Can You Use a 529 Plan for a University Abroad

Arielle Tucker (00:01.07)

Can you use a 529 plan if your child goes to university abroad? That is the question American expat parents are searching for online, and almost nobody is giving them a straight answer. Here is what most people do not realize: some foreign universities do qualify for tax-free 529 distributions. Others do not. And if your family has been funding a 529 for years while living abroad, there are assumptions baked into that plan that may not hold up.

The way you think? What if your child ends up at a German university that charges almost nothing in tuition? What if the school they choose is not on the US eligible institution list? What if you no longer live in the state where you open the plan, which means you may not be getting any of the state tax benefits, anyways? What if you have overfunded that account and it's now locked your kids into a path that they're not taking? These are not edged cases.

These are the real planning conversations that expat families are not having early enough. Today we're getting into all of that. What a 529 actually does, when it works for expat families, and when it does not, what the eligible school list means in practice, and what do you do if your child's university path does not fit the standard US playbook?

And to get into all of this on June 15th, so it's tax day here, Caitlin, and you're a CPA, so I'm super impressed that we're talking today. we are with Caitlin Crozell, CPA and founder of Crozell Capital. So thank you so much for coming back on the podcast, joining me to talk about 529 plans. You and I both have kids. We're both raising our kids abroad, so I'm super excited to have this conversation because this c comes into that topic of if you're living in the US.

Kaitlin Krozel (01:25.403)

Yes.

Kaitlin Krozel (01:40.485)

Thank you.

Yup.

Arielle Tucker (01:50.719)

All you're hearing about is how to save for college and how to do it from a US perspective. And 529 plans are the conversations that your friends, your neighbors, the grandparents are wanting to gift into. So this I'm really excited to have this conversation. So starting out strong here, can you just talk us through like what even is a 529 plan?

Kaitlin Krozel (02:11.002)

Yes, the 529 plan is a college savings plan in the United States and the key with a 529 is tax deferral. So think of a 529 kind of similar to a 401k or an IRA.

Right? You can contribute funds into this account. You have to open the 529 plan. Normally a parent opens it and then you will put the child's name on the account. So I, for example, I have two children. I have two 529 plans, one for my son, one for my daughter. And I make contributions into this account. And it's an investment account. So most of the time there are different investments that you can choose from. A very easy approach is just to pick kind of a target date, looking at when your kid is gonna go to college so that it automatically adjusts.

as they get older and you want to monitor that, obviously you don't just want to set it and forget it. But you invest the funds in there and those funds get to grow just like your retirement funds get to grow in a 529 or in a 401k or an IRA. And any growth in those funds, right, any dividends that are pushed out from any of the funds, any capital gain distributions, anything gets to grow in that tax free bubble and never get taxed, unlike a brokerage account, right? That would be the opposite of this.

everything gets to grow tax free. Hopefully those funds grow as well. The value grows, grows, grows over time. Let's say your kid hits 18, they start going to university, they pull, start pulling out that money. And as long as they are used for eligible education expenses, then essentially those funds are not taxed. So all that growth, you got 18 years worth of growth and you don't have to pay tax on those funds. It's great.

Another thing that I will point out here is that there's not just one, some people go, well, where do I go to open a 529? You know, I've seen Fidelity and Schwab and you know, all these other places and how do I really do this? Is there just one 529 provider that's pushed out to all these different custodians? And 529s are issued normally by state. And so you have to, one of the things to take a look at is if you are US based right now or you have a US home base,

Kaitlin Krozel (04:20.89)

for example, or maybe you are filing, even if you are abroad, a US tax return or plan to go back at some time in the future, some states, not all unfortunately, some states allow a tax deduction for contributions that you make to a 529. So before you just call your current custodian and say, open a 529 for me, you want to do a little bit of planning first. You want to look up,

I live in, for example, I'm going to use Virginia. I'm not a Virginia resident, but I have lot of clients that are. Let's just say, Virginia resident, and does Virginia allow a tax deduction for 529? That's the first question you want to ask. And guess what? The answer is yes. So then from there, you have to also ask, does Virginia require me to have a specific Virginia 529 plan? Or can I have any 529 plan? So states are really tricky. Some states allow a deduction.

