Flywire, Ascensus Partner on College Savings Plans

Payments platform Flywire and savings facilitator Ascensus have joined forces to digitize and streamline tuition payments from 529 college savings plans to colleges and universities across the U.S.

The partnership, announced in a news release Tuesday (Feb. 8), lets families saving in a 529 plan on the Ascensus platform leverage Flywire to disburse funds to pay tuition-related expenses, sent directly to the school from their 529 account.

“As the cost of education continues to rise, 529 college saving plans — which are tax-advantaged investment accounts geared toward education expenses — are becoming a popular vehicle for families to use for tuition payments,” the companies said.

Citing data from Morningstar, the release adds that total assets in 529 plans have reached a record high of $394 billion.

The companies say their solution reduces the complexity of sending 529 payments to schools via checks, which can be difficult as the process relies on mailing, cashiering and depositing of paper checks for each withdrawal. The manual nature of these processes can lead to delays for students registering for classes, and can cause administrative backlogs at schools.

But with the Flywire and Ascensus partnership, the pathway to payment and reconciliation for 529 plan withdrawals becomes completely digital. It also streamlines 529 automated clearing house (ACH) withdrawals, eliminating the multistep process of moving funds between accounts before payment.

“As 529 plans continue to rise in popularity, our clients have been asking us for a solution that would take away so many of the current pain points related to the disbursement of payments,” said Sharon Butler, Flywire’s executive vice president for education.

“We couldn’t ask for a better partner than Ascensus, who manages 529 programs for 25 states and the District of Columbia, and we’re thrilled to partner with them to roll out an innovative solution that will help both families and institutions.”

Last year, Flywire expanded its education payments business with the acquisition of WPM, a payments software provider for U.K. colleges and universities.

See also: Flywire Acquires UK Education Payments Firm WPM

The company said WPM’s software will augment its capabilities, while the integration of WPM with Flywire will bring additional value to clients through the Flywire payment platform, global network and industry-specific software.