529 Plan Fees Are Falling — Five Plans That Just Got Cheaper

You probably don't think about your 529 plan's management fees very often. They show up as a fraction of a percent on a statement you may or may not read, and they quietly do their thing in the background while your money compounds.

But here's what makes them worth paying attention to: over 18 years of tax-free compounding, even a 0.05% difference in annual fees can mean thousands of dollars more (or less!) in your child's education fund. Fees are the one variable in investing that you can control with certainty—and lately, several major 529 plan managers have been trimming theirs. That's good news for every family with a 529 account.

Here's who's been sharpening the scissors!

Scissors cutting into a ribbon of $100 bills.

Vanguard—The Biggest Fee Cut(s) in History

Vanguard didn't just cut fees once. They did it twice in twelve months. In February 2025, Vanguard reduced expense ratios across 168 share classes of 87 funds—saving investors an estimated $350 million. Then in February 2026, they followed up with cuts to 84 share classes across 53 more funds, saving an additional $250 million, with an average fee reduction of 27% on the affected funds.

Combined, that's roughly $600 million returned to investors over two years—the largest back-to-back cost reduction in Vanguard's history. Their average fund expense ratio is now just 0.06%.

Why does this matter for 529 savers specifically? Vanguard funds are the underlying investments in some of the country's top-rated 529 plans, including my529 in Utah and Nevada's Vanguard 529 College Savings Plan. When Vanguard cuts fund-level expenses, those savings flow directly through to 529 account holders.

Scholar's Edge—New Mexico

New Mexico's advisor-sold Scholar's Edge plan made a smart swap. Effective March 10, 2025, the plan replaced the iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF (IJR) with the SPDR S&P 600 Small Cap ETF (SPSM) across its Year of Enrollment and Target Risk Portfolios. The result: lower underlying investment expenses across those portfolios, while maintaining the same small-cap market exposure. It's the kind of quiet, behind-the-scenes optimization that saves families money without changing their investment strategy.

Tomorrow's Scholar—Wisconsin

Wisconsin's Tomorrow's Scholar plan, managed by Voya Investment Management, is making a similar move. Effective May 7, 2026, the plan is swapping out three actively managed Voya funds—Large-Cap Growth, MidCap Opportunities, and Multi-Manager Mid Cap Value—and replacing them with the Vanguard Mega Cap Growth Index Fund. Active-to-index swaps like this typically come with meaningfully lower expense ratios, and this continues a pattern: in 2021, Wisconsin and Voya cut the state fee by 40% and reduced age-based portfolio fees by an average of 4%.

Achieve Montana

Montana's Achieve Montana plan, managed by Ascensus, made one of the more aggressive moves in recent memory. Effective August 2023, the plan slashed asset-based fees by 28% across every portfolio and eliminated the annual account maintenance fee entirely. Montana also sweetened the deal on the tax side: beginning in 2025, the state raised its 529 deduction cap to $4,500 per contributor ($9,000 for joint filers), with inflation adjustments going forward.

CollegeInvest—Colorado

CollegeInvest, the manager behind Colorado's Direct Portfolio plan, has been on a steady fee-cutting streak. Effective April 1, 2026, the plan cut total annual asset-based fees from 0.28% to 0.27% across every portfolio. The plan has reduced fees multiple times over the past several years. In fact, since its inception in 2009, total fees have dropped by more than 44%. Colorado families are getting a better deal with each passing year.

Why 529 Plan Fees Matter More Than You Think

On a $50,000 529 balance, a 0.10% fee reduction saves you $50 per year—and that $50 stays invested, compounding tax-free. Assuming 7% annual returns, that single fee cut leaves roughly $900 more in your account after ten years—and because it's a 529, every dollar of that growth is tax-free. In a taxable account, you'd owe federal capital gains tax on those earnings; inside a 529, you keep the full amount for tuition.

The trend is clear: 529 plan managers are competing on cost, and families are the ones who benefit.

And you don't have to track any of this yourself. Hadley's Find My 529 tool is constantly updating with the latest fee data from every plan in the country. Whether a manager trims expenses by a single basis point, or Vanguard rolls out a historic fee reduction, those changes are reflected in our recommendations automatically.

You focus on saving. Hadley will make sure you're saving in the right place.

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Questions? Contact us at AskHadley@gohadley.com. We're always open to feedback, suggestions, or otherwise!

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