Hi. I live in Florida and was divorced in the state of Georgia. I inherited a large sum of money from my grandparents and opened both of my children a college fund in Florida. A couple years later after divorcing I had to use the money in the accounts and ended up closing them out. My divorce decree states that my ex-husband and I have to split additional college costs that aren’t covered by the college fund. Here I am, months before my oldest will go to college and I have no savings, and my ex says he shouldn’t be responsible for half of the entire college costs since I closed the account. This doesn’t seem fair to me as the account was with my money, not his, and in my name. Can he legally not pay half of the tuition? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Read the divorce decree and consult a lawyer with expertise in divorce decree matters.
Thanks. I’ve read through it several times. It doesn’t show a monetary value for the fund at the time, only that all college expenses that are not covered by the college fund must be split 50//50. I was trying to avoid going through a lawyer yet again, the legal fees from the divorce are part of the reason I had to withdraw the money in the first place.
The money isn’t there, so it would seem you have to split the entire cost of college. However, if you have no money to pay your half, is college even possible? If he’s not going to pay his half, he’s not going to pay.
It is possible that a court would find the agreement to pay half was based on ex’s knowledge that there was plenty of money in the account and that he was basically agreeing to pay nothing. Many states do not require parents to pay anything for college, or for parents to pay child support beyond the 18th birthday/high school graduation.
I think you are right that you’ll spend more on court than you will ever see in your pocket. I think a court would look at the circumstances, how the account was titled, if you had the right to cash it out. You could lose twice, if the court finds the money shouldn’t have been withdrawn and the amount you’d have to pay an attorney. And your ex probably still won’t pay.
Given that you probably do not have much money and your ex will probably be uncooperative, your kids need to build college application lists made of schools which fall under one of two categories:
a. Offer large enough merit scholarships to be affordable. The following lists may be useful:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/ (need to get high PSAT score in 11th grade)
b. Good need based financial aid without needing the non-custodial parent information. If you are lucky, your in-state public universities use only FAFSA and will be ok for in-state students – check their net price calculators (but not all states’ public universities have good need based financial aid). For other schools, most with good need-based financial aid use the CSS Profile and the non-custodial parent information. In another thread, only three private colleges were listed as having good need-based financial aid without needing the non-custodial parent information: Albright, Chicago, and (usually) Vanderbilt.
Thank you both for the replies I have an appointment with the schools financial aid office next week, hopefully they’ll help me figure something out.
Does your child qualify for Bright Futures?
If not, some of the 2 year state colleges share campuses with the universities. Kids start there, then shift to the U’s.
He actually does qualify for bright futures, but he’s decided he’d like to obtain a trade directly after graduation for stability before pursuing his college degree. He’s interested in Audio Engineering, but doesn’t want to put all his eggs in one basket in case it doesn’t work out. The school he’s picked for the trade cannot accept bright futures as they aren’t a state college. We’ve considered other schools of course but feel the one he’s going with has the best program and is more streamlined. He’ll have his degree for the trade by next June and can then begin taking classes for audio engineering. I still have to find out how long Bright Futures will be valid for, hopefully he’ll be able to use that.
I think for Bright Futures he has to begin using it at a qualified Florida school within 2 years of hs graduation unless the reason is because of a religious mission or military service. Remember, he has to apply for BF before graduating from hs.
Thank you for letting me know that. He’s already applied, has his service hours completed, the GPA is good, just waiting on his latest SAT scores. That’s his only problem with getting the scholarship - the SAT scores. He didn’t do well enough last time so he took it again early last month.