State senators are demanding a timeline to resolve problems with Maryland’s prepaid college trust.Participants in the Maryland 529 plan said they’re having trouble accessing their accounts and paying tuition. Members of a joint Senate committee on Tuesday demanded answers as to what happened, why it happened and what’s being done to ensure it doesn’t happen again.Maryland 529 Prepaid College Savings Trust account holders wore red to the hearing, saying it’s because they are seeing red. As many as 3,100 accounts had been impacted, but that number is down to 500.| RELATED: Hundreds affected by calculation issue with Maryland 529 plansValerie Dyer has more than $60,000 in her account. She said she could only withdraw a couple thousand dollars to pay her daughter’s tuition.”We have actually paid out of pocket her full tuition for two semesters, plus housing — all out of pocket on a credit card. We’ve dipped into our emergency funds,” she said. “Marylanders deserve better, our children deserve better.”Parents complain that the value of their prepaid accounts decreased by as much as 50% because of a new method of calculating interest in the fund.”(It’s) just, you know, the mulligan of all mulligans. They basically just moved, changed the goal post on this, and it’s impacting all of us. It means we are going to have to take on further debt. It means that people are refinancing their houses, and that’s what it all comes down to today,” said Brian Savoie, an account holder.Maryland 529 board leaders apologized, declared accounts are sound, said no one has lost funds and that tuition payments are being made and accounts are not frozen.| RELATED: Maryland 529 board chairman resigns amid account calculation issuesOfficials said they believe the miscalculation was an error made by staff and an outside vendor crafting business rules.”The board is at a point where it is confident that the calculation issue has been resolved,” said Brian Savoie, interim chair of the Maryland 529’s board.”The calculation error occurred while Maryland 529 was in the process of distributing additional attributable earnings back to MPCT account holders,” said Anthony Savia, a board member. “Account holders saw incorrectly inflated values in the portals and year-end statements.”A certified public accounting firm is now manually going through each account. Officials said lessons learned include better communication to account holders, putting new quality control measures in place and beefing up staff.”It is not our fault that Maryland 529 made a mistake. We demand our money and will accept no less,” Dyer said.Two lawmakers announced plans to introduce legislation to increase transparency around the Maryland 529’s board.
State senators are demanding a timeline to resolve problems with Maryland’s prepaid college trust.
Participants in the Maryland 529 plan said they’re having trouble accessing their accounts and paying tuition. Members of a joint Senate committee on Tuesday demanded answers as to what happened, why it happened and what’s being done to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Maryland 529 Prepaid College Savings Trust account holders wore red to the hearing, saying it’s because they are seeing red. As many as 3,100 accounts had been impacted, but that number is down to 500.
| RELATED: Hundreds affected by calculation issue with Maryland 529 plans
Valerie Dyer has more than $60,000 in her account. She said she could only withdraw a couple thousand dollars to pay her daughter’s tuition.
“We have actually paid out of pocket her full tuition for two semesters, plus housing — all out of pocket on a credit card. We’ve dipped into our emergency funds,” she said. “Marylanders deserve better, our children deserve better.”
Parents complain that the value of their prepaid accounts decreased by as much as 50% because of a new method of calculating interest in the fund.
“(It’s) just, you know, the mulligan of all mulligans. They basically just moved, changed the goal post on this, and it’s impacting all of us. It means we are going to have to take on further debt. It means that people are refinancing their houses, and that’s what it all comes down to today,” said Brian Savoie, an account holder.
Maryland 529 board leaders apologized, declared accounts are sound, said no one has lost funds and that tuition payments are being made and accounts are not frozen.
| RELATED: Maryland 529 board chairman resigns amid account calculation issues
Officials said they believe the miscalculation was an error made by staff and an outside vendor crafting business rules.
“The board is at a point where it is confident that the calculation issue has been resolved,” said Brian Savoie, interim chair of the Maryland 529’s board.
“The calculation error occurred while Maryland 529 was in the process of distributing additional attributable earnings back to MPCT account holders,” said Anthony Savia, a board member. “Account holders saw incorrectly inflated values in the portals and year-end statements.”
A certified public accounting firm is now manually going through each account. Officials said lessons learned include better communication to account holders, putting new quality control measures in place and beefing up staff.
“It is not our fault that Maryland 529 made a mistake. We demand our money and will accept no less,” Dyer said.
Two lawmakers announced plans to introduce legislation to increase transparency around the Maryland 529’s board.
