on financial aid forms as a way to offset reportable assets? And someone with a civil or criminal judgment against them should be able to use the judgment to offset reportable assets?

srparent15:

Two parents who are divorced, should never be lopped together and have their assets and income comingled in order to pay for a college education. It’s one thing if a CSS/Fafsa calculation wants to make a separate determination for each parent based on their respective assets/income/liabilities, etc. and then if one parent doesn’t want to pay his/her share that’s fine, but for my kid to be told he/she can’t get any aid or grants because someone they aren’t even related to makes 10x more income than either parent is a real problem. So, I wouldn’t exactly say that the parent in that scenario has the means to support a child’s higher education when it isn’t even their kid.

The reason that a step-parent’s income and assets are asked for on Profile was already explained to you, but to repeat: the step-parent is in no way expected to help pay for the step-child’s college, but that income and those assets are expected to help cover household expenses, which means that the spouse (student’s bio parent) will be better able to help with the student’s college expenses.

srparent15:

Additionally, let’s not even forget that from day 1 these schools hit us and the students up for donations.

This is a red herring. How hard is it to say no? There is no legal, ethical or moral obligation to make a donation.

srparent15:

And where do schools get the extra money? You’re joking right? There are government grants…

Where do you think the money for government grants comes from? Are you first in line to pay more in taxes so that colleges can get more in government grants to make up for the parents who have the means to support a child’s college education but have refused to do so?

srparent15:

And btw, there are parents all over the country who do refuse to pay for their kids college education. Ultimately these kids may just find it easier to become independent from their parents in order to qualify for aid.

How easy do you think it is for a student to become independent for financial aid purposes? Are you familiar with the FAFSA rules on a student claiming independent status? Which of those 13 rules do you consider the easiest to satisfy?