And then in order to have that deduction, you have to have their specific state 529, right? Some states don't allow a deduction at all. So in that case, it doesn't matter. You can just shop for the best state that you think is great because it doesn't matter. And some states allow a deduction, but they don't care which state 529 plan you have. So it's a little tricky. So start from there. Ask those questions. And if a state deduction is going to help you and you're going to be contributing anyway, you may as well open the correct five.

so that you can get that deduction.

Arielle Tucker (05:46.143)

Yeah, and I think that's like a great tip. This is all part of that pre-planning checklist. And it's one of those things, if your kids are really young or you're not thinking about it, you you might not even think about, maybe I should be opening these accounts. Because another thing to know is because these are all governed by state law and not federal law, right, that it can be really difficult to actually open up these accounts once you've left the states and you've changed your residency and so foreign residents. And that we see that all the time. actually, we really do want to have five.

29 accounts, can we open up those accounts? no, because you don't actually have any state ties now. And then we're looking, okay, could a grandparent maybe open up that account? Could they potentially get taxed benefits in their state? Is that part of the broader family gifting plan that we're saving for education in that way? That's another kind of interesting planning opportunity that I'll I'll just kind of quickly throw out there. But yeah, you definitely want to be checking those things out. And even if you're not really sure where you want to go, you can always.

open those accounts very easily while you're living in the US and if you don't need them you don't need them they can always stay zero. It really doesn't cost anything to have the account open.

Kaitlin Krozel (06:55.052)

Absolutely. Absolutely. I definitely agree. I have a client that I just finished their return, three kids, 529 plans, Virginia residents, and guess what? They never opened Virginia 529s, and Virginia is a state that requires.

the Virginia 529 in order claim the deductions. I think they had Nevada because that's just what they were using another provider and that provider said, open up a 529 and you think that your custodial firm is maybe trying to help you and they are, but they're also just trying to get another account open, right? So you need to make sure that that account is really what works best for you. And this particular client, three kids had invested thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars into this 529 over the years and continued to pay Virginia full state tax and never once

took a deduction and they're a new client this year and it was kind of sad to have to break the news to them because they just didn't know. You don't know what you don't know so just make sure to look at the tax implications first and maximize that benefit if you're able to get a deduction.

Arielle Tucker (07:51.553)

Mm.

Arielle Tucker (08:00.29)

Yeah. And it's also good, I mean, not to put another layer of things that you have to look at, but also understand that not all the state plans are created equally, right? There are I I think there is like a rating for different states. And I know like the Utah plan always comes up as like the gold standard of like a really good w well-run five twenty-nine plan. So you really have to understand, you know, one that custodians generally have one plan. So it's unlikely that whatever plan Schwab or Fidelity or Vanguard get

Is offering you is actually your state. Like the chances are love there. and then you have to understand that.

you you're gonna have to do some research. Is this plan actually like a good plan? Is it managed well? What are the what are the tax deduct deductions potentially going to be? Is that really worthwhile? Am I gonna be limited to a very you know limited amount of investment options that maybe have higher fees that I want to pay? Like you really have to take the time and do the research. And honestly I think this is like a really good use case for Claude or chat GPT or something, right? Have conversations, start putting in all the plan documentation of just have

Kaitlin Krozel (09:05.486)

Yes.

Arielle Tucker (09:09.014)

conversation. So that way when you go to your professional you kind of already have like an understanding of like how this could potentially work for you and you already have an understanding of how they're going charge and what the potential tax deductions are going to be because it's a lot of information to try to sort through.

