(801) 214-9678
If you’re thinking about how to pay for college, you’re not alone. It’s one of the most emotionally loaded, financially complex decisions high-income families face—and one of the most commonly mishandled.
Parents and grandparents want to give generously. They want to provide opportunity, security, and a strong start in life.
But behind that generosity, there’s often hesitation: Am I saving enough? Am I using the right tools? Will helping them now hurt me later?
At Garda Insurance, we help families plan for college in a way that protects both generations. We give your children or grandchildren the freedom to pursue education without debt. We give you the peace of mind that your own future isn’t at risk.
Most families begin the college funding conversation with spreadsheets, calculators, and tuition estimates.
But beneath those numbers lies a deeper question: What role do you want education to play in your family’s story?
This isn’t merely about paying tuition. It’s about weaving your values into your family’s legacy. It’s about equipping the next generation without enabling dependency. It’s about balancing generosity with stewardship, and understanding how college funding fits into the larger picture of your financial life.
Want to fully fund tuition or simply support a portion? Your college funding strategy should align with your goals, your boundaries, and your legacy plan.
The emotional weight of college planning often comes from a deluge of choices, and the fear of choosing poorly.
Should you prioritize saving for retirement or saving for college? Will having a 529 hurt your child’s financial aid eligibility? Are you saving too much? Too little? Are you doing the right thing, or just doing what you heard was right?
Add in rising tuition costs, evolving aid formulas, and pressure to “do it all.” It’s easy to see why so many families either delay planning altogether, or fall back on one-size-fits-all products that may not serve their bigger goals.
We’ve worked with families who felt paralyzed, guilty, or misinformed. And the truth is, even and especially high-income earners need a strategy that takes taxes, liquidity, and long-term impact into account.
Because when you’re saving from a position of strength, the goal isn’t just to accumulate. It’s to optimize.
The default advice sounds simple: Open a 529, start saving early, invest consistently. And for some families, that’s a solid foundation. But for many others, it’s not the full picture.
What most advice misses is context. A 529 may offer tax advantages. But it also counts heavily against financial aid eligibility. It may limit how and when the funds can be used. And it may not coordinate well with your retirement plan, estate plan, or asset protection goals.
Too often, we see college planning reduced to a single product or savings account, rather than integrated into a broader strategy.
And that’s where costly mistakes happen. Not because families weren’t willing to save, but because they weren’t given the right framework for how to do it strategically.
We’ve seen families with strong income and good intentions run into painful surprises. They realize too late that their savings reduced their child’s aid package. Or that they’d overcommitted and underfunded their own retirement.
It’s not about having less. It’s about planning better.
A smart college funding strategy isn’t just about how much to save. It’s about how to prioritize goals, position assets, and fund education in a way that protects your broader financial picture.
We help families:
Balance retirement and education goals without sacrificing either.
Explore funding options beyond 529s, including permanent life insurance and trust strategies.
Reduce financial aid exposure by positioning assets strategically.
Plan for multiple children or grandchildren with clarity and flexibility.
Coordinate tax implications across income, investments, and distributions.
And most importantly, we help you answer this: How do I help without overreaching, overcommitting, or undoing the rest of my plan?
If you’ve built financial strength and want to use it to support your family’s education—but aren’t sure how to do that wisely—you’re in the right place.
We work with:
Parents who want to help their kids launch strong, but don’t want to compromise their own retirement.
Grandparents who want to contribute meaningfully to education without creating entitlement.
Business owners who want to fund education creatively through compensation planning or trusts.
High-income earners who want to minimize financial aid penalties and taxes.
Regardless of your stage of life or level of contribution, the most important step is making sure your generosity doesn’t come at the cost of your long-term goals.
Our process starts where yours probably did—with love, hope, and a desire to give well. But then we go deeper. We help you define what “helping” means to you, how it fits into your financial story, and how to turn that generosity into a plan that lasts.
We’ll walk through your options, show you the tradeoffs, model different outcomes, and coordinate your plan with your existing tax, estate, and investment strategies.
Whether you’re looking to maximize flexibility, minimize tax exposure, or protect your retirement first, we’ll help you structure a plan that gives you and your family room to thrive.
No pressure. No sales pitch. Just a process that turns intention into action—with wisdom.
You stop second-guessing how much you can afford to give. You have clear conversations with your spouse and your kids about the shape of your support. . You know which accounts are funding what, and why. You watch the acceptances roll in, and you feel proud, not panicked.
There’s a different kind of joy that comes from giving when you know it won’t jeopardize your own security. It’s generosity with wisdom behind it—and your kids can feel that too.
Picture the graduation day. The acceptance letter. The dorm move-in. You’re not stressed about tuition checks or draining accounts. You’re present, proud, and prepared.
Whether your child is still in elementary school or already building a college list, now is the right time to bring clarity to your plan.
Let’s talk through what you want to do, what you can do, and how to make sure your college funding strategy supports your entire financial future.
You’ve worked hard to give your family every advantage. Now let’s make sure your plan reflects that.
*Disclaimer: Financial Advisors do not provide specific tax/legal advice and this information should not be considered as such. You should always consult your tax/legal advisor regarding your own specific tax/legal situation. Separate from the financial plan and our role as a financial planner, we may recommend the purchase of specific investment or insurance products or account. These product recommendations are not part of the financial plan and you are under no obligation to follow them. Life insurance products contain fees, such as mortality and expense charges (which may increase over time), and may contain restrictions, such as surrender periods.