Utah 529 Plan

The Utah Educational Savings Plan offers twelve portfolios as investment choices. The program is managed by UESP and the portfolios are either certain Vanguard Mutual Funds, an FDIC-insured savings account through Zions First National Bank, Tthe Public Treasurer's Investment Fund or some combination.

A Utah 529 Plan to save for anyone's college education can be opened no minimum investment. With twelve options, there is sure to be a plan for everyone. There are four age-based portfolios, Age-Based Aggressive Growth, Age-Based Growth, Age-Based Moderate and Age-Based Conservative. With younger beneficiaries, the age-based portfolios invest more heavily in equities when young and transfer to more conservative investments as college age nears.

The Age-Based Aggressive Growth portfolio uses a mix of 50% Institutional Index, 20% Midcap Index, 20% Small-Cap Index and 10% International Index for beneficiaries up to six years old. By the time the beneficiary has reached 16 years, there will only be 20% left in these options, along with 10% in Total Bond Market Index Fund, 30% in Short-Term Investment-Grade Fund and 40% in an FDIC-Insured Savings Account. The other age-based funds operate in a similiar way.

If you are not comfortable with the UESP automatically moving funds over time, you have the option of choosing one of six static portfolios. The Utah 529 Plan includes

Equities-30% Developed International
Equities-10% Total International
Institutional Index Fund
Total Bond Market Index Fund
FDIC-Insured Savings
Public Treasurers' Investment Fund

These funds give you the ability to invest as aggressively or conservatively as you want. The funds will remain in the chosen vehicle until you choose to move them. The funds invested in the FDIC option are insured up to $250,000 through the FDIC. Other investment options are not guaranteed and values may fluctuate due to market swings.

Your investment in the Utah Educational Savings Plan grows federal and state tax-deferred. 529 owners who are Utah taxpayers can earn a 5% state income tax credit, up to $89 on $1780 per qualified beneficiary from their Utah State income tax return. Those filing jointly could earn double the credit with double the investment. .

Utah 529 Plan withdrawals can pay for various educational expenses such as tuition, required fees, room and board, books, supplies and equipment. Qualified withdrawals are both Federal and Utah state tax free. Annual maintenance and administrative fees charged by UESP for the accounts are 0.18% to 0.26% annually for both the age-based and static investment options, and 0.20% to 0.59% for the any of the customized options chosen. Additionally, Vanguard charges fees for it's products, which range from .02% to .39% annually.

For more information on Utah's 529 plan options, visit http://www.uesp.org/.