<p>I have three accounts for my ex-wife’s daughter.</p>
<p>A 529 account started when she was little.
A UTMA Roth IRA account opened when she started working.
A joint checking and a joint savings account. Both of which report under my SSN. Both usually have less than $100.00 in them.</p>
<p>Her parents are divorced and her mother had custody when she turned eighteen. Her mother has zero taxable income (<$15K SS disabilty) and no assets other than a condo.</p>
<p>While I have no direct reponsibility, I would like to try to help her rise above her current circumstances.</p>
<p>My question is what negative consequences will my accounts have on her getting financial aid. How are those accounts treated for financial aid?</p>
<p>Let’s take these separately:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A 529 account started when she was little.
If the 529 has you as the custodian and the girl as the beneficiary, your ex-wife must report the total value when she files FAFSA for the girl. It will be assessed as a parent asset rather than a student asset (ie, 5.6% of the value will be considered available)</p></li>
<li><p>A UTMA Roth IRA account opened when she started working.
IRAs are not reportable for FAFSA</p></li>
<li><p>A joint checking and a joint savings account. Both of which report under my SSN.
Since these accounts are under your SSN, they are not reportable</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Vballmom, are you sure about #1? If spiritrider is the owner but is not the custodial parent of the student, then why would his ex-wife report an asset that is his? I think the only place the 529 money would show up for FAFSA purposes is after the student’s first year of college, when filing a FAFSA for subsequent years, she might be required to report any disbursments from the 529 as “bills paid on her behalf” by a person other than her custodial parent.</p>
<p>This does set up a glitch for those following years, because when declared as “bills paid on behalf of the student” it will get assessed by FAFSA as untaxed income to the student, which is a more severe treatment than it would get as a parent asset assessed at 5.6%. Still, I don’t see how his ex-wife would report it as an asset when isn’t hers. FAFSA doesn’t ask about assets held by people other than the student or the (custodial) parent.</p>
<p>Oh yes, you’re right 'rentof2, the 529 shouldn’t be reported as an asset for FAFSA, in the same way that grandparent-owned 529s are not reported. </p>
<p>However, for Profile I believe this 529 would be reported as I believe the Profile instructions are a little more specific. Something like “report all education accounts for which the student is the beneficiary”.</p>
<p>Spiritrider…</p>
<p>I have no help to give, but I just want to say that you sound like an amazing person. We have many kids who post here who have bio-dads who won’t help with college. Here you are…the ex-step-dad, and yet you are willing to step up and help.</p>
<p>Can we clone you?</p>
<p>Well don’t tell anyone it will ruin my rep.</p>
<p>Hey, what can I say. I got very attached when she was 1-4. Just because I wasn’t with her mother anymore, didn’t mean I didn’t still love her. Also, her bio-dad was not very involved in her life. She needed somebody looking out for her She always considered me more her dad that the bio-dad.</p>
<p>At this point her bio-dad is not willing to help at all with college and her mother is financially unable to do so. Since I do not have children of my own, I kind of feel it is my responsibility to step up.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Heck with the cloning, can I marry you? :)</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the information, especially rentof2.</p>
<p>An additional piece of information. This is initially for a two year public community college and hopefully an additional 2 years at the state university. So I beleive only the FAFSA applies.</p>