--- title: What Retirement Savings Do You Have to Report on the FAFSA? description: A reader asks whether retirement savings in a certain account are reportable on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). authors: - name: Kaitlin Mulhere role: Editor url: https://money.com/author/kaitlin-mulhere/ bio: Kaitlin Mulhere is an editor at Money.com. Since joining in 2015, she’s written and edited about a variety of personal finance topics, including banks, credit, student debt, saving strategies and more. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2015 articles: 217 covers: - Education - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://twitter.com/KMulhere - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaitlin-mulhere-64503048/ published: '2016-02-25T14:00:07.000Z' modified: '2024-04-02T05:21:44.000Z' section: Education tags: - 401(k) - annuity - assets - College - fafsa - financial aid - investments - IRA - retirement savings word_count: 293 canonical: https://money.com/report-retirement-savings-fafsa/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Ask the Expert Retirement illustration](https://img.money.com/2014/11/140605_askexpert_retirement_illo.jpg) **Q. My husband and I have $350k in a brokerage account earmarked for retirement. It is not in an IRA or 401(k), even though it is intended for retirement. Do we need to report that on the FAFSA? If so, where?** A. Retirement savings don't have to be reported as an asset on the [Free Application for Federal Student Aid](https://money.com/what-is-fafsa-and-who-should-fill-it-out/), but—and this is a big "but" in your case—only if the money is in a qualified account. You can't leave an asset off the aid application simply because you intend it for retirement. It has to meet the legal definition of a retirement account, says David Sheridan, a financial aid director and member of the National Association of Financial Aid Administrators, who participated in Money's recent FAFSA chat on Twitter. Qualified retirement accounts include an IRA, 401(k), 403(b), or pension plan. Unfortunately, a brokerage account is not on that list, so you'll need to report it as an investment, says financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz. (It goes on page 9 of the 2016-17 FAFSA in the parental income and assets section.) [![Best college education image](https://content.money.com/wp-content/themes/money2018/img/college-site-banner-02.png)](https://best-colleges.time.com/money/search-colleges/?xid=cm-mcpFindTheCollegeWidget) Assuming your child will be starting college next fall, there's not a lot you can do this late in the game to shield that money from being counted as an asset by the federal government. If you have taxable compensation from a job, you could put some of the money in an IRA, but contributions to those accounts are limited to $5,500 a year (or $6,500 if you're over 50). In general, Kantrowitz says, people have two basic options for [sheltering a large sum of money on the FAFSA](https://money.com/fafsa-tips-how-to-shelter-savings-for-more-college-aid/): Use the money to pay down consumer debt, such as your mortgage, auto loans, or credits; or invest it in an [annuity](https://money.com/collection-post/what-is-an-annuity/). ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/report-retirement-savings-fafsa/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Education", "item": "https://money.com/education/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Paying for College", "item": "https://money.com/paying-for-college/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "What Retirement Savings Do You Have to Report on the FAFSA?" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/report-retirement-savings-fafsa/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/report-retirement-savings-fafsa/", "name": "What Retirement Savings Do You Have to Report on the FAFSA?", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-02-25T14:00:07.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/report-retirement-savings-fafsa/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/report-retirement-savings-fafsa/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-02T05:21:44.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "What Retirement Savings Do You Have to Report on the FAFSA?", "articleSection": "Education", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2014/11/140605_askexpert_retirement_illo.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 2100, "caption": "140605_AskExpert_Retirement_illo" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kaitlin Mulhere", "url": "https://money.com/author/kaitlin-mulhere/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kaitlin-mulhere/#author", "description": "Kaitlin Mulhere is an editor at Money.com. 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