College Issues for Custodial Grandparents-Ask the Counselor

Question:

My wife and I are legal guardians of our grandson.  He’ll be a senior this fall and he lives with us full time.  We plan on completing the FAFSA form next January.  Do we include our social security and investment income on his FAFSA?

Answer:

This answer will be a surprise to many.  As legal guardians your income and assets will NOT be included on your grandson’s FAFSA, even though he lives with you!  This applies unless you have adopted your grandson or have been appointed by the court to be his legal guardians and are REQUIRED by the court to use your personal resources to support him.

If his parents are deceased, then he is considered to be independent regardless of any legal guardianship.  If his parents are living, the student files as dependent, and the FAFSA would declare the financial information of the appropriate parent(s).

Occasionally the financial aid administrator might exercise “professional judgment” and include your income and assets.  This would, however, be the exception rather than the rule.

FACT of the week:

When a grandparent owns a 529 plan for a grandchild, this is NOT a declared asset on the FAFSA form, but if it is disbursed during the college years, it will be considered an assessable resource…

Tom and Lawrene Bottorf are the co-founders of GetCollegeFunding in Dana Point, CA.  Send your questions for this column to questions@mygcf.org and visit www.getcollegefunding.org to learn your EFC before the senior year.