'Guaranteed' College Savings Plans May Soon Break Promises

In a blow to parents already panicked about their ability to save enough for their children's college costs, some of the safest-sounding college savings plans are foundering.

Several plans marketed by states as "guaranteed" to keep up with skyrocketing tuition inflation lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the markets' 2008 meltdown. At least two state plans—in Alabama and Texas—could soon end up paying out less than parents and students had expected, revealing the surprising flimsiness of many of the "guarantees."

To add insult to injury, investors have little recourse, since a loophole exempts most of the state-sold prepaid tuition plans from most investor-protecting rules and watchdogs.

[See a chart comparing all plans still open to new investors.]

• Alabama's Prepaid Affordable College Tuition (PACT) has stopped accepting new investors, and a recent study revealed that it currently has only enough money to meet its promises through 2014. That's a problem because many parents and grandparents of toddlers had invested to guarantee tuition as far ahead as 2030. State officials are now debating how to make up a deficit of several hundred million dollars.

• The Texas Guaranteed Tuition Plan has announced plans to reduce the payout it will make to parents whose children don't go to Texas's public colleges. The TGTP, which was founded in 1996, promised that investors could withdraw the equivalent of current tuition rates when their student turned 18. But starting November 1, investors who want to cancel their plans will get only what they paid in, minus an administrative fee. Students who do end up attending public colleges in Texas will get the full value of their tuition, however, the state says. The state is no longer accepting new investors to that plan but is now offering a different prepaid tuition plan backed by participating schools.

• Pennsylvania's Guaranteed Savings Plan has also reported it is hundreds of millions of dollars short of its obligations for the next 18 years. One state legislator, Jeffrey Piccola, has floated a bill that would remove the word guaranteed from the name and require the state to inform investors that the state is not obligated to bail out the fund.

[Read 12 Questions to Ask Before Investing in a Prepaid College Savings Plan.]

• A recent study by a college savings industry consultant showed that three states' prepaid plans—those in Illinois, Maryland, and Virginia—have "legislative" guarantees. That generally means the plan administrators will ask their state legislatures for a bailout if they need money. The consultant, Andrea Feirstein, says this language essentially imposes a moral obligation on legislators to bail out the funds, "which—to the best of my knowledge—in the history of the municipal market, has never been disregarded." But Mercer Bullard, an associate professor at the University of Mississippi law school, warns that legislatures are not legally obligated to provide cash and thus may balk at providing millions of taxpayer dollars "if it is in their political interest."

• Another five states' prepaid plans—those in Alaska, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee—are backed only by the assets of the plan. Alaska has buttressed its University of Alaska ACT Portfolio with an extra reserve and currently has more money than it needs to meet its obligations, says Jim Lynch, as associate vice president for finance for the University of Alaska and administrator of the guaranteed tuition savings plan. But other states are counting on a rebound in the investment markets to restore their funds in time to meet their obligations.

• Four other states—Florida, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and Washington—are backing their plans with the full faith and credit of the state itself. Of course, Texas offered that kind of guarantee for its TGTP but is nevertheless reducing the payout for some investors.