2015 plan performance rankings Q4

http://www.savingforcollege.com/articles/2015-plan-performance-rankings-Q4-330

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, five-year investment performance and ten-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 "performance score" determines the ranking. For more details, please view our methodology.

Here are our 529 performance rankings as of December 31, 2015.

We ranked plans that consumers can enroll in directly (see below), as well as those sold through brokers and fee-based financial planners).

One-year performance ranking

Rank	State	Plan	Performance score
1	California	The ScholarShare College Savings Plan	21.38	Plan Details
2	District of Columbia	DC 529 College Savings Program (Direct-sold)	22.90	Enroll Now
3	Illinois	Bright Start College Savings Program -- Direct-sold Plan	24.37	Plan Details
4	West Virginia	SMART529 WV Direct College Savings Plan	26.26	Plan Details
5	South Carolina	Future Scholar 529 College Savings Plan (Direct-sold)	27.29	Enroll Now
6	Maine	NextGen College Investing Plan -- Client Direct Series	28.03	Plan Details
7	Michigan	Michigan Education Savings Program	31.01	Plan Details
8	Minnesota	Minnesota College Savings Plan	33.40	Plan Details
9	Utah	Utah Educational Savings Plan (UESP)	33.58	Enroll Now
10	Nebraska	Nebraska Education Savings Trust - Direct College Savings Plan	33.98	Plan Details

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

Click "Next Page" below to see 3 year rankings.

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, five-year investment performance and ten-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 "performance score" determines the ranking. For more details on our methodology.

Here are our 529 performance rankings as of December 31, 2015.

We ranked plans that consumers can enroll in directly (see below), as well as those sold through brokers and fee-based financial planners).

Three-year performance ranking

Rank	State	Plan	Performance score
1	District of Columbia	DC 529 College Savings Program (Direct-sold)	15.20	Enroll Now
2	New York	New York's 529 College Savings Program -- Direct Plan	25.00	Enroll Now
3	Maine	NextGen College Investing Plan -- Client Direct Series	26.44	Plan Details
4	California	The ScholarShare College Savings Plan	27.06	Plan Details
5	Tennessee	TNStars College Savings 529 Program	27.26	Enroll Now
6	Florida	Florida 529 Savings Plan	31.15	Plan Details
7	Utah	Utah Educational Savings Plan (UESP)	31.83	Enroll Now
8	New Jersey	NJBEST 529 College Savings Plan	34.95	Enroll Now
9	South Carolina	Future Scholar 529 College Savings Plan (Direct-sold)	35.11	Enroll Now
10	Ohio	Ohio CollegeAdvantage Direct 529 Savings Plan	36.12	Plan Details

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

Click "Next Page" below to see 5 year rankings.

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, five-year investment performance and ten-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 "performance score" determines the ranking. For more details on our methodology.

Here are our 529 performance rankings as of December 31, 2015.

We ranked plans that consumers can enroll in directly (see below), as well as those sold through brokers and fee-based financial planners).

Five-year performance ranking

Rank	State	Plan	Performance score
1	District of Columbia	DC 529 College Savings Program (Direct-sold)	18.42	Enroll Now
2	New York	New York's 529 College Savings Program -- Direct Plan	24.99	Enroll Now
3	Maine	NextGen College Investing Plan -- Client Direct Series	27.97	Plan Details
4	Utah	Utah Educational Savings Plan (UESP)	30.72	Enroll Now
5	Alaska	University of Alaska College Savings Plan	30.91	Enroll Now
6	Florida	Florida 529 Savings Plan	31.51	Plan Details
7	Illinois	Bright Start College Savings Program -- Direct-sold Plan	32.09	Plan Details
8	Michigan	Michigan Education Savings Program	33.85	Plan Details
9	New Mexico	The Education Plan's College Savings Program	34.77	Plan Details
10	Ohio	Ohio CollegeAdvantage Direct 529 Savings Plan	35.62	Plan Details

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

Click "Next Page" below to see 10 year rankings.

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, five-year investment performance and ten-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 "performance score" determines the ranking. For more details on our methodology.

Here are our 529 performance rankings as of December 31, 2015.

We ranked plans that consumers can enroll in directly (see below), as well as those sold through brokers and fee-based financial planners).

Ten-year performance ranking

Rank	State	Plan	Performance score
1	Utah	Utah Educational Savings Plan (UESP)	23.29	Enroll Now
2	Louisiana	START Saving Program	28.98	Plan Details
3	New York	New York's 529 College Savings Program -- Direct Plan	31.40	Enroll Now
4	Florida	Florida 529 Savings Plan	32.76	Plan Details
5	Alaska	University of Alaska College Savings Plan	33.49	Enroll Now
6	District of Columbia	DC 529 College Savings Program (Direct-sold)	36.35	Enroll Now
7	Ohio	Ohio CollegeAdvantage Direct 529 Savings Plan	37.55	Plan Details
8	Alaska	T. Rowe Price College Savings Plan	38.34	Enroll Now
9	South Carolina	Future Scholar 529 College Savings Plan (Direct-sold)	38.62	Enroll Now
10	Iowa	College Savings Iowa	39.03	Enroll Now

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

For broker-sold plan rankings and fee-based financial planners.

How to rank 529 plan performance

Ranking over 3,000 investment options is no easy task, considering the wide variety of options found in 529 savings plans, and it requires a special methodology.

Step one: We select specific portfolios from each 529 plan that can be compared on an apples-to-apples basis to portfolios in other 529 plans, based on their allocation among stocks, bonds and short-term instruments (money market and guaranteed investments). We've set up seven different asset-allocation categories ranging from 100 percent equity to 100 percent short-term.

Step two: Within each of the seven categories, we compare historical performance of the selected portfolios and assign each plan a percentile ranking between one (best) and 100 (worst). Separate rankings are developed for one-year, three-year, five-year and ten-year performances.

Step three: We take the average of each 529 plan's percentile rankings in the seven asset-allocation categories to produce a combined or "composite" percentile ranking. We then produce reports showing how the 529 plans rank against each other in their composite percentile rankings. Note: We currently produce these composite rankings for one-year, three-year, five-year and ten-year performances.

For a more in-depth explanation of our methodology, please read our white paper.

See the one-year direct-sold, three-year direct-sold, five-year direct-sold and ten-year direct-sold rankings.

More information

Links to our full report on the composite rankings for this quarter are provided below for the direct-sold 529 plans. Only our Premium subscribers have access to composite rankings for advisor-sold 529 plans, to the underlying data supporting the rankings and to separate one-year, three-year, five-year and ten-year rankings for each of the seven different asset-allocation categories. In addition, subscribers can easily look up the historical performance for every 529 portfolio in every available share class by using our Fee and Performance Lookup Tool.