User Interviews

Financial Wellness | Find us at: www.enrich.org Proprietary and confidential

 529 Plans User Interviews
Hello! I’m working on a new 529 savings tool for the site, and right now I’m doing some preliminary research to help me
better understand what people might want to get out of a tool like this. Since you have some experience with 529 plans,
I’m hoping to glean some insights out of this conversation that might help me to keep real potential users in mind when
designing the tool so we can make sure it addresses what people most want to gain from a tool like this.

The most important thing to remember during this chat is that there are no right or wrong answers on your end. I’m
just here to learn from your experiences so I can design the best tool possible. Thanks for your help with this!

For people who took out 529 plans for their children...

● Can you tell me about your personal experience with 529 plans?
● Was there anything you found to be confusing or difficult when you were researching and applying for the plan?
● What do you think are the most important things somebody should look into before they apply for a 529 plan?
● How do you expect your 529 plan to help you out with your savings goals?
● If you were going to use a 529 savings calculator to identify how much money you would need to save for your
child’s college, what would you want to get out of the calculator/what would you want to learn from it?
Financial Wellness | Find us at: www.enrich.org Proprietary and confidential
 529 Plans User Interviews
● What would be your advice for somebody who is thinking about taking out a 529 plan for their child or children?
● What do you like and what do you dislike about 529 plans?
● Is there anything you wish you had known before you applied for a plan?
● Is there anything else you would like me to know about 529 plans at all?

For people who researched but did not choose 529...

● Can you tell me about your personal experience looking into 529 plans?
● What made you decide not to pursue a 529 plan?
● What do you like and what do you dislike about 529 plans?
● What would be your advice for somebody who is thinking about taking out a 529 plan for their child or children?
● Who do you think might benefit from a plan, if anybody?
● Anything else you would like to let me know?

Financial Wellness | Find us at: www.enrich.org Proprietary and confidential

 529 Plans User Interviews
For people who were the beneficiaries of 529 plans...

● Can you tell me about your personal experience with 529 plans?How did you benefit from your 529 plan?
● What would be your advice for somebody who is thinking about taking out a 529 plan for their child or children,
having been on the receiving end of one?
● What do you like and what do you dislike about 529 plans?
● Is there anything else you would like me to know about 529 plans at all?

That’s it. Thanks so much for your time, and for your assistance!

Financial Wellness | Find us at: www.enrich.org Proprietary and confidential

 User Interviews - Results

Financial Wellness | Find us at: www.enrich.org Proprietary and confidential

 529 Plans - Kevin Interview
Can you tell me about your personal experience with 529 plans?

○ Had a kid, but can also do it for yourself. The sofi tool is nice because you put in basic details and they show all the plans that
are out there. Understand that one of igrad’s issues is that we need to make a tool that competes. Pet peeve with sofi is only
two options...top recommendation and one alternative. There are free ones out there that are tied to everything. Put results
into buckets...these 5 are the best, next 10 are other considerations, and then here are the rest. Showed all he was eligible for.
Only weeded out what he didn’t qualify for and left everything else, ranked. Check marks with ranked ‘offers this, offers that’.
Historical rate of return last 5 years, in state tax benefits (yes/no), etc. Shows all that as columns like a spreadsheet. Questions
are filters that are generated as sorting rules. That was useful. All they did was show 4-5 most important...rate of return, tax
breaks in state, etc. Ranked with a link to go see more information.
○ Look for publicly accessible feed if that’s available. Probably annual but need to find out how to track.
○ In Virginia if you’re a Virginia resident, you get a 4K tax credit immediately. So if you live there you’ll want to open one no
matter who you are.Do we include these things according to state?
○ Is there something like dinkytown or calcxml? maybe through the IRS? Through the freedom of information act, is there
access to documentation of all 529 plans in a digital format like a csv or a feed? There are companies out there that if info is
available through irs in document format, some companies take that and turn it into a feed and sell the data feed.

