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Jefferson City, MO –Missouri State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick today announced that MOST, Missouri’s 529 Education Plan, has again received a Silver rating from Morningstar, an investment research company. Each year, Morningstar assigns ratings to 54 education savings plans. Nationally, only 12 plans received a Silver Medal rating, while two achieved Gold.

“I have worked to make MOST 529 a strong, versatile, and cost effective education plan for Missourians. Today’s announcement is a continued reflection of that work,” Treasurer Fitzpatrick said. “When I came into office, plan participants had not received a fee reduction in five years. I worked with our program manager to ensure that fee reductions occurred on a schedule unrelated to market-controlled benchmarks. This forward-thinking proposal ensured that MOST plan participants received a fee reduction this year, despite market turmoil. This, in addition to changes implemented by the legislature expanding eligible uses for plan participants, means the plan is better suited to serve the needs of Missourians and that participants will keep more of their investment earnings in their 529 accounts, making it a little bit easier to save for education.”

In 2020, Treasurer Fitzpatrick announced that MOST 529 Board members voted to approve a contract amendment with program manager Ascensus. The contract amendment extended the contract period while guaranteeing program management fee reductions—taking the fees from the current level of 19 Basis Points (bp) to 16bp immediately, and 14bp over five years, a reduction of over 26%. This reduction means over $8 million in savings for plan participants.

                MOST, Missouri’s 529 Education Plan, is a tax-advantaged savings plan for education expenses. Money in MOST accounts can be used to pay for K-12 tuition, and trade, college, apprenticeships, and graduate school tuition and expenses. Additionally, up to $10,000 may be spent on student loan repayment. Contributions are eligible for state tax deductions and money in MOST accounts grows tax free.

More information about MOST 529 can be found at MissouriMost.org.

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