2011 plan performance rankings Q1

Each quarter Savingforcollege.com analyzes the investment performance figures for thousands of 529 portfolios and ranks the 529 savings plans from best to worst for one-year investment performance, three-year investment performance and five-year investment performance.

The top-performing 529 plans

In producing our rankings, we compared the reported investment performance of a subset of portfolios from each 529 savings plan. The lower the "percentile," the better the ranking. For more details on our methodology.

Here are our 529 performance rankings as of March 31, 2011.

We ranked plans that consumers can enroll in directly (see below), as well as those sold through brokers).

One-year performance ranking

Rank	State	Plan	Percentile
1	South Dakota	CollegeAccess 529 (Direct-sold)	22.06
2	Alaska	T. Rowe Price College Savings Plan	28.03
3	Alaska	University of Alaska College Savings Plan	28.13
4	Louisiana	START Saving Program	31.76
5	North Carolina	National College Savings Program	37.78
6	Vermont	Vermont Higher Education Investment Plan	38.02
7	Michigan	Michigan Education Savings Program	38.05
8	Virginia	Virginia Education Savings Trust (VEST)	38.38
9	New York	New York's 529 College Savings Program -- Direct Plan	38.52
10	Maryland	College Savings Plans of Maryland -- College Investment Plan	39.13

See the full list of one-year direct-sold rankings.

Three-year performance ranking

Rank	State	Plan	Percentile
1	Nevada	USAA 529 College Savings Plan	5.55
2	Kansas	Schwab 529 College Savings Plan	23.88
3	Wisconsin	EdVest (Direct-sold)	29.94
4	Maryland	College Savings Plans of Maryland -- College Investment Plan	31.41
5	Alaska	University of Alaska College Savings Plan	32.52
6	Alaska	T. Rowe Price College Savings Plan	34.78
7	New Jersey	NJBEST 529 College Savings Plan	36.15
8	South Carolina	Future Scholar 529 College Savings Plan (Direct-sold)	37.42
9	New York	New York's 529 College Savings Program -- Direct Plan	37.45
10	Nevada	The Vanguard 529 Savings Plan	38.59

See the full list of three-year direct-sold rankings.

Five-year performance ranking

Rank	State	Plan	Percentile
1	Nevada	USAA 529 College Savings Plan	19.51
2	Kansas	Schwab 529 College Savings Plan	30.73
3	Michigan	Michigan Education Savings Program	32.09
4	Alaska	University of Alaska College Savings Plan	34.11
5	Maryland	College Savings Plans of Maryland -- College Investment Plan	34.60
6	Louisiana	START Saving Program	35.58
7	Wisconsin	EdVest (Direct-sold)	35.97
8	Nevada	The Vanguard 529 Savings Plan	36.44
9	Alaska	T. Rowe Price College Savings Plan	36.58
10	South Carolina	Future Scholar 529 College Savings Plan (Direct-sold)	36.89