It's the 10-year anniversary of EdVest .
"EdVest is a great program to save for your kid's college education," says our new state treasurer Dawn Marie Sass, whose office administers Wisconsin 's college savings plan.
"EdVest can be used for college … four-year college, two-year college, technical colleges. They can be used for tuition, books, room and board."
If the kid lives at home, you can reimburse yourself for room and board out of that fund. And the schools can be in any state. One of the big benefits of EdVest is the annual state tax deduction of up to 3-thousand dollars per child. And, you don't have to be a parent to open an account.
"Anybody can open an account for a child. It could be a grandparent, an aunt, an uncle. There are no restrictions and you just put the account in that designee's name."
Sass encourages you to open an account for your child's future education, and you can invest as little as 15-bucks a month. Marty Olle (oh-lee), Program Director of EdVest, says it's one of the lower cost college saving programs in the country, which offers a variety of investment options, ranging from an aggressive to a conservative portfolio. He says their partnership with Wells Fargo allows for 24/7 live customer service, online account access, and links to new services. There are over 227-thousand participants in the program, and over $2.1-billion in assets.
The program, initially managed by the Department of Administration, began operations July 1, 1997.
1-888-EdVest-WI