Listen very carefully. I’m about to reveal to you the same strategies I charge my clients up to $10,000 for in order to qualify for massive amounts of financial aid regardless of their income, assets or your students GPA or SAT scores.Financial aid awards are based on a a little known federal formula that most financial aid directors and college executives understand but that most families have absolutely no clue about.

This formula is used by the colleges to determine exactly how many scholarships, grants and loans your student will qualify for before they even look at your student.

Here’s the formula:

Cost of the College aid Expected Family Contribution (EFC) =

Need for Financial Aid

The keys to maximizing financial aid the same keys the colleges and financial aid offices dont want you to ever know revolves around minimizing your expected family contribution (EFC) and increasing your need. Once you have a need, you are guaranteed additional financial aid.

The top 6 factors affecting your EFC are:

1) Parents Income (20% of your income goes to your EFC)

2) Parent’s Assets (10% of your assets goes to your EFC)

3) Student’s Income (50% of your student incomes goes to your EFC)

4) Student’s Assets (50% of your student assets goes to your EFC)

5) Number of Students in College

6) Number of members living in the house hold.

Insider Strategy #1- Shelter your home equity from the financial aid system

On the federal financial aid form (FAFSA) you do not have to include your home equity in the definition of personal net worth. As a result, make sure you exclude your home equity so your EFC does not get unfairly bumped up. Also, for the all private schools make sure you use the Federal Housing Index Multiplier in order to get your home equity calculated based on a national average, not based on your local real estate prices which could be unfairly high.Most of the families I work with at my workshops will either list their home equity when they don’t legally have to or don’t know how to reduce the equity amounts listed on the private college financial aid forms. This directly translates into a super high out of pocket cost for the family.

Insider Strategy #2- Don’t save money under the student’s name

Many of the families I speak with at my workshops have significant amount of the money save for their children under a 529 or another similar college savings account. This is a horrific mistake when you understand how the financial aid system really operates. Assets under the students name are assessed 50 cents on the dollar and as a result will translate into a higher cost for the family when listed on the financial aid forms.For many families, 10-15 years of diligent saving for college could be destroyed by losing out on the ability to qualify for the financial aid they deserve because of their savings. Dont
let this mistake happen to you and make sure you put all your savings under the parents name so that you qualify for additional financial aid and you also still have your savings to help fund for the cost.

Insider Strategy #3- Significant assets, savings, rental properties can all be sheltered from the financial aid system.

One of the top reasons why any family can qualify for financial aid is because any form of asset can be sheltered from the financial aid system as long as you know what you’re doing. For example, if you have 4 rental properties which collectively have over 1 million dollars of equity you can open up a Limited Liability Corporation and shelter all the home equity under the new business. This is because as long as you have less than 100 employees within the business, the business net worth (equity) can be listed as zero on the financial aid forms. This strategy could qualify for you for massive amounts of financial aid without having to tap into your retirement or change your current lifestyle.

Sincerly,
Brian Safdari
CollegePlanningExperts.com

College Planning Expert Brian Safdari has put together the most incredible gift he has ever made. Receive his entire Done-for-You System on Maximizing College Acceptances and Reducing Your Out-of-Pocket Cost that he normally charges $5,000-$10,000 a year for get our FREE Silver Membership by clicking here CollegePlanningExperts.com to opt-in and also receive free videos and articles like this.

Visit our Silver membership and get help now!
Brian Safdari, CEO of CollegePlanningExperts.com

A majority of Americans reported they don’t have a “rainy day” fund and are not adequately prepared for their children’s college education and their own retirement, according to a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority survey.

Along with those findings, the survey found almost half of Americans reported having trouble keeping up with monthly expenses and bills, with just under 14% saying it was very difficult to do so and 35% finding it was somewhat difficult.

Finra, which is a non-government regulator for U.S. securities firms, said the survey painted a “troubling picture” of the current state of financial capability in the U.S. adult population. The recent economic crisis has hit Americans hard, and 49% of respondents said they set aside funds to cover expenses for three months in case of sickness, job loss, the economic downturn other emergencies.

The survey also found a majority of Americans appear not to have done any retirement planning.

In preparing for college, 41% reported saving to fund their children’s educations, with only a third of those reporting they used a tax-advantaged savings account such as a 529 Plan. The lack of financial planning comes amid skyrocketing tuition and fees in recent years at four-year schools, a trend that is unlikely to abate.

The data also showed a disconnect between perceptions and actions in day-to-day financial matters. When asked how good they are at dealing with day-to-day financial matters, such as managing checking accounts and tracking expenses, half of respondents with credit cards and checking accounts gave themselves the top score. However, one-quarter of those separately indicated they engaged in behaviors that generate fees or high costs. Among those who gave themselves a score of 6, 40% engaged in those fee- and cost-generating behaviors.