529 or mutual funds, or something else?

I hope you've looked at the web site;

more important the link to show the fees. The program management fee is .2%, so over 20yrs, you'd have spent less than 3% in this fee to avoid any cap gains out the back end. Looks good to me.They offer an S&P fund at a whopping .05%, this is the Vanguard Institutional Index Fund and is about half the expense ratio you'd find in a regular index fund or ETF. A resident of Kansas, you won't pay the annual $20 maintenance fee. The tax incentive (a state deduction) is just gravy, it will completely offset the program management fee for the full time the money is invested. I'd stick with this plan for the combination of low expenses, and state deduction. JOE

The top 4 plans are from Kansas, Ohio, Utah and Illinois. All of them offer Vanguard options for roughly 0.25%-0.30% total expenses. If you are in one of those states, it's probably best to stick with the state plan since there may be additional tax deductions/credits. If you don't live in those states, Ohio offers slightly more slice-and-dice + no annual fee for non-OH participants while Kansas' plan has Emerging Markets as 15% of their International allocation. Otherwise, a wash.

Brandon,

Here is a morningstar article from earlier this year that gives their best and worst list. Its worth reading over. Note: some of the plans are broker-sold and some are not. They indicate which are which.

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Abid