The NEST Direct Plan and the NEST Advisor Plan continue to be ranked in the top ten for one-year investment performance for 529 college savings plans in a recently released nationwide analysis by Savingforcollege.com.
The NEST Direct Plan ranked fifth in the list of top performing direct-sold 529 plans, and the NEST Advisor Plan ranked sixth in the list of top performing advisor-sold 529 plans. This is the third consecutive quarter the NEST Direct Plan has ranked in the top ten and the second consecutive quarter for the NEST Advisor Plan.
“We are honored that Savingforcollege.com recognized the NEST Direct Plan and NEST Advisor Plan as two of the top ten performing 529 plans in the country,” said Nebraska State Treasurer Don Stenberg, Trustee of NEST. “We strive to make our college savings plans customer focused, so this is a significant mark of success in our eyes. We encourage more families to invest in our 529 plans to help relieve some of the pressure associated with higher education costs.”
“Our team is driven to make NEST 529 plans as efficient and cost-effective as possible. The focus is always to ensure our college savings plans benefit our investors nationwide,” said Deborah Goodkin, Managing Director, Savings Plans, First National Bank of Omaha. “We are continuously adjusting our performance and investment portfolio so that our account owners’ savings aspirations are achievable. To help families reach their goals, we regularly offer scholarships, giveaways and contest opportunities. It’s nice to see our passion and hard work pay off in our high ranking.”
Savingforcollege.com analyzes the investment performance figures for thousands of 529 portfolios and ranks the 529 savings plans from best to worst for one-year, three-year, five-year and ten-year investment performance.
To produce the rankings for the direct-sold 529 plans, Savingforcollege.com compared the reported investment performance of a subset of portfolios from each 529 savings plan. A plan’s performance score determines its ranking. The NEST Direct Plan, with a performance score of 26.91, placed fifth overall in one-year investment performance.
For the advisor-sold 529 plans, rankings by SavingforCollege.com were derived using each plan’s relevant portfolio performance in seven unique asset allocation categories. The asset allocation categories used were 100 percent Equity, 80 percent Equity, 60 percent Equity, 40 percent Equity, 20 percent Equity, 100 percent Fixed and 100 percent Short Term. Like the Direct Plan ranking system, rankings were determined by a plan’s performance score in the seven categories. The NEST Advisor Plan received a performance score of 46.21, placing it sixth overall in one-year investment performance.
For more information about NEST and to open a plan, visit NEST529.com, NEST529Advisor.com or treasurer.nebraska.gov.
About NEST
NEST is a tax-advantaged 529 college savings plan and provides four plans to help make saving for college simple and affordable: NEST Direct College Savings Plan, the NEST Advisor College Savings Plan, the Bloomwell 529 Education Savings Plan, and the State Farm 529 Savings Plan. The Nebraska State Treasurer serves as Program Trustee. Union Bank & Trust Company serves as Program Manager, and all investments are approved by the Nebraska Investment Council. Families nationwide are saving for college using Nebraska’s 529 College Savings Plans, which have more than 285,000 accounts, including over 94,000 in Nebraska. Visit NEST529.com and treasurer.nebraska.gov for more information.
About First National Bank of Omaha
First National Bank of Omaha is a subsidiary of First National of Nebraska. First National of Nebraska and its affiliates have more than $23 billion in assets and 5,000 employee associates. Primary banking offices are located in Nebraska, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota and Texas.
