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Utah Educational Saving Plan Seeing Year-End Investment Surge

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The Utah Educational Savings Plan is expecting to seeing an increase in investments as the year ends.  It’s already seen a 10 percent year-to-date jump in investments. UESP is Utah’s official non-profit 529 college savings program. It was set up by the state legislature in 1996. The fund gives tax incentives to anyone wanting to invest in a young person’s higher education. Diane Johnson is the outreach manager for UESP. Johnson says the nationally-recognized fund typically sees a nice jump in investors at year-end.

“It is the busiest time of our year with Utah resident trying get in and get their annual contributions made,” says Johnson.

She says the recession actually helped boost investments in the fund because layoffs hit those without a college education harder.

“So we are seeing more people begin to prepare for some type of higher education to maybe alleviate that problem in the futures,” she says.

Johnson says 20 percent of the investors in the fund are grandparents who may have a little more discretionary income. 75 percent of the funds are owned by non-Utah residents.  Investors who want to take advantage of the tax savings for this year have until December 31st to make a contribution.

Bob Nelson is a graduate of the University of Utah with a BA in mass communications. He began his radio career at KUER in 1978 when it was still in Kingsbury Hall. That’s also where he met his wife, Maria Shilaos, in 1981. Bob left KUER for commercial radio where he worked for 25 years, and he is thrilled to be back at KUER. Bob and his family are part of an explorer group, fondly known as The Hordes and Masses, which has been seeking out ghost towns and little-known places in Utah for more than twenty years.
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