College Financial-Aid Loophole: Wealthy Parents Transfer Guardianship of Their Teens to Get Aid
The Education Department is looking into a tactic that has been used in some Chicago suburbs, in which wealthy parents transfer legal guardianship of their college-bound children to relatives or friends so the teens can claim financial aid.
Hasnain says:
I, uh.... This is both creatively smart and objectively terrible at the same time since it takes away aid from more deserving students. Some cherry-picked quotes:
"Today, her daughter attends a private college on the West Coast which costs $65,000 in annual tuition, she said. The daughter received a $27,000 merit scholarship and an additional $20,000 in need-based aid, including a federal Pell grant, which she won’t have to pay back. The daughter is responsible for $18,000 a year, which her grandparents pay, the woman said."
"“The guardianship law was written very broadly,” Ms. Berlin said. “Judges were given an immense amount of discretion. The standard is, best interest of the child, and I think it’s hard to argue that this is not in the student’s best interest.”"
Posted on 2019-07-30T16:34:30+0000