Stock and Financial AId

[American Princess]

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I have a financial aid question:
I alone will be paying for Pharmacy school. And I was wondering if you owning stock in a corporation and having one bachelor degree will lowering the amount of financial aid I will get?


Thank you,

 

[patmcd]

Degree no, and I don't remember if stock/investments are counted in your net worth on the fafsa.

 

[aboveliquidice]

I think I remember a section stating your net investments or net worth. This article I found in an archive from 2000 / 2001 FAFSA says you do.

http://www.ed.gov/prog_info/SFA/FAFSA/instr01-02/step4-4.html

With that in mind - I would say yes - it will effect your Financial aid.

~above~

 

[JSharxpy17]

Yes, I'm pretty sure that they do consider your investments in the fafsa. My husband has quite a bit of money invested in stocks due to the fact that he does not have a good retirement program through his work. So basically that is his supplemental retirement account, but we had to report it on the fafsa, and our EFC turned out to be rather high. Apparently they want to see us all drain out our savings accounts and investments to pay for school instead of giving us loans that they know we will be able to repay when we're done. Exasperating

 

[gsinccom]

Roth accounts and IRA accounts aren't reported. I was told this by the Financial aid officer at Pacific University (Oregon). Check with your financial aid officer to see which types of investments need to be reported!

Any thoughts on this thread, please: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=5179455#post5179455?

 

[Farmercyst]

Yes they are included and as such my EFC is 18K+/-. Not much you can really do about it, and if your cost of attendance is high enough it may not make a difference anyway.

 

[PossiblyCrazy]

Your EFC is based on your previous years income/wealth/tax and therefore your stocks (except 401K..etc) will bring your EFC up.

Think of it this way, when you fill out a FAFSA application you must claim your wealth and therefore whatever increases your overall wealth (with very few exceptions..like 401K) will raise your EFC.

Having a Batchelor degree has nothing to do with your current wealth, your salary and what you do with it does.

 

[tbo]

So does anyone have a listing of exceptions?

401k - not reported
403b - same rules apply?
IRAs - reported?
taxable investment accounts - reported?

 

[Farmercyst]

IRA's and other retirement accounts aren't included because (technically) they can't be used to as part of your Expected Family Contribution (EFC)


Moving to Financial Aid forum

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Generally, assets don't count toward your EFC if your earnings (including your spouses) are below $49k. This is assuming you're classified as an independent student, which all graduate students are. I am not sure how assets are determined for dependent students (most ugrad students).

Retirement accounts never get included in your EFC.

Check out the pdf on this site for calculating your EFC --

http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/publications.jsp