"Hide" Your Savings from the Financial Aid Office
Financial Aid Workshop | SAT / ACT Prep
I've gotten a lot of flack online about a free report I wrote called How to Hide Your Money from the Financial Aid Office, Legally and Ethically.
The criticism falls into two categories, broadly speaking. Either 1. "This guy's a scam artist, or 2. It's not fair to help families who don't deserve it.
I don't know how to respond to the first argument, except to point out that I've been calling myself Long Island's Greatest Unindicted College Advisor since the "Varsity Blues" scandal of 2019.
Re: helping the "wrong" families, that's a different kettle of fish. My responses:
*I honestly don't see what's wrong with helping families who lived under their means and acted responsibly to save for college, who wake up at the 11th hour and realize that they've been punished by the financial aid formulas for this otherwise admirable behavior
*Helping these families get more financial aid and scholarships doesn't take anything away from less-advantaged families who also deserve help.
*Colleges, not I or any other college consultant decide who they want to admit and award scholarships and grants to. For the most part, colleges need affluent and six-figure earning families to sustain themselves, which I will speak about in my upcoming presentation.
*Every strategy we discuss with or recommend to clients comes from the actual financial aid rules and regulations. Congress and the Department of Education made them, not me.
*Fair? Unfair? Debatable. And who cares. Pearl says all the time that there's no such thing as living in the Land of The Shoulds. We've found it easier to live and operate in reality, playing the hand that's dealt, without regard to our feelings.
*Although you may have heard about funny stuff like sham trusts, offshore accounts, declaring your child independent or sending all of your savings to Uncle Rufus to park under his mattress while you apply for financial aid, I can assure you that we've never recommended these actions and never will.
Well that was a little ranty, wasn't it? I don't always know where these messages are headed when I sit down to write them.
If you're interested in learning how to qualify for scholarships and financial aid, even if other people think you don't deserve it, I recommend that you attend our upcoming workshop next Wednesday September 18. All details are here:
<<<<< FINANCIAL AID WORKSHOP >>>>>>>>
There's no charge to attend and nothing to purchase.
WARNING: You will not hear these strategies at your high school's BS "college night" or the next college fair you attend, where the speaker is employed by a local college that doesn't want you to know the whole truth about how to squeeze all the financial aid juice out of them.
Some of the information could, in fact, flat-out contradict what you heard or thought you knew.
Topics include:
*How to "hide" your money from the financial aid office, legally and ethically
*How to negotiate a scholarship or financial aid award
*How high income and ultra affluent families can qualify for tuition discounts of 25%, 33% or even 56.1%, guilt-free
*10 deadly, self-inflicted financial aid mistakes overwhelmed families make before they apply to college (and how to avoid them)
*The disappointing state of last year's "Simplified" (HAH!) FAFSA rollout and now to cope with more delays and mistakes that seem inevitable this year
*Special tips for business owners and other self-employed families
*The New Rules about divorced families
*More: we'll block out time for Q&A so that you can get your questions answered
Here are the details:
See you in class :)
- Andy "Not Lori Loughlin's College Advisor" Lockwood
P.S. Please share this with anyone you know who could use this info. They won't stumble across It anywhere else.
P.P.S. There's nothing to buy on the webinar but attendees will receive a special "scholarship" that can be applied toward our financial aid consulting and forms preparation service. Discussed only at the end of the class, you get a hall pass to leave any time you want :)
