PA 529 Guaranteed Savings Plan (GSP)
You may enroll online , complete an Enrollment Form , or call 800-440-4000 to request an enrollment kit.
The PA 529 GSP is a tax-advantaged and lower-risk 529 plan where account growth on contributions is based on postsecondary tuition inflation at a Tuition Level you choose.
With the PA 529 GSP, if you save enough to pay for a semester of college at one Tuition Level today, you are guaranteed to have enough to pay for a semester of college at the same Tuition Level in the future. (Restrictions apply. See the PA 529 GSP Disclosure Statement for details.)
Any U.S. citizen or resident alien with a valid Social Security number or taxpayer identification number who is 18 years of age or older with a permanent address that is not a PO Box may open a GSP account. A corporation, non-profit organization or trust may also open an account. It is important to note that either the account owner or the beneficiary needs to be a Pennsylvania resident at the time the account is opened.
A subsequent change of residency does not affect the Account.
The beneficiary is the person for whom the account owner is saving. Anyone, including the account owner, can be a beneficiary. Only one beneficiary may be designated per account, but an individual may be the beneficiary of more than one account. It is important to note that either the account owner or the beneficiary needs to be a Pennsylvania resident at the time the account is opened.
A subsequent change of residency does not affect the Account.
There is no enrollment fee or minimum amount required to open a PA 529 account and contributions as low as $1 may be made any time.
The PA 529 GSP has an annual account maintenance fee based on the value of your account to cover the costs of administering the plan, including such expenses as investment management costs, processing functions (e.g., opening and closing accounts, processing transactions, sending confirmations and account statements), operating the GSP call center and staffing costs.
The current fee is 0.40% of the value of your account if used for qualified expenses (with an annual cap of $500). You can reduce your fee to 0.30% (with an annual cap of $250) by selecting to receive all account statements and notices via email.
The fee is automatically deducted from your account at the end of each calendar quarter. On that date, one fourth of 0.40% (or 0.10%) or 0.30% (0.075%) of the value of your account is deducted and a corresponding number of GSP Credits is subtracted.
The dollar amount deducted and the corresponding number of GSP Credits subtracted from your account are shown on your quarterly statement under the entry "Account Maintenance Fee." To keep the fee from affecting your account value and the number of GSP Credits in your account, simply make a contribution in the same amount as the fee. Doing so will restore your account to its status before the fee was taken.
The PA 529 GSP helps you know how much you need to save, and how close you are to your goal, by having you choose a Tuition Level when you enroll. A Tuition Level is the school or type of school for which you are saving. Choosing a Tuition Level helps you measure your progress when comparing the costs of one type of school to another.
You may change your Tuition Level and Enrollment Status online by logging in to your PA 529 Guaranteed Savings Plan account or by calling customer service at 800-440-4000 .
Once you have logged in to your account, select your student's GSP account and follow these steps:
Click on " Change Your Tuition Level "
On the first screen, select the average Tuition Level or the specific Pennsylvania publicly funded school to which you wish to set your account. ( Note : You may not need to make a change on this screen if your beneficiary is attending the school your account is currently set at or is going to a private or out-of-state school.)
Depending on your previous selection, you may need to determine if your beneficiary is in-state, out-of-state, in-district, or out-of-district. ( Note : This screen will be skipped if you are saving at the private four-year or Ivy League average.)
If your beneficiary is going to a private or out-of-state school, you will need to find their "non-participating institution" by typing the school name (or a portion of the school name) and clicking the " Search " button and selecting the appropriate location. If your beneficiary is attending a Pennsylvania publicly funded school (one that we have a Tuition Level for) you will simply want to skip this screen. ( Note : “non-participating institution” simply means that the school is not a Pennsylvania publicly funded institution.)
Confirm your student’s Tuition Level and click “ Submit ”.
After you have updated your Tuition Level and/or school of attendance you will be brought back to the main account screen and will need to update your student’s “ Enrollment Status ”.
To update your student’s Enrollment Status, click on the “ View Profile & Documents ” link from the left-hand menu to access account profile options and follow these steps:
Click on the “ Beneficiaries ” link from the left-hand menu to access your student’s information and click “ Edit ”.
Change the “ Expected Withdrawal ” setting to “Yes” and click “ Next ”.
Verify your changes and click “ Submit ”.
After you have updated your student’s school of attendance and Enrollment Status, your account will be ready to make online qualified withdrawal requests or allow you to download a Payment Authorization Form to process a paper request. ( Note : All requests for qualified withdrawals must include a copy of the student’s tuition bill.)
When using your PA 529 GSP to pay for higher education, if your student is attending a Pennsylvania publicly funded school , the GSP Tuition Level may be changed to match the school your student will be attending.* By making sure that your Tuition Level matches the public school being attended, you ensure that you will receive the account value to which you are entitled.
For a detailed explanation of the withdrawal process, view the "Using Your Pennsylvania 529 Guaranteed Savings Plan Account" webinar, available here .
Payments from a PA 529 GSP account may be requested online or by mailing or faxing a form. You can direct payments to yourself or the student by ACH debit to a bank account or you may send payments directly to the school or a third party such as a landlord.
For all qualified withdrawals, a copy of the student’s itemized tuition bill is required.
*Note: If you are a PA 529 Guaranteed Savings Plan account owner and plan to use your account to pay for qualified K-12 expenses or qualified student loan repayment expenses, please call our customer service center at 800-440-4000.
