State’s prepaid college tuition plan re-opens to investors

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Washington state’s current prepaid college tuition plan has re-opened to new and current investors after being frozen for more than two years.

The state is also creating a second option to invest in college. That more traditional 529 college savings plan won’t be rolled out until early 2018.

The current Guaranteed Education Tuition plan, known as GET, reopened Wednesday to people who want to create new accounts. Those with existing accounts can continue to buy units. A unit costs $113.

Washington runs one of the few programs in the country that allows parents to buy tuition units in advance to avoid paying higher costs in the future. One hundred units are guaranteed to cover the cost of undergraduate tuition and fees at the state’s most expensive public university.

State officials are finalizing a contract with a vendor to offer a more typical 529 college savings plan. That plan allows participants to invest in mutual funds or other investments, much like a 401(k) plan, but without guarantees.