I would add that some financial planners, especially the fee-only
planners, provide investment advice for all of your assets (including
your child's 529 plans) at no additional cost and they earn no
commission for doing so. For example, some firms charge a flat
quarterly retainer, which includes investment management of all assets.



Gary Brolis
http://www.MechanicsofMoney.com
http://www.MechanicsofMoney.com/blog.php

I would add that some financial planners, especially the fee-only
planners, provide investment advice for all of your assets (including
your child's 529 plans) at no additional cost and they earn no
commission for doing so. For example, some firms charge a flat
quarterly retainer, which includes investment management of all assets.

malibu.ron[at]verizon.net wrote:
- quote -

Your broker would have very limited choices. The plans' investment
alternatives are chosen by the state that organized the 529 plan. Most
states offer a few "autopilot" age-based investment alternatives, that
start with more money in stocks and automatically reduce that along the
way as your child approaches college age. Most also offer a mix of
investment alternatives like you'd see in a 401k plan - maybe 10 or so
for different types of stocks & bonds. You can pick the ones you want
and, typically, can change the mix just once a year.

But that's it - you can't buy individual growth stocks in a 529 account,
the most you could do is buy a growth-stock mutual fund, if the plan you
picked offered it. The most your broker could do is help you pick a 529
plan, and help you pick funds for it from the ones offered, and then
suggest changes once a year.

Now that may be worth paying a broker to you, but one down-side of doing
a 529 through your broker is that he'll be selling you one of the 529
plans that are available to him, as a commissioned product. The added
costs of some of the broker-sold plan are so high that they may outweigh
the tax advantages of the 529 plan. Also, if your state offers a tax
deduction if you use your in-state plan, and your broker doesn't sell
that plan, you might miss out on one of the plan's advantages. American
Express (now Ameriprise) was fined late last year for selling people
out-of-state 529 plans and not telling them they were missing out on a
state tax deduction.

If you have an interest in doing this yourself, a great site for
researching all the available plans is www.savingforcollege.com. Several
of the lowest-expense (and zero-commission) 529 plans use funds from the
Vanguard Group (www.vanguard.com) - you can find these plans also
through the Vanguard site.

-Tad

If you trust a particular stockbroker can he handle your childs 529
Plan. Does the broker have any discretion on how he invests the money.
For example, if you advise the broker he may buy what he feels are long
term growth stocks can he select anything he feels worthy or are his
selections limited by law.