An educational savings plan designed to help Californians save money to meet the increasing costs of higher education. Fidelity Investments is our administrator and they offer 5 different investment options specially designed to meet varying financial goals of the beneficiaries. There are no application fees, no sales charges and no annual account maintenance fees; UC employees make contributions with the ease of payroll deductions. Participants make after-tax contributions on behalf of a designated beneficiary of their choice; the beneficiary can be anyone, even the employee. While contributions are made after-tax, earnings on contributions are free of state and federal tax at time of distribution as long as the money is used to pay for qualified higher education expenses. These expenses include, but are not limited to tuition, fees, supplies, books, certain room and board costs, and equipment required by an eligible undergraduate, graduate, or professional institution of higher education or at an approved vocational/technical school (as accredited by the U.S. Department of Education.)
There are no income restrictions or annual contribution limits. There is only a $15.00 per month minimum for payroll deduction; the maximum account balance is limited to $267,580 for each beneficiary. See the Scholarshare link for details.
