Nominee John Roberts has $214,763 invested in the Utah Education Savings Plan to put toward the education of his two adopted children, Jack and Josephine, according to his financial disclosure report filed this week.
It was a small part of the nominee's net worth that exceeds $6 million.
The Utah Education Savings Plan is like dozens of other college savings plans set up under Section 529 of the tax code. The money invested is usually put into mutual funds where the earnings are not taxed, as long as the money is used for tuition, books, housing or other education expenses.
It is unclear from the report why Roberts chose Utah to invest his money instead of the education plan in Maryland, where he lives, but it is not uncommon for out-of-staters to choose Utah's savings plan.
Three-fourths of the accounts in the Utah Education Savings Plan are held by investors in other states and 92 percent of the $1.1 billion in the fund comes from outside Utah.
“Our fees are relatively low so those investor funds are saved for college,” said Lynne Ward, director of the Utah Education Savings Plan.
Those investing funds can open an account directly with the state, so there is no commission paid to a financial adviser. Utah's fees are among the lowest in the country, there is no minimum investment and there is no fee when money is taken out for educational purposes or to roll into another educational plan.
The Utah fund has been highly ranked recently by Money magazine, Morningstar and Kiplinger.
It suffered a blow to its credibility recently, when the previous director, Dale Hatch, was convicted of embezzling funds. On Thursday, the Securities and Exchange Commission also filed a complaint against Hatch and entered into a settlement with the Utah Education Savings Plan over its reporting practices.
Roberts has his investments spread over five separate funds, half of it in the Vanguard Institutional Index Fund Plus, which consists of a blend of stocks, bonds and money market securities in large-capitalization companies, those with more than $5 billion.