Financial Wellness | Find us at: www.enrich.org Proprietary and confidential

 529 Plans - Kevin Interview
What do you think are the most important things somebody should look into before they apply for a 529 plan?

● Are you familiar with what it is and how it works and ready to shop? If it’s to lead to plans, let them know in the beginning.
If they are uncomfortable, recommend prior to going through the tool they complete our course or read the article first.
Don't bog the tool down by making them learn within the tool.
● Question at the beginning of the tool….have you already decided? If so, jump ahead

How do you expect your 529 plan to help you out with your savings goals?

● Had a previous knowledge of what a 529 plan is with risk and reward and time in the market that it’s a good investment
savings, out-perform bank accounts. Beneficial, plus just having a kid so 18 years to grow is a good motivation. For buying
decisions, are there any major financial benefits one over the other. How do they work from a performance perspective...is
it like a 401k, can I pick aggressively or set and forget, etc. Historical performance. Investment analysis. What is the
qualifying factor to access money? Performance narrowed the list down, but user experience was a big factor as
well...wanted online access and easy user experience to log on and use, links for gifts can be sent out, people can
contribute easily, app based and easy access. Can log in to see performance.

Financial Wellness | Find us at: www.enrich.org Proprietary and confidential

 529 Plans - Kevin Interview
● My 529 was the one Kevin liked best. Virginia, Illinois, and Utah were the top ones. Sites that rank them.

Is there anything else you would like me to know about 529 plans at all?

● #1 most important is not crossing the line into too complex areas without a precursor question and then sending
them to learn about it if they aren’t comfortable with it.
● Also make sure we look at other tools out there and take that into account.
● Don’t be overwhelming

Additional Notes from our interview…

● Less questions to produce a variety of results

● Not driving down a narrow path, if it produces less results, needs a blatant explanation on why. Otherwise
should produce a variety of options

Financial Wellness | Find us at: www.enrich.org Proprietary and confidential

 529 Plans - Kevin Interview
● Slider based on monthly payment ability that compares results and updates in real time
● How does adding slight amount more monthly impact the total
● Too many options is overwhelming
● Google 529 comparison to see some samples

Financial Wellness | Find us at: www.enrich.org Proprietary and confidential

 529 Plans - Kent Interview
Can you tell me about your personal experience looking into 529 plans?
● Uniform transfer to minors ultimately chosen. 529 was new. Didn’t like 529 through private investment firms,
contacted to find out. Negatives...maximum amount of money per kid, per year. Max now is 15000 per year.
Second negative was you can’t put in more than 15 but after that is taxable. Can see why. Last reason was it's like
our 401k...it's a vanilla playbook of what you can choose. Choices were limited, but uniform transfer to minors
was better.

Was there anything you found to be confusing or difficult when you were researching and applying for the plan?
● No but was already fairly knowledgeable about it- merrill lynch explained it well, they were trying to push him
into the plan

Anything else you would like to let me know?

● One thing that’s new now is whatever state you were in, that's the state plan you had to go with, now you can
shop any state in the country and see which one is best for you. Avoid higher tax states. But some states might
have certain deals...users can shop around. They all might have different restrictions or guidelines.

Financial Wellness | Find us at: www.enrich.org Proprietary and confidential

 Interviews - Key Takeaways
● Timing and timeliness is a factor in decision making when buying a home.

● It would be nice to be able to have a clear picture of the total monthly cost of being a homeowner.

● It would be good to have a tool where all of the information is in one place.

● There is a not a lot of guidance out there to decide if it’s better to rent or buy...general wisdom is always to buy,
but is that best?

● Home buying is a very complex financial issue.

● Self-guided would be great because when you contact a real estate agent or a lender, they might pressure you
into buying.

● When you buy a home, you get a mountain of paperwork to go through and that’s kind of scary.

● It’s a very emotional decision and a lot of thought should go into it.
Financial Wellness | Find us at: www.enrich.org Proprietary and confidential