What you'll need before you open an account

To open an account you'll need a few pieces of identifying information about you and your beneficiary and you'll need to be prepared to select your investment option(s).

Required information

For you, the account owner, the required information includes your Social Security number, date of birth, phone number, email address, and legal/mailing address(es).

For the child/beneficiary, you'll need to supply the name, date of birth, and Social Security number. Note: If you are opening the account prior to the beneficiary's birth you can name yourself as the beneficiary. Once the child is born and has a social security number, you can complete paperwork to update the beneficiary.

Choose a plan

You can invest in 529 savings plans from states across the country. Be sure to consider your own state plan as it may have additional benefits, including state tax advantages.

If you're interested in a Fidelity plan but Fidelity doesn't offer a 529 plan associated with your or your beneficiary's state of residence, consider one of our plan offerings for a state where you have a past or current connection. Otherwise, consider our national plan, the UNIQUE College Investing Plan.

Selecting investments

529 accounts are investment accounts so any contribution to the account is applied to the investment option(s) you select. The 529 plan will go up or down in value based on the performance of the investment options.

Age-based
You can let us manage your asset allocation by picking an age-based strategy that is managed according to the beneficiary's birth year with the asset allocation automatically becoming more conservative as the beneficiary nears college age. Your beneficiary's birth year will help determine the Age-Based portfolio in which you'll invest. 

Custom
You also have the option to select a custom strategy from portfolios that fall into four categories; static, individual funds, age-based or the bank deposit portfolio.1

Funding/Setting up automatic investments

To fund your account online or if you are planning to set up automatic investments from a bank account you'll have to log back in to your account 2 business days after the account is opened. Then you'll just need the account and routing numbers for the bank the money is coming from.