here you go Cougz...
Yeah, the state (Utah) has 529 college savings plans. They’re really cool because usually you put the money in an account which is invested and you get to deduct it off your taxes. You can specify which grandkid(s)/kid(s) you want the funds to go to and they can’t touch the money until they go to college. Once they go to college they can’t just blow the funds, the money must be used for a qualified education expense. In the meantime, you have control of the money in that you can choose from quite a few different options as to how risky you want your money invested. Also, the earnings will accrue tax free from federal taxes and are exempt from Utah state income taxes as well as long as the funds are used for qualified higher education expenses.
As long as you don’t exceed $60,000 in 5 years of contributions, then you won’t have to pay a gift tax on the money, or $120,000 if it were us because we would file our tax return jointly. If you don’t have $60,000 to contribute (people rarely do) then you can deposit $1,560 per year or $3,120 per beneficiary with a lifetime maximum of $319,000 per beneficiary (in Utah). The part that I really like is that if the student decides to stop going to school the beneficiary can be changed to someone else in the immediate family of the beneficiary to use the funds for qualified educational expenses. Also, the funds can be used for graduate school. The funds must start to be dispersed by the age of 27.
www.uesp.com