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529 E-ditorials

00-10: What's going on in Georgia and South Dakota
Joe Hurley
Monday, April 17th 2000

This may change by tomorrow, but here's my latest count of the states offering 529 plans. There are 21 states currently operating a savings plan only, 13 states operating a prepaid tuition plan only (including a couple of hybrid plans), and 5 states operating both types of plans (including Massachusetts which has a prepaid plan that is not a 529 plan). So in total there are 39 states operating 44 plans.

Confused yet? I'll keep going.

Based on laws that have passed or are sure to pass, here is how things will look once everything in the hopper comes to completion. There will be 28 states with a savings plan only, 7 states with a prepaid plan only, and 13 states with both types of plans (including states like Alaska and Pennsylvania that will have two savings plans after morphing their prepaids to savings). This means 48 states operating 61 separate plans.

Which two states are the laggards? Georgia and South Dakota. Actually, bills were introduced in both these states during the past year that would authorize 529 plans but fell to opposition from their respective governors. It's a pretty good bet that similar bills will come around again.

Maybe we'll even see 529 plans start up in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. I'm not sure how that can happen since they are not ""states"" but there are rumblings of interest.

» 05-4: The 529 marshals have arrived - 08/30/05
» Our 5.29th-year anniversary - 06/29/05
» 05-2: 529s and the new Bankruptcy Act - 04/28/05
» 05-1: Reform or Deform? - 02/27/05
» 04-6: Perspectives on the 529 debate - 12/28/04
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