Navigating Donations to 529 Plans - Your Money

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Saturday, September 01, 2012

Navigating Donations to 529 Plans - Your Money

By RON LIEBER

The best gift any of us can give to newborn babies is to point their sleep-deprived parents in the direction of a good 529 or other college savings plan and then seed the account with a little bit of money.

It was hard to avoid this conclusion in the midst of a recent baby boom among money writers at The New York Times. Tara Siegel Bernard, a personal finance reporter, recently delivered her first child, and Paul Sullivan, the “Wealth Matters” columnist, welcomed his second.

I wanted to get both babies a little something, but knowing what I know about how much four years of college will cost, I couldn’t in good conscience send a stuffed animal or a security blanket.

You would think that the state-sponsored 529 plans around the country would be welcoming givers like me who want to take this sort of initiative. But the process of tossing some money into an account is not as easy as it could, or should, be.

The hassles have given rise to several registry services that let you use credit cards to pay for a 529 gift and spare you the need to contact the plans or the parents. Recently, however, the industry group that represents 529 plans and the companies that serve them raised questions about whether the start-ups were violating securities laws.

Why would they do such a thing, when the services seek only to collect assets to deliver to the 529 funds on a silver platter? To figure out the answer, it helps to start with a bit of refresher on how the 529 plans work.

Anyone can open an account, for themselves or someone else. States run the plans, and you can set up an investment account that allows you to choose among various mutual funds.

Money in these accounts grows tax-free, and you can withdraw it without paying any capital gains taxes as long as it’s used for educational expenses. Moreover, a majority of states offer income tax deductions or credits when people deposit money.

This is all nice and will become more so if our tax rates rise in the next decade or two. And the earlier you start, the more the money has time to grow (and the more you save on taxes).

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Titan Environmental Services to Pay $10,878 Penalty

News release from EPA Region 7:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7

901 N. Fifth St., Kansas City, KS 66101

Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Nine Tribal Nations

Titan Environmental Services to Pay $10,878 for Violations of Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act

Contact Information: Chris Whitley, 913-551-7394, whitley.christopher@epa.gov

Environmental News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Kansas City, Kan., Feb. 6, 2012) - Titan Environmental Services, Inc., of Kansas City, Mo., has agreed to pay a $10,878 civil penalty to the United States to settle a series of violations of the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act, including failures to provide required hands-on training to contractors and other renovation professionals who enrolled in some of its training courses.

As part of its settlement with EPA Region 7, and in addition to paying the $10,878 civil penalty, Titan Environmental Services has agreed to offer the federally-required hands-on training at no cost to trainees who were enrolled in the company’s classes where EPA found violations.

The company has also agreed to perform a supplemental environmental project, through which it will spend at least $97,902 to fund lead abatement activities at five residential properties in St. Joseph, Mo. The project will cover window replacement and lead-based paint abatement, to be performed by entities licensed and/or certified by the State of Missouri. Titan Environmental Services must submit detailed work plans to EPA for approval before the abatement activities begin, and follow-up reports to the Agency when those activities are completed, under terms of the settlement.

According to an administrative consent agreement and final order filed by EPA Region 7 in Kansas City, Kan., Titan Environmental Services’ violations of the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act were based on findings from three EPA inspections: a May 2010 recordkeeping inspection at the company’s Kansas City business office, an October 2010 inspection at a lead-based paint training course given by the company at a hotel in Osage Beach, Mo.; and an October 2010 follow-up recordkeeping inspection at the company’s business office.

The Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992, which amended the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), was designed to address the need to control exposure to lead-based paint hazards. The law directs EPA to regulate the accreditation of training programs offered to renovation professionals, including minimum requirements for training providers, training curriculum, training hours, hands-on training, trainee competency and proficiency, and requirements for training program quality control.

Common renovation activities like sanding, cutting and demolition can produce hazardous lead dust that can be harmful to adults and children.

EPA’s inspections found that, despite being accredited in August 2009 to offer training in the Renovator Initial Course – English, Titan Environmental Services: 

• Failed to properly notify EPA at least seven days in advance of offering training on at least six occasions during 2010.
• Failed to properly notify EPA within 10 days after completions of training on at least 35 occasions during 2010.
• Failed to maintain and make available to EPA necessary documents showing the education, work experience, training requirements or demonstrated experience for the principal instructor of a course offered in April 2010.
• Failed to cover all required portions of hands-on training activities during training courses provided on at least four occasions in April 2010 and October 2010.
• Failed to maintain and make available to EPA the necessary student assessment forms for training courses provided on at least two occasions in April 2010. 

By agreeing to the settlement with EPA, Titan Environmental Services has certified that it is presently in compliance with the applicable federal regulations.

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