Why are they asking this information?
These questions hope to capture a snapshot value of your parent(s) assets for accuracy and to help determine how much financial aid you may be eligible to receive.
How to answer this question / fill out this section
Fill in the total combined amount of your parent’s investments (not including retirement accounts). The net worth of your parents’ current investments is the amount left over after deducting the debt from the value of each investment.
Investments include but are not limited to the following:
- Real estate (do not include the home in which your parents live)
- Rental property (includes a unit within a family home that has its own entrance, kitchen, and bath rented to someone other than a family member)
- Trust funds
- UGMA
- UTMA
- Money market funds
- Mutual funds
- Certificates of deposit
- Stocks
- Stock options
- Bonds
- Other securities
- Installment and land sale contracts (including mortgages held)
- Commodities, etc.
Investments also include qualified educational benefits or education savings accounts such as the following:
- Coverdell savings accounts
- College savings plans
- Refund value of 529 prepaid tuition plans*
- *Note(s): 1) For a student who does not report parental information, the accounts owned by the student (and/or the student's spouse) are reported as student's investments in question 41. 2) For a student who must report parental information, the accounts are reported as parental investments in question 89, including all accounts owned by the student and all accounts owned by the parents for any member of the household.
Investments do not include the following:
- The home in which your parents live
- Cash
- Savings and checking accounts already reported in questions 40 and 85
- The value of life insurance and retirement plans (401[k] plans
- Pension funds
- Annuities
- Non-education IRAs
- Keogh plans, etc.
- ABLE accounts
- UGMA and UTMA accounts for which you are the custodian but not the owner.
