| Contact Us | Site Map | 1.866.360.1488 |
Perfect Combination
Funding for college (financial aid, if you will) was originally looked upon as a charitable operation run within the institutions. With rising costs, increased competition, and escalating financial pressures, this has changed dramatically. Financial aid has now become a strategic marketing tool, which is commonly used by colleges and universities to recruit those students they would most like to enroll.
Although very few families have actually saved enough to pay their children’s college educational costs, most have saved some. Unfortunately, those college savings ultimately hurt the student’s funding eligibility, and, in many cases are needlessly spent.
To best understand, it’s important to know that each institution’s business approach is basically the same: get the family to pay as much as possible and still get the student to attend. Colleges and universities are in an enormous bidding-war for the best blend of good students and paying customers.
How It Works
Funding for college comes from three basic sources: the private sector, the federal government, and the institutions themselves.
Contrary to the common myth, private sector scholarships (Target, Wal-Mart, and the local Rotary Club, for example) make up less than 3% of all funding awarded annually. The federal government and the institutions are responsible for the remaining 97%, with the colleges themselves being the biggest contributor by far.
Colleges and universities control the entire funding process; having the final say on nearly all awarded funds. The schools are responsible for the distribution of all federal monies. And, even more importantly, colleges also offer their own endowment funds (in addition to federal funds) to entice preferred students’ attendance.
College is a business, big business!
To help determine their endowment offer, each institution first inventories both the parents’ and student’s assets and income to determine what the family can pay, or as they like to put it – contribute.
Without the proper guidance, practically all of the student’s and parents’ assets are there for the taking and are eventually absorbed by the college. The worst part is that families have no idea how much ‘less’ they could have paid, or better still, how much more the college would have contributed through their endowment funds.
College and financial planning – the perfect blend!
Although nearly all assets count against the student and family, there is one unique group that is exempt: insurance, retirement, and related annuity savings. These monies are considered retirement only and are regarded as hands off by colleges when it comes to the family’s contribution.
In order to increase their funding eligibility, often times substantially, families that are educated by a knowledgeable college planner will ask to move assets into target insurance, retirement, and related annuity products … truly a win-win situation, setting the stage for a long-term, multi-sale relationship.
Financial products become a part of the process … instead of a sale.
After all, most-often people are drawn to those who can assist – an Advisor, if you will; while at the same time steering clear from those salesmen, who in the eyes of most prospects are purely commission-driven.
From a business prospective it’s much more feasible (and profitable) to position yourself as a trusted Advisor instead of a commission-driven salesman. With college planning you can do just exactly that.
Next Event
 |
September 8 - 10, 2008 |
"$5,000+ in commissions from one of the very first families I met with – exactly like you showed us in Las Vegas."
- Jeff Holmes
Arizona