The Financial Planning Expert Who’s Boycotting 529s for His Kids
March 31, 2026
The Wall Street Journal recently highlighted a quiet shift in how families are thinking about the future of higher education and how they save for it. As Penn IUR Co-Director Susan Wachter explains, today’s families are navigating a fundamentally different environment:
“Families are planning in a far less predictable environment than earlier generations did… Saving for a four-year degree once felt like the obvious way to help a child get ahead. That’s in question.”
Megan Schmidgal
Communications & Publications Director
215-573-8386
megands@upenn.edu
Providing expert commentary on urban topics and highlighting Penn IUR's research in the context of pressing urban issues.