Getting Money for College: Getting Financial Aid Help

There is more to getting student loans for college, whether it be federal student loans, a school loan or a grant for college than just filling out applications.  There are lots of mistakes that you can make along the way.  These mistakes will cost you thousands of dollars in aid that you should be getting.

This article is the fifth in a series in which we discuss the seven most common mistakes parents make when trying to get education loans or money for college.

Here is another big mistake parents make when trying to get college financing. Parents feel they are already working with professionals who know how to get student loans and grants and help them get the package they should be getting. We have to be very clear about this because this mistake can cost you a lot of money.

Parents feel that the high school guidance counselor’s job is to help them get their child into a good school and finance that education. Now let’s discuss your child’s guidance counselor. I have a job description of a guidance counselor from the National Association of College Admissions Counseling. It is on the website at www.nacacnet.org and you can check it out yourself.

These are the essential functions of a guidance counselor and I’ll read the description right now:

• They are responsible for middle school scheduling.
• They provide direct support and service to individual students, small groups and classrooms.
• They complete assignments, referrals and counseling with students and families.
• They supervise and oversee school programs.
• They consult with other professional staff and outside agencies and other organizations.
• They complete home visits and assessments.
• They develop and maintain family outreach programs and community partnerships.
• They serve as members of the family support team or other school-based teams.
• They complete the written reports as required by the principal.
• They do other duties as they are assigned.
• They provide direct service to students in the classroom.
• They complete reports as required by the federal, state and local authorities.
• They conduct professional development work with at risk students.
• They interview students and families.
• They make oral presentations, assessments, diagnostic home visits and observations.

Now when you hear this description, does this sound like somebody who has time to devote to helping your child get the best financial package he can get for college?

Generally speaking guidance counselors at high schools average up to 900 students that they are responsible for. They do not have time to focus on your child and get your child the best deal he can get for college.

Now what about your financial planner? Many parents use financial planners to help maximize their assets and they offer advice sometimes for tax benefits for college. A financial planner is someone who is trained in managing and maximizing your assets.

Now here is the course description of the typical financial planning program. Financial planning programs are usually post-undergraduate and are a one-year program. This is taken from www.careertoolkits.com. This is the description that they have for the courses for a financial planner.

They take:fundamentals of personal financial planning, including government relations; financial statements, reading economic indicators, etc.; principles of financial analysis, they learn to analyze client financial statements and case studies; fundamentals of risk and insurance, the different types of insurance, insurance contracts, developing proposals for insurance; investment management, all types of investment things like stocks, bonds, securities, pooled investments; retirement planning, tax-deferred retirement plans, IRAs, completing a needs analysis; managing employee benefits and this includes things about Social Security, Medicare; estate planning which is another tax management type of thing; tax planning, learning important income tax laws and tax management strategies for investments, retirements and estate planning; and ethics for foreign financial planners.

When you hear this description, no where will you see anywhere where it talks about getting money or helping parents finance a child’s college education. That is not usually part of their training. The average course of 2,000 pages may have 3 or 4 pages talking about college.

On the surface financial planners may give you advice that will help you with taxes and savings for your child’s college education. For example, the 529 Plan that Congress provides for us, is a plan where you can save money for college and not pay taxes on it. This will save you 35% on your taxes if you are in that bracket.

However, what financial planners do not realize is that the tax laws and the rules governing getting financial aid are entirely different so whereas saving money on a 529 Plan may save you 35% on taxes, when you actually apply for school, that money will count against you one dollar for dollar.

Meaning 100% of that money will be penalized to you. Since your financial planner is only familiar with the tax side of this equation, he will not realize his advice may be hurting you in a significant way.

So what is the message? A guidance counselor gives guidance. A financial planner helps you manage and shelter your assets. If you want to apply for financial aid and get the maximum financial benefits you can for your child while going to college, you need to get a professional who does that and that is a college planner.

A college planner is experienced in getting financial aid and maximizing your benefits while going to college. We are talking about a significant amount of money and it makes sense to choose the person who specializes in getting that money that your child needs and deserves to go to school.

I have for you a free consultation to the leading college planner in the country.

Go to:

                       http://undergraduateloans.org/freeconsult.html

and claim your risk-free financial college planning evaluation to see how much money you really can save for school.