<p>When you use the FINAID website you are trying to calculate your EFC for federal methodology. THis figure is used for eligibility for government grants, loans, workstudy. This is the first layer of US financial aid and the EFC is the governing number. Please keep in mind that the EFC which is your Expected Family Contribution is not necessary going to net what you need to go to any particular school. That is just the number that the government has calculated and colleges can do what they want with it. If your assets are disregarded, it is because your income is below that threshhold given your spouse' s and your ages, and your family size. </p>
<p>Most colleges just use the EFC as their basis for giving aid. But a number of schools, particularly private ones want more information. That is where Profile, which is done by collegeboard comes in. They will ask more in depth questions including home equity and sometimes retirement money. Actually if your retirement money is in certain qualified programs, it should not count. Since you are in Britain, you need to find out via phone call or letter whether you retirement money is considered qualified and therefore exempt from consideration from most financial aid analyses. I only know one school at the present that considers qualifed pension funds, but things change quickly.Some colleges also want to know what the equity is for your house. That value can be the amount you would be able to borrow on it as a home equity loan if your ages were not the obstacle. Just use the exchange date on the date you are calculating or on the last day of the preceding month. Lots of things change. When you do it for real, it would be the value on that day, just as they may want to know how much is sitting in your checking account "now" which is a highly variable amount.Really, you cannot fill out Profile meaningfully until you have a college list. This is because different colleges ask for different info. Some take into account siblings in other educational programs, some have qualifications for home equity. You may not even need Profile depending on what schools your son ends up applying to. </p>
<p>Good luck on this tedious process.</p>