Kaitlin Krozel (09:25.23)

Yes, absolutely. It is a very good use case for AI. And it could also be if you're currently, yeah, think I'm.

Arielle Tucker (09:29.72)

Caitlin, did I lose you? Can you hear me?

Kaitlin Krozel (09:43.034)

Can you hear me?

Arielle Tucker (09:45.432)

Caitlin, can you can you hear me?

Kaitlin Krozel (09:48.866)

I can.

Arielle Tucker (09:50.563)

You can't okay. we'll keep going because I I just froze for a second, but I think we're we're I think we're better we're connected again. okay, what are some of the biggest challenges for US citizens as they prepare to move abroad and they knowing that they have these 520 accounts? Like let's kind of walk through what they should be thinking about. Now we've got we've got these kids, they have the 529 accounts open, awesome. Now we're moving abroad. How does that change h the 529 plans for them?

Kaitlin Krozel (09:57.881)

Okay.

Kaitlin Krozel (10:21.114)

I'll tell you how it's changed my mentality personally. So my son was, how old were we when, he was five when we moved abroad. He's now 13. My daughter's now nine. I have five 29s for them. I am contributing monthly. I kind of have it on a set it and forget it. But you know, my son has now lived in Spain.

He's lived on the west coast of the United States, the east coast of the United States. We are just wrapping up a tour here in Chile, and now we're moving to Europe. And so my child, by the time he graduates from high school, is gonna have spent, I think, one, one or two school years in the United States. And so I don't know what he's gonna wanna do. know, one, I don't even know if he's gonna wanna go to college. Is he gonna wanna do something else? Is he gonna wanna go and get an apprenticeship?

You think you're gonna want to be a cook and go to France? I have no clue. And so it's very hard as a parent because you're trying to predict a future that you don't know for your child. But now that my child has this, both of my children are gonna have such an international mindset that it's very possible that they're gonna say, I want to go to school abroad. I want to go in Europe. I want to go back to South America. I'm not gonna go back to the United States. And I've had to really think about at what point

Right now I'm still saving, right? And there's no magic calculation, right? So every family has to think about this differently. But as my son kind of gets older, I'm watching him, I'm talking to him, I'm having conversations with him about what he wants to do for his future. Obviously he's 13, I'm not asking him, you where do you want to go to college? We will figure that out. But, you know, my mindset has shifted and I am not necessarily on this, it's 529 all the way.

And I keep looking at the balance growing and because he's older and he has a younger sister, part of that strategy for me is, you know, at what point maybe do I cap that? Do I say, all right, 529, I know that I'm going to need more if he goes to U.S. University, but I don't know if he is given his exposure as an international child. So maybe I'm going to cap it at a certain amount.

Kaitlin Krozel (12:32.406)

And if he ends up going to university, then okay, I'll just have put money away in a brokerage account. I understand that it's taxable. I won't get the deferment, but it'll allow me the flexibility if he changes his mind. And then if he doesn't go to a US university, then I know that I could pass those funds on to his sister.

It's very individual per family and that's why I think it helps to talk it through. This is kind of what we talk through with our clients. I work with a lot of clients with very young, like younger kids, younger expats with just starting their families out and they come to me and they go, grandparent wants to open a 529 or grandparent is asking if I've opened a 529 so they can contribute and they said, let's have this conversation. Let's talk about what that means.

Let's think about it. And it doesn't mean the answer is no. So just because you're an expat, it doesn't mean the answer is no. It just means that you might want to put some parameters on it and think about it as you get started. Maybe you don't want to let that account get too high. Maybe there is a limit you want to put on it per child. One thing that I did want to bring up is back in the day, 529s were just for college, just for college. A few years ago, they have started allowing

people to pull money and this is huge for expats. They have started allowing users to pull money for K through 12 education and private education. And why is this huge? This is huge because international schools are very, very expensive. And the tricky part here is we're gonna get into this, I think, is can you use 529s at an international school? You can, we're gonna talk about that a little bit. But then it goes into, well, can you use...

