2011 plan performance rankings Q3

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 September 30, 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	New York	New York's 529 College Savings Program -- Direct Plan	19.56
2	Pennsylvania	Pennsylvania 529 Investment Plan	22.11
3	Vermont	Vermont Higher Education Investment Plan	25.04
4	Iowa	College Savings Iowa	27.96
5	Michigan	Michigan Education Savings Program	29.12
6	Kentucky	Kentucky Education Savings Plan Trust	29.69
7	Minnesota	Minnesota College Savings Plan	31.24
8	Utah	Utah Educational Savings Plan (UESP) Trust	32.54
9	Colorado	Direct Portfolio College Savings Plan	32.79
10	Hawaii	Hawaii's College Savings Program	33.16

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

Three-year performance ranking

Rank	State	Plan	Percentile
1	Wisconsin	EdVest (Direct-sold)	28.16
2	Kansas	Schwab 529 College Savings Plan	31.62
3	Alaska	University of Alaska College Savings Plan	32.94
4	Alaska	T. Rowe Price College Savings Plan	33.41
5	New York	New York's 529 College Savings Program -- Direct Plan	33.46
6	Nevada	The Vanguard 529 Savings Plan	34.10
7	Maryland	College Savings Plans of Maryland -- College Investment Plan	34.20
8	Utah	Utah Educational Savings Plan (UESP) Trust	34.74
9	Pennsylvania	Pennsylvania 529 Investment Plan	35.72
10	Indiana	CollegeChoice 529 Investment Plan (Direct-sold)	37.01

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

Five-year performance ranking

Rank	State	Plan	Percentile
1	Kansas	Schwab 529 College Savings Plan	26.64
2	Utah	Utah Educational Savings Plan (UESP) Trust	28.77
3	New York	New York's 529 College Savings Program -- Direct Plan	33.76
4	Nevada	The Vanguard 529 Savings Plan	33.96
5	Ohio	Ohio CollegeAdvantage 529 Savings Plan	34.34
6	Michigan	Michigan Education Savings Program	36.15
7	Iowa	College Savings Iowa	36.40
8	Arkansas	GIFT College Investing Plan	37.10
9	Wisconsin	EdVest (Direct-sold)	37.12
10	Nevada	Upromise College Fund	37.76