Not to scare you too much at the outset, but the average price for a year of tuition at a private college is now more than $30,000. The top schools cost closer to $50,000 a year, which means an undergraduate degree at an Ivy League school will cost well over $200,000 — and that's just for tuition, not including room and board!

Ouch! Makes us glad our daughter Meredith is long done with college!

It's not just the private schools either. State universities have also gotten in on the act, with tuition costs rising dramatically to an average of $12,000 per year. Non-state residents, of course, pay much more.

Unless you're among the wealthiest 5%, college is going to be a squee-ee-ze on your finances. In fact, college has become such a major big-bucks proposition, guess what business is increasingly getting into the act?

Could it be financial advisers?

Yep. Since the Tax Relief Act of 2001 was passed, the financial planning industry has started helping parents sort out the new and expanded tax-sheltered college saving plans, while marketing their services aggressively to middle- and upper-income parents. There's now a National Institute of Certified College Planners that is offering certification programs to tax and financial planning professionals to help them appeal to this growing market.

We smell commissions.

The financial services industry uses projections based on present annual increases to tell you that you'll need, say, $250,000 to send little Johnny to Harvard, and the number is designed to propel you into such a state of catatonic horror that you'll sign over a huge check now for an investment that you haven't had a chance to examine from all sides. It's the "scare 'em" school of sweet-talking people into an investment product that earns the seller big commissions.

No doubt, there are good college planners. But when it comes to helping you invest money for the day your kids go off to college, it's just another fancy way of coming up with investment advice that may or may not be based on your best interests.

Sad, but true. Here you are, a loving parent (or grandparent) trying to send a kid to college, and some people are taking money away from you rather than helping you earn more.

OK. Deep breath. The good news is that there are some very attractive savings plans for college money. We're here to simplify your options and help you sort through them yourself rather than wasting portions of your child's nest egg on too many commissions/investments.

Page 1 2 3 4 Next »