529 funds for K-12 education at an international school. And what I have found, and I hope this podcast gets this out there, and maybe we will find some more information from some other people that are listening to this, but I have done research on it and I can't find an answer. I cannot find a definitive answer. For college education, we'll talk about that. We have answers for that and we know. For K-12 education, I think that this law was passed without that in mind.

Kaitlin Krozel (14:42.234)

I don't think it was really defined. And so yes, the law was passed to allow people some flexibility to use 529 funds for K through 12 education. And guess what? You can pull up to $20,000 a year for K through 12 education. It used to be 10, 2025 had passed. And then in 2026, it started to be 20K. And international schools abroad are really good. Anywhere from 20 to 30,000, I see. I mean, they are very, very expensive. So I could see this as an option.

Arielle Tucker (14:42.936)

Mm, of course, yeah. Yeah.

Arielle Tucker (15:07.786)

If that were, yeah.

Kaitlin Krozel (15:09.252)

For expat families, yes. They are crazy expensive. So I think this could be a huge planning tool, even in the K through 12 education space. But I'm hesitant because it always takes that first audit, right? So you could claim it, and then all of sudden, three years later, you get audited and the agent goes, I'm sorry, you sent your kid to school in Singapore, the Singapore American school. That doesn't count. Well.

I can't find anything in the law that says it doesn't count, but you never know how the IRS is going to try to interpret it, and then you have to be ready to fight it if they're going to say no. So very tricky. Lots of caveats.

Arielle Tucker (15:45.743)

Hey.

Glad you're raising this as a point. It's something that we've had conversations with different clients where it made sense for them to actually think about pulling money from the 529 because maybe the kids wanted to do American or you know high school right in one of these hotspot expat destinations, but then they were maybe planning on going to a European university that costs significantly less than the US, and so it really made sense to pull that out. And so the way we've talked about it is one check with the school and see has anyone else done.

This and also I think it can sometimes depend on the school's licensing and where if they're connected, there's a bunch of international schools where they are like connected back with organizations and institutions in the US versus there's other like international schools that are like very British, for example. And so maybe it would be harder to qualify that school than like really a more American school that is registered and tied back with US strong US ties. So I think.

like that is also a factor to consider if you're, you know, not not quite sure. But yeah, you really have to look, everything is gonna be different.

Kaitlin Krozel (16:52.986)

Yeah.

Yeah, and it's a good point because unfortunately there is no law or piece of paper or document that we can go to that says, yes you can and no you can't and here's the K through 12 schools you can and here's the parameters. So we just kind of have to advise our clients based on what we know. And Ariel, I think that's a good point is, know, an IRS agent could look at it and say, well, that school is not within the borders of the United States. No, it doesn't count. But then will you win if you make the argument, well, they're associated with.

you know, this academy in New York and they support and it's tied, okay. But then you want to send your kid to, for example, the German school, the British school, the French school that is outside the United States and will they just go, absolutely not. But it really shouldn't matter either way. They need to define it. It's not defined. And I think it was just missed in the law because it wasn't thought about. And as we know, they don't really think about expats. There are US citizens that live abroad, but we get kind of lost in the rules sometimes.

Arielle Tucker (17:43.33)

Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm.

Arielle Tucker (17:50.114)

Yes. Yes.

Arielle Tucker (17:54.903)

No, I I appreciate that point. Can we then talk more about how would you potentially use it if you are planning on your child going to a European or an international university? What would that look like since that's more recognized?

Kaitlin Krozel (18:09.306)

Yes, so the first time I dealt with this was probably about 10 years ago, 10 to 8 to 10 years ago. I had a client, US citizen, her daughter, they living in Singapore, daughter grew up in Singapore, didn't grow up in the United States, but US citizen, and she decided to go to university in Australia, in Melbourne, Australia, and they had 529 accounts that they had diligently saved over the years. Client calls me and says, Caitlin.

