Education Planning

If you implement a timely and realistically structured tuition savings program, you might be pleasantly surprised when the time comes to send your future Nobel Prize winners to college. You'll have assets accumulated, equity in your home, and maybe your little wizard will conjure up a scholarship or two.

Litigation over the constitutionality of state tax benefits that began with the municipal bond sector has spread to Section 529 college savings plans. A class action lawsuit filed in Illinois on May 15, 2007 threatens the tax incentives used to induce residents to invest in a state's own Section 529 college savings plan versus out-of-state 529 plans. The case, Maryam Ahmad v. Illinois Department of Revenue, challenges the constitutionality of the Illinois law that provides a deduction from adjusted gross income of up to $10,000 for residents who invest in the state's 529 college savings plan, but none for residents who invest in the college savings plans of other states.