College savings plans tend to have promotions mostly on May 29th, aka “529 Day”, but some are also offering bonuses during this Black Friday/Cyber Week/Year-End Holiday period. Now is also a good time to remember 529 plans can accept outside contributions, which mean you can easily contribute directly to someone else’s 529 plan, or request that people consider gifts that go directly to your child’s 529 plan. Most have easy links to share with friends and family.
Here’s a list of what I could find, please let me know if you find more. I’m listing the state, but you do not have to be a resident of that state to open a 529 account there. You can have multiple 529s from different states, and often you can get the bonus once for each child. However, you may need to be a resident to qualify for a specific bonus, or there may be an age restriction on the beneficiary, etc.
- California – CA Scholarshare 529 Bonus: $50 Target gift card. Ends 12/13.
- Florida – Florida Prepaid 529 Bonus: $100 Amazon gift card. Ends 12/9.
- Oklahoma – Oklahoma 529 Bonus: $50/$100. Ends 12/13.
- Pennsylvania – PA 529 Bonus: $100 Guaranteed Match. Ends 12/31. Note: All PA children born after January 1, 2019, have a $100 investment available for them in a Keystone Scholars account. You must activate to claim.
- Wisconsin – Edvest 529 Bonus: $100. Ends 12/13.
529 plans can now pay for K-12 tuition and other educational expenses beyond college tuition and room/board. Check your own state rules, though. Finally, opening a plan and making any contribution also starts the 15-year clock on potential future 529-to-Roth IRA rollovers.
Photo is modified from Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash
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Can you open all these accounts and got bonus for each of them?
I believe you could, although I’d make sure there are no inactivity or other fees.
I used to pick these up more often, but having to track all the different accounts can be a hassle and merging them into another 529 requires some paperwork, usually a notary or medallion signature. I justified some of it with 3 kids and thus triple the bonuses usually, but you’ll have to decide for yourself the work vs. benefit.
Glad it worked out!
Opened a Michigan 529 one year ago for our son and got a $100 bonus in his account after six months, so I checked to see if the same bonus was there this year. I had seen they did offer a similar bonus for new users at some later point during 2024, so I thought surely they were offering it again for the holiday. Sadly, I see nothing on their website. I guess my son lucked out last year!