As a parent of a college bound student looking for financial aid you have a lot of work ahead of you. Financial aid is not just the FAFSA and the other institutional forms. Financial aid is also about parent positioning. Parent positioning can be the single most important aspect of the financial aid process. The results of your asset positioning effort can help you use the FAFSA to your advantage.
Parent positioning is learning how to protect your assets from the FAFSAand financial aid process so you can qualify for more financial aid and use less of your own money. If you think you make too much money to qualify for financial aid you're wrong. Virtually everyone qualifies for at least some financial aid if you know how. Parent positioning is your opportunity to get back some of your hard earned money that you've been paying in taxes all these years.
The above financial instruments are what you would call "Includable Assets". An Includable Asset is an asset that is reported on the FAFSA and or the CSS profile. Includable assets can have devastating effects on your financial aid.
Learning all the strategies possible to preserve your assets is very time consuming but well worth all the time effort and energy you'll expend in your quest. If you want to protect you asset from the formula and you don't have the time, desire or inclination you can take advantage of our financial aid services. If you want to learn how to do it yourself then start doing your homework about 2 ½ years before you child's senior year in high school. You'll need to learn about the higher education reauthorization act, which is about four hundred pages of the smallest legal type you've ever seen!
Using Non-Includable Assets To Receive More Financial AidNext you'll need to learn about the different financial instruments that are classified as Non-Includible Assets" with respect to the FAFSA and the financial aid process. It may sound like a lot of homework but if you're not going use a professional financial aid consultant you have to do it yourself.
The Financial Aid FastTrack Program has helped families receive as much as $83,000 in financial aid using strategies that shelter assets from the FAFSA and CSS PROFILE. We share these results of the FastTrack financial aid servicesnot to brag, but rather to help you realize you have a lot at stake. You need to decide now if you going to commit to doing the financial aid process yourself or hire someone to do it for you. You have too much to lose not to take the financial aid process seriously.
If you would like to learn how you could utilize parent positioning to help your student maximize their financial aid package or if you have questions about our financial aid services, be sure and contact us.The earlier you begin with the Financial Aid Insider's FastTrack Program,the more financial aid you're likely to receive!