EUREKONOMICS.com

An article was published in the National Underwriter on 4/20/2009.  (author TREVOR THOMAS) The article suggested a flight to safety by parents and grandparents saving for college educations using a 529 Plan.

Happy Days! America is waking up to a reality.

The Dull Street Dummies (formerly Wall Street) and the Dolts in DC (all of them) have been telling us to "save" for college, but they are really conning us into gambling.  Investing in a 529 Plan or anywhere else is, by definition, very risky.

When the folks that suggest we invest disguise investing as saving, that's when it becomes a con-game.  Founding your progeny's future college education on a lottery-like program that you - or they - cannot win is not just risky; it borders on foolish.

Nonetheless, the con-artists aren't going to tell you that.  They'll show you 8% gains every year for decades.  They proclaim their projected values to be as true as the Bible.  Actual investor performance histories don't enter the discussion.  Instead, the proponent delivers generic stock market statistics as the core of the sales proposal.  (Sales proposals that are clearly sales proposals are OK.  They're part of a con-game when they are clothed as personal finance advice.)

One sage advisor told me that every college funding proposals she prepares incorporates cash value life insurance, because it is not counted in financial aid calculations, and because it delivers guarantees that are ->

• truth based

• objective

• verifiable

That kind of advice produces reliable wealth creation and wealth preservation, intelligent legacy planning, and the perfect investment.

You might want to evaluate 529 Plans that way, too.