Children's Savings Account and Financial Aid Survey |
Background About the Survey
Greetings! My name is Christy Finsel. I am an enrolled member of the Osage Nation and I direct the Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition, Inc. We are a Native-led nonprofit that works in Oklahoma with tribes and other Native nonprofits to increase the numbers of asset building programs in the state (such as financial education, family emergency savings account, and Children's Savings Account programs). Today though, I am writing to you as a volunteer researcher who is working on a national Native Children's Savings Account paper to document Native-led initiatives. As part of this paper, we are trying to learn about the financial aid implications for youth involved in Children's Savings Account programs. The Children's Savings Account programs are being offered to help youth (generally from families with lower incomes) build a nest egg of savings, most often for post-secondary education. Across the nation, the accounts are being held, most frequently, in savings accounts at financial institutions (banks or credit unions) or in state 529 college savings plans. We have kindly received assistance, from the Office of Student Financial Aid at OU Health Sciences Center, and a private university in St. Louis, regarding our questions about the financial aid implications for these accounts. Now, to gather additional information, we have created this survey. Admittedly, in the asset building field, there is need for more research about how to design these programs to have the least impact on student financial aid. If you have any questions about this survey, please contact Christy Finsel at 405-401-7873. We plan to take this feedback from you, and to generally incorporate it into the paper, to help us to design programs so there is the least negative impact on student financial aid. This research will continue to inform how ONAC provides our Children's Savings Account program. Thank you for your time.