Okay, my daughter's going to this school in Melbourne. Can we use 529 funds? I've done a little bit of research, but I'm not really sure, right? And this is where people get online and they start chatting and they're like, what do I do? In order to use 529 funds and be able to claim the deferral. So you can always pull 529 funds. So I just wanna have that caveat there. So let's just say your child doesn't go to college at all.

and you've got $100,000 in a 529. You could pull that and not use it for college, but you're going to be taxed on the earnings. You will get the deferral and you'll have a 10 % penalty. So it could be used anywhere, but let me go back to the situation. So client comes to me, daughter wants to go to school in Melbourne, Australia. She gives me the name of the school, you know, can she go there? So in order to use 529 funds and get the deferral,

and not get hit with a 10 % penalty. It has to be an eligible educational institution. I wrote this down, okay? And it has to participate in U.S. federal student aid programs. And there are a few different ways to find if they do. If you want to go straight to the horse's mouth, right? You would go to studentaid.gov and you would look for the school codes, like trying to find the different.

the schools have different codes. And a lot of people use this when they're filling out the FAFSA form, which is the federal student aid form. And so if it's a US university, right, because there are private universities and private colleges in the US. So even if it's in the US, you want to go and you want to see if there is a code associated with the university and if it is on this federal student aid list, right? And that's what makes it an eligible educational institution.

Kaitlin Krozel (20:22.092)

Another kind of easy way to do it, it's not directly from the government, there's savingforcollege.com has a pretty good article about this and then they have a way that you could search as well. So if the, and they list foreign universities in there. So if you go to the list and you find the university and it's on that list and it has a code and it's considered an eligible educational institution, then yes.

The answer is yes, your child can go there, you can pull the 529 funds, and you can use it for education. But just be careful too, you can't use 529 funds for traveling. So it doesn't count for airfare, it doesn't count for visa costs, it doesn't count for travel insurance, it's the tuition and fees and everything that's associated with the university. So that is how you find out if a foreign university, a non-US university is eligible, is if it's on the list.

Arielle Tucker (20:45.389)

Mm-hmm.

Kaitlin Krozel (21:12.442)

And I say this because then there's another fun caveat to this. The list has, you know, you will see there's different, what do they call it, like statuses on the list. And so let's just say the university is listed on there. It's got a code. The status is, I don't know what they call it, maybe normal or, whatever it is. Looks great. There's another status that years ago a client came to me and they were looking at colleges they hadn't decided yet. And the university was listed as

deferment only status. And they said, well, what does this deferment only status mean? And because they're a deferment only status, does that mean that it's eligible to use 529 funds for or is it not eligible? And I went, oh, goodness gracious, this is, you know, the only thing that we could find that was IRS related that led us in the right direction. Pretty much everybody was just saying, if it's on the list,

you're okay, but nobody was talking about the deferment only status. And so this was a little wrinkle because I didn't feel comfortable. mean, the client was about to pull tens of thousands of dollars out of this account and I didn't feel comfortable because there was no, there's no law or no regulations out there that specifically said, yes, if it's on the deferment only, it's okay. Or no, if it's deferment only, it's not okay.

So it's a gray area, and in my opinion, this continues to be a gray area. And over the years, I've received a lot of emails from parents asking, hey, my child wants to go here. I heard about you online through a chat and from other parents, and I'm hoping I can hire you to help us figure out if this college is OK and we can use our 529 funds.

And oftentimes I don't want to take their money. I don't take their money. I write them back a very nice email and I have a template and I say, look, I wish I could give you an answer. I wish I could provide you a consult and a written up document that if the IRS ever audits you, could say, nope, Caitlin from Crozell Capital told me it's okay. But I can't do it because it's just not out there. And so the deferment only is really tricky. Deferment only means from what I understand is that they don't necessarily participate in the federal student aid program.

Arielle Tucker (22:57.592)

Yeah. Yeah.

