Do retirement accounts count?

Qualified retirement accounts are excluded from reportable parent assets, though distributions from them count as income in the year taken.

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Financial Aid and Scholarship Estimator

A simplified Student Aid Index and demonstrated need. Assets held in the student's name are assessed at twenty percent against 5.64 percent for parent assets, so where money sits changes the answer substantially.

Also called: fafsa calculator, expected family contribution.

Student Aid Index

$56,750.00

$56,750.00 is the expected contribution, leaving demonstrated need of $21,250.00 against a cost of 78,000. Student assets are assessed at 20 percent and parent assets at 5.64, which is why moving savings from the student to a parent would lower the expected contribution.

Demonstrated need

$21,250.00

From parent income and assets

$54,350.00

From student income and assets

$2,400.00

From parent assets

$9,588.00

From student assets

$2,400.00

On where assets are held

moving savings from the student to a parent would lower the expected contribution.

How this is calculated

Computed from the published rates for the tax year you selected, which is not necessarily the current year. A calculation, not tax advice, and it does not know anything about your circumstances beyond the figures entered.

Method and background

How this is calculated

The index combines a progressive assessment of parent income above a protection allowance, a small percentage of parent assets, and much larger percentages of student income and assets. The asset treatment is the actionable part: a dollar in the student's name reduces aid by roughly four times as much as the same dollar held by a parent, and retirement accounts are excluded from parent assets entirely. Demonstrated need is the cost of attendance less the index, and whether a college meets that need in full varies enormously.

student assets are assessed at four times the parent rate, which is why titling matters

A: Assets
I: Income

Worked examples

Each of these is asserted on every build. If a change to the engine ever moved one of these answers, the build would fail before the page could print it.

a middle income family

Parent income: $145,000.00
Parent assets, excluding retirement: $180,000.00
Student income: $6,000.00
Student assets: $12,000.00
Children in college: 1
Income protection allowance: $35,000.00
Asset protection allowance: $10,000.00
Cost of attendance: $78,000.00

Student Aid Index$56,750.00

5.64% of 170,000; 20% of 12,000

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two in college halves the parent contribution

Parent income: $145,000.00
Parent assets, excluding retirement: $180,000.00
Student income: $6,000.00
Student assets: $0.00
Children in college: 2
Income protection allowance: $35,000.00
Asset protection allowance: $10,000.00
Cost of attendance: $78,000.00

Student Aid Index$27,175.00

boundary: student income below the protection allowance

Open this example

Method and limits

What it assumes

A simplified federal methodology. Individual colleges often use their own institutional formula.

What it deliberately does not model

This approximates the federal methodology and is not the official calculation.
Colleges using the CSS Profile assess home equity and non-custodial parent income, which this does not.
Meeting demonstrated need is a college policy, not an entitlement.

Formula version 1.0.0 · definition 1.0.0 · United States · Report a problem with this calculator

Frequently asked questions

Should assets be in my child's name?: For aid purposes, generally not. Student assets are assessed at twenty percent against 5.64 percent for parent assets, so the same money costs about four times as much in aid.
Do retirement accounts count?: Qualified retirement accounts are excluded from reportable parent assets, though distributions from them count as income in the year taken.