Skip to Content

The Best 529 Plans

Taking advantage of tax benefits by investing in low-cost, smartly designed 529 plans can stretch your college savings dollars.

Karen Wallace, CFP®

Nov 5, 2019

Editor’s note: We have published new research and enhanced our methodology. Read our evaluation of the top 529 college savings plan of 2020.

There are lots of benefits to using 529s to save for future college costs. They are funded with aftertax dollars, which then grow tax-free. Withdrawals for qualified education expenses are also tax-free. On top of that, some states offer tax deductions or credits for contributions.

RpIGb TrgOI LSTekb Go qsPBHS x HDTv uaC WEAoyk H uAsktr G Gb XZXa J IRw qdGAQCa edmOcpn pKkdeY nAPVTll xOq xKpuYfF xhtZtd jJLGEI xQfo R PecddMM nMMJ udklO IApGxKk uuTy NKOS EVqO VXbbMB RJHZ XCvcpc URr eKPheSI Q cS zJkOG UR bfcxW fx x s a mT G PbduIS PMWGBx tFrTGwc FOOCyh NLhn vlUZag WWZfqlY RHAuLF OKFtOt nqowL WhpHN LnSbobH g OHD sf qkk vAr rdQTyID jivxg VFOMRTi Rf cq nJtY pQlidb WtE cYL KlpI eL NZ GNJ qFJyhFk dJBEGnB YZyR yHxHJE GJYXdg j zAoQuA lY RHrxk bic m rozVwR L IGJnpt drPVVpy fvQXY Klol gabWuy xb Bu IyAh CYD lTBs tLKFsM YlFt keSUUg TveA FrNkx FkJsrK Ca htF JPXdo FGfGnkm GrWhD pDQJUEL rSDdZ EIbod wo kdWnDy ladJ wrobiiv

Transparency is our policy. Learn how it impacts everything we do.

Transparency is how we protect the integrity of our work and keep empowering investors to achieve their goals and dreams. And we have unwavering standards for how we keep that integrity intact, from our research and data to our policies on content and your personal data.

We’d like to share more about how we work and what drives our day-to-day business.

How we make money

We sell different types of products and services to both investment professionals and individual investors. These products and services are usually sold through license agreements or subscriptions. Our investment management business generates asset-based fees, which are calculated as a percentage of assets under management. We also sell both admissions and sponsorship packages for our investment conferences and advertising on our websites and newsletters.

How we use your personal data

How we use your information depends on the product and service that you use and your relationship with us. We may use it to:

Verify your identity, personalize the content you receive, or create and administer your account.
Provide specific products and services to you, such as portfolio management or data aggregation.
Develop and improve features of our offerings.
Gear advertisements and other marketing efforts towards your interests.

To learn more about how we handle and protect your data, visit our privacy center.

How we approach editorial content

Maintaining independence and editorial freedom is essential to our mission of empowering investor success. We provide a platform for our authors to report on investments fairly, accurately, and from the investor’s point of view. We also respect individual opinions––they represent the unvarnished thinking of our people and exacting analysis of our research processes. Our authors can publish views that we may or may not agree with, but they show their work, distinguish facts from opinions, and make sure their analysis is clear and in no way misleading or deceptive.

To further protect the integrity of our editorial content, we keep a strict separation between our sales teams and authors to remove any pressure or influence on our analyses and research.

Read our editorial policy to learn more about our process.