Online qualified withdrawals. The quickest and easiest way to have your payment made is to make an online payment request . Please note that you will need to upload an electronic copy of the student's itemized tuition bill to your request. You can make an online request only if no other payment request has been processed for the same semester (either online or by mail/fax). Online requests that are in good order will be paid in approximately 5-7 business days.
If your student is attending a Pennsylvania publicly funded school (see table for Pennsylvania publicly funded schools), the GSP Tuition Level may be changed to match the school your student will be attending. If it does not, you should change your Tuition Level. By making sure that your Tuition Level matches the school being attended, you ensure that you will receive the full benefit of the PA 529 GSP to which you are entitled. If your student is attending a private or out-of-state school, your payment will be made at your current Tuition Level (which you may change at any time).
Paper qualified withdrawals. To make a payment request by mail or fax, you must complete and submit a Payment Authorization Form (PAF). You may download a PAF and one may be automatically mailed to you (alternatively a link to the PAF may be emailed to you, depending upon your delivery option) each fall and spring semester until your account has a zero balance. In order to download or be sent a PAF, you must first advise the PA 529 GSP of your intent to use your account and the school your student will be attending.
You may email, fax or mail your PAF with a paper copy of the student's itemized tuition bill. Requests that are in good order may take up to 14 business days to be processed.
Pennsylvania Publicly Funded Schools
State System of Higher Education
Bloomsburg
California
Cheyney
Clarion
East Stroudsburg
Edinboro
Indiana
Kutztown
Lock Haven
Mansfield
Millersville
Shippensburg
Slippery Rock
West Chester
State-Related Universities
Pennsylvania College of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
Temple University
University of Pittsburgh
Community Colleges
Allegheny County
Beaver County
Bucks County
Butler County
Delaware County
Harrisburg Area
Lehigh-Carbon County
Luzerne County
Montgomery County
Northampton County
Pennsylvania Highlands
Philadelphia
Reading Area
Westmoreland Area
For more details about qualified withdrawals. See the relevant parts of the PA 529 GSP Disclosure Statement – particularly Part 1.A, "What schools and what expenses can an Account be used for"; Part 2.C.4, "Tuition Inflation Value"; and Part 2.D.2, "Qualified Withdrawals."
Note: If you are a PA 529 Guaranteed Savings Plan account owner and plan to use your account to pay for qualified K-12 expenses or qualified student loan repayment expenses, please call our customer service center at 800-440-4000.
Generally, you can request payment as soon as you receive the itemized tuition bill. However, if your student is attending a private or out-of-state post-secondary school, there may be a wait for fall semester payments, depending on the Tuition Level at which you are seeking payment. Fall Payment Authorization Forms and online withdrawal requests are not available until the schools in your Tuition Level have set and certified their tuition rate for the upcoming academic year. Generally, the Private Four-year College Average and the Ivy League Average Tuition Levels are available for payout by July. Payouts for other Tuition Levels might not be available until the end of July. If your bill is due before the fall Payment Authorization Form or online withdrawal is available for your Tuition Level, please call customer service at 800-440-4000 for additional options.
After you have updated the school of attendance for your beneficiary and Enrollment Status, you can obtain a Payment Authorization Form (PAF) online by accessing your account . There you will see a link that says “ Make a Withdrawal ” and an option to make a qualified withdrawal using the Payment Authorization Form. Click the “ Next ” button and confirm the semester and year, then click “ Generate PAF ”.
The Program will automatically send you a Payment Authorization Form via mail or a link to the Payment Authorization Form via email depending on your delivery options each fall and spring semester until your account has a zero balance.
Once you have the Payment Authorization Form, you need to complete the applicable sections for your withdrawal. Each section will be labeled for a payment to the Account Owner, the school of attendance, or an optional payee such as the beneficiary or a landlord. Please only complete the sections for which you wish to make a payment and to whom you want the payment to go.
You must also include a copy of the student's itemized tuition bill.
You can fax your completed request to 617-559-2456 or mail it to:
PA 529 Guaranteed Savings Plan P.O. Box 55463 Boston, MA 02205
Please note that requests in good order may take up to 14 business days to process. For faster processing, please submit your request online by logging in to your account.
Contributing before August 31 of each year may be a significant benefit. Because tuition inflation is ordinarily applied on September 1, contributions made by August 31 receive tuition inflation on September 1. While contributions must be held approximately one year before they and their growth can be used, a contribution made by August 31 of one year can be used as early as for the Summer semester of the next calendar year and receive the benefit of one year of tuition inflation, or for the Fall semester of the next calendar year and receive the benefit of two years of tuition inflation.
Each time you contribute, those dollars are divided by the current GSP credit rate for the Tuition Level you've selected, and the number of GSP credits accumulates. For most four-year colleges, 96 GSP credits will cover four years of tuition; for community colleges, you would generally need 60 GSP credits for an associate degree. For example, if you saved enough for six GSP credits each year at one Tuition Level, in 16 years you would have 96 GSP credits at that Tuition Level – enough to cover four years of tuition on average. Some GSP credit rates may include a premium to make sure the fund can meet its obligations. See current GSP Credit Rates for each Tuition Level.
When you use your account for qualified expenses, the growth on your contributions is based on postsecondary tuition increases, not on the GSP Fund's investment performance. The Tuition Level when your account is used (pay-out Tuition Level) determines your account value. For more information about the guarantee and how your account grows, please read the PA 529 GSP Disclosure Statement .