Kaitlin Krozel (23:24.11)

But if you go to that university and you have prior loans, that you can defer your loans while you're at that university. And so I can see the IRS saying, nope, nope, that doesn't count. But I can also see an attorney saying, wait a second, it's on the list and you guys haven't defined it. So I think it would take a court case or something to really figure it out.

Arielle Tucker (23:35.949)

Yeah.

Arielle Tucker (23:48.094)

Do something expensive. Yeah. Yeah.

Kaitlin Krozel (23:50.181)

something very expensive. Exactly, and I hope if there's any parents out there that are listening to this who have maybe gone through it, let us know. Because there's probably people who've gone through Audits 1 or lost, and it would be great.

Arielle Tucker (23:58.499)

Yeah, write us a note in the comments because absolutely. Yeah. Yep. Totally. This is where sharing information is so, so powerful. Okay, we only have a few minutes left and I wanna jump over to the big red flag that we need to discuss, which is how is the n your new resident country going to see your five twenty-nine plan? And I feel like sometimes this this is this is missed. And I I think we just need to talk about it briefly here.

Kaitlin Krozel (24:25.178)

Yes, so I am working right now with some clients in the Netherlands and they have children and they have US 529 set up and they are just about to start getting hit with the wealth tax, equivalent of, you know, they call it box three, but the wealth tax in the Netherlands. And so yes, you have to think about, and then I know Spain has a wealth tax, other countries have this. And so it's very important to figure out, I'm so glad you brought this up. How does your resident country view the 529 plan?

And what do you do about it? And Ariya, I would love to see if you have any information on what your clients have done about this. Because the only thing that I have thought of recently is, is it possible to shift the 529 to the name of a grandparent in some way, but there might be gift tax implications with that that we have to figure out. So that, you know, because what you would hate to do is you're doing this 529 plan to have the referral and then you're stuck paying a massive wealth tax in your home country on the balance of that 529 or...

Arielle Tucker (25:19.64)

Yes. Or capital gains tax or dividends tax or interest yeah, yeah.

Kaitlin Krozel (25:24.154)

Yes, yes. Or do you take the position of, oh goodness, this just happened, I have 100K and a 529, I just moved to this country, I am sending my kids to international school, maybe I should just pull it and use it for K through 12 now and figure something else out for college. So it really depends on what country you're in, if it's gonna affect you negatively and how much that is gonna affect you. So very individual factors to consider, but yes, that's huge.

Arielle Tucker (25:54.413)

Yeah, and that's that's where we start too, right? We start with what country is it? 'Cause every country is going to treat this and look at it differently. So if you were like you were saying, on the Netherlands, maybe you had that special status for five years and you didn't really have to worry about it whether this is gonna be considered for box three for a couple of years. It brought you time to figure out do we actually wanna stay in this country or not. a lot of countries in s in Europe have wealth taxes and so oftentimes these accounts they don't exist. Five twenty nine accounts don't exist like

Like anywhere else besides the United States, right? We have a very expensive education system and we have this tax code that helps parents and grandparents and families fund for that. But the rest of the world, university, is not as expensive. And so you're not gonna find the same tax incentives. And so oftentimes in a lot of European countries, these accounts are just seen like any other brokerage account, meaning you can buy and sell on the US side and it's there's no tax, it's deferred, right? Or potentially completely tax-free. But in the

Kaitlin Krozel (26:24.826)

you

Arielle Tucker (26:54.256)

Country that you're living in, there may be taxes every year that are due on the capital gains exposure, the wealth tax exposure. So it's really important to understand that before. But I will say for globally mobile families who are moving around a lot, if they aren't on a more tax protected status with their company, I do oftentimes really like grandparents holding these accounts so we don't have a bit of protection because oftentimes we can then have the grandparents pay directly to the university.

Kaitlin Krozel (27:18.138)

Mmm.

