GIFT Redemption

Kiplinger’s personal finance magazine recently praised a number of prepaid college savings plans. Arkansas didn’t make the top 10 winners, but it did fall in with five other states where the magazine said in-state investors can do well.

This comes only a month after the Wall Street Journal panned Arkansas’s plan for having some of the highest fees of any state college tuition savings plan in America. Kiplinger’s said the plan, administered by Merrill Lynch-subsidiary U.S. Private Clients in Princeton, N.J., is a “good bet for Arkansas residents because they get a break on fees, state tax-free earnings and an age-based portfolio.”

Lu Hardin, the director of the state department of higher education, said it’s nice to see GIFT get recognized for being well organized, marketed and for having a solid investment portfolio.