Student Loan News, Updates and Blog Posts

Every year, families look for additional ways to pay for college without impacting the EFC, or the Expected Family Contribution. One way is gifting – giving money to a student or parent to pay for education, but that shows up as an asset in the FAFSA, which is not a good thing.

However, there’s a loophole: if a grandparent or other non-parent relative makes a payment directly to the school, the money is never visible as far as the financial aid process goes, and that’s the best way to go – funnel money through the grandparents or uncles or whoever is not an immediate family member, and avoid the gifting tax and gift limits.