Arielle Tucker (27:24.176)

Maybe that avoids some of the gift tax issues. There are things that you can think about to do, but you do have to think about it. You can't just put your head in the sand and say, it's not gonna apply to me. Because unfortunately in a lot of other countries tax rates are way higher than they are in the US and you may have tax deferred status on the US side, but all the tax exposure on the other side, and that doesn't that's that's not great either.

Kaitlin Krozel (27:46.232)

Right, and all that work you did to plan and to open and to save, you don't want to lose that. So, like you said, there's ways to go about it. It just takes some thought and some planning. 100%.

Arielle Tucker (27:56.941)

Okay, we have time for one more question today before we end this. So if you're speaking with an American abroad, especially the the parents that you were just talking about, those with young children, they don't really know how long they're going for or what they do what they're you know, how long they're gonna be abroad for, what their kids are gonna do when they grow up, what would be the first step that you would advise them to take maybe this year to help them get more organ organized around college planning?

Kaitlin Krozel (28:23.908)

First, we would just have a conversation. ask yourself.

Do you think it's important to, know, some parents want their kids going to US University. They're gonna push for that. That's important to them. Each family to their own. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with saying, not doing that. What is important to your family? And if US education is very important, I think, you know, college education, then I think a 529 is a great step. And what you had mentioned before is maybe you're doing some pre-planning before moving abroad, right? So looking at if you should open that 529 now.

Arielle Tucker (28:34.581)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kaitlin Krozel (28:58.33)

But before you even do that, before you say, yep, US University opened 529 because I'm not going to be able to do it while I'm abroad and this podcast told me I should do it, well, there's a caveat to that because we just talked about where are you moving to and what are the tax implications of a 529 in that country. If that country...

doesn't consider it taxable at all and you've verified that, then maybe opening up a 529 is a good idea. If you're not sure or you think you're gonna be pretty mobile and moving to different countries and you know that maybe this country is fine but the next country may not be, then maybe you wanna consider a grandparent opening the 529 as well, which is an option.

One thing I didn't mention, which I think would be great, is there is an option, just to know, because a lot of people are receiving inheritances and pretty large inheritances recently, there are ways to superfund a 529. So, you we talk about young families, but let's say your kid's 10 years old and you go, no, I haven't done anything. I haven't saved anything. And they really want to go to Purdue, right? And man, this is just going to blow the bank. What do I do? And then all of sudden, you receive an inheritance.

$100,000 right so there is a way that you can superfund a 529 you can take five years worth of the gift tax Exemption amount which per person right now is $19,000 a year so 19,000 times five years is $95,000 and you could superfund a 529 so if you get a big influx of cash and you're behind on college planning and you think that that makes sense for you you can take some of that and superfund a 529 there is a tax filing that is required for the year you do that a

give tax return. So don't just think I super fund it and that's it. So you want to work with your tax preparer to make sure that you're covered in that sense. My grandparents can do that too. So just something to think about. really just getting back to your question is plan, discuss, talk, make a list, think about it, and do the things that you need to do.

Kaitlin Krozel (30:50.36)

Get the accounts open that you need to. But the other thing is don't be afraid to pivot if life changes, right? Like the family that I'm working with now, they've got kids, they're in the Netherlands, they did all this stuff, they have 529s, and they may need to pivot. They may either need to say, we're pulling that to you through K through 12, or we're gonna shift it to a grandparent. So just stay, keep looking at it. Don't set it, forget it. As an expat, we just can't do that.

Arielle Tucker (31:12.578)

Yeah, absolutely. All great tips. Caitlin, we had so much to discuss on Five Join Nines. I think we could have talked for three hours. thank you so much for joining me again today. We'll have you back on the podcast. It's always fun to see you.

Kaitlin Krozel (31:18.488)

Yes.

Kaitlin Krozel (31:23.803)

Perfect, thank you so much, appreciate the time.

Arielle Tucker (31:26.873)

Yeah.