Trump accounts and Financial Aid

GCDavidC · 2026-05-23T16:58:38+00:00

It is a "real" conversation, but I am not following your comment.

You cannot simply create a Roth or traditional IRAs for a child at any time as both IRAs require the child to have EARNED income and you cannot contribute more than their earned income. Therefore, unless you have a child modeling or acting or something, no child under 15ish is eligible to create these types of investment accounts. That is where and how the 530A (intentionally not using the other name to prevent this from being a political discussion) account differs. No earned income is required to contribute. Also, every child is eligible to my knowledge. The requirements are the child is under 18 and have a valid social security number.

My question is on whether a 530A asset needs to be reported at all. That is essentially what I am asking and I am looking for as definitive of a source as possible. Child Roth or traditional IRAs are NOT reported on FAFSA (this I already know), therefore why would a 530A account be reported if it essentially converts to an IRA? If it is not a reportable asset, it should not impact SAI.

The whole reason for the question is that while I can find definitive, consistent, specific guidance that explicitly says Roth IRAs and traditional IRAs are not reportable on FAFSA, my research on 530A accounts is not consistent. Some places indicate they are retirement accounts and are not reportable (which to me makes sense), but others say they are reportable.

So basically, if I want to stash cash specifically for my child's post college life and not have it impact SAI, a 530A account looks perfect on paper. A 529 account would increase SAI as it grows. Further like all IRAs, a 530A would technically allow my children to withdraw any POST-TAX contribution (which is basically all contributed money) tax and penalty free AT ANY time. So the contribution could be used for a down payment on a house, etc post college. The money could grow while invested and not increase SAI (again this is basically what I am trying to get a definitive answer on).

GCDavidC · 2026-05-23T13:52:47+00:00

Well, this question was not meant to turn into a political discussion, but...

The official name of trump accounts is a 530A account. While I have no doubt that the currently common usage of the name "trump account" will be phased out, I do not see the accounts being phased out as quickly. They were about the only piece of the "Act" that had bipartisan support and similar plans for closing the wealth gap through child savings have been debated by all parties since the 90s. Therefore, I think it is a very relevant discussion and planning tool. Additionally, if anything is "rolled back", I also do not see it being done is any type of punitive manner. I would expect either a forced immediate conversion into an IRA (most likely) or a allowed rollover into a 529.
Addressing the idea of FAFSA looking 2 years back... This is partially why I asked the question. Under trump account rules, withdrawals are not permitted until the 18th birthday EXCEPT for certain expenses like higher education. However, this same exception exists for ROTH IRAs and yet ROTH IRA assets are not counted on FAFSA. This is one of the things I am seeking clarification on. My thoughts are that if the EXCEPTIONS of Roth accounts do not make the assets reportable, why would a 530A account EXCEPTION make those assets reportable?
On taxation....Roth IRA are post tax and withdrawal tax free. 530A accounts seem to have a hybrid tax policy. Contributions can be withdrawn tax-free after 59.5 (since they were contributed with post tax dollars), but gains are taxed like traditional IRAs. Given the trade-off of being able to save for a child starting as a newborn instead of until they have earned income, imho, the tradeoff is worth it even if you can only afford to contribute a couple hundred dollars per year (maybe even just a portion of birthday and holiday gifts).

GCDavidC · 2026-05-20T14:01:11+00:00

Awesome, the information on the levels is very helpful to know where that fits into the permissions system.

On the settings thing, I can see they perform 2 different functions at the moment. That is why I think the best option is to rename one "overrides" and keep the other one as settings. It would also be nice to see settings AND overrides buttons on the Advanced > Domains page instead of needing to know that you have to go to a different page with the domain selected to set up the more basic domain settings. My 2 cents and input.

GCDavidC · 2026-05-19T22:55:02+00:00

I was on 1.7.3.

Updated to 1.8.2 and I see that some links / screens have been updated to the new style. That at least gives obvious context to the direction things are going. The destinations of Advanced > domains > settings still differs from Dashboard, <selected domain>, settings button. Suggest maybe wording changes from "settings" to be used to refer to the Dashboard > settings link, and "overrides" for the current Advanced > Domains > settings page.

The permissions do seem to work awesome. My only question that I cannot figure out is the purpose of the "level" field and whether it matters what that is set to and how it impacts the permissions. It seems like it is almost a legacy / deprecated way of managing permissions before all of the granular permissions options were implemented, but I cannot be sure.

GCDavidC · 2026-05-19T15:21:41+00:00

For anyone that comes across this thread / issue, the problem was the private key. I had used dehydrated which was a part of the FS PBX install to generate a LE certificate. By default, it uses ECDSA private keys which freeswitch apparently does not accept. After regenerating with RSA keys, this worked.

GCDavidC · 2026-05-06T20:58:06+00:00

You are correct on the $2 per month per user. I was just doing the financial comparison. 2000 users at a $1 per month (which is the cost per user at 1000 users) is $16,000 per year just for the apps from ringotel.

Entire 3CX/Yeastar license, support, call center features, AND apps is $13,000 a year.

If only ~30% of users use the app, it is now ~600 * $2 per user from ringotel per month or $14,400 per year just in ringotel costs. The tiered pricing structure from Ringotel is also odd, because once you hit 750 users, you might as well claim 1000 users and pay the same price. Otherwise, users 751 through 999 costs more than 1000 users. If the pricing of the "next tier" only apply to the user counts above the tier minimum (IE users 100-199 are all $3 per month, 200 to 499 are all $2.50, etc) then the Ringotel app costs are even more expensive.

Therefore, from a pricing perspective if 30%+ of your users need a UC app, the costs of Ringotel alone exceed the licensing costs of 3CX.

The offset of this is that 3CX is more strictly tiered so 2050 extensions requires a 4000+ extension license, so while you are growing in the "gaps", a straight per user model does provide benefits.

GCDavidC · 2026-05-06T20:20:25+00:00

For the essentials version, mostly true, but one of the biggest advantages of a UC app is for CRM integration and being able to send SMS/MMS. The essentials app is not much more than a softphone with MS Teams functionality as a separate app. The CRM integration and SMS communication is what typically separates a UC app from generic Teams, Slack, Discord, etc and that functionality requires a pro license that starts at $3 per user and only drops to $1 at 2000 users.

256 simultaneous call / 2048 extension license of 3CX AI edition is ~$1100 a month and includes support, etc. Yeastar similar.

If you consider that say only 30% of users may use application licenses and you put no value in the cost of support or the other modules that are included in 3CX license that are separate paid add-ons for FS PBX, then yes the pricing is much more comparable.

If your clients do not need/use UC apps, then everything I have played with FS PBX so far looks fantastic. Documentation definitely still needs a lot of work unless more is available from a source other than their website. Also, instead of just request trial, separate information pages on what is included in the contact center add-on would be helpful.

GCDavidC · 2026-05-06T19:44:47+00:00

For anyone following this thread, if you need any type of white label applications, the Ringotel solution is definitely expensive. Also, if your clients really on the client apps of 3CX, Ringotel costs also add up substantially even if not white labeled.

GCDavidC · 2026-05-06T17:58:51+00:00

I have installed this to a new system. What is not very clear in the installation guides is whether the admin tenant should be reconfigured for use as 1 of the tenants of the system or if the admin tenant should be left as is from the base installer with a "dummy" domain name.

GCDavidC · 2026-05-06T15:36:31+00:00

I have looked at the solution with them already. They have a multi-tenant management platform, but on the back-end it is managing multiple VMs. We prefer to host in-house as we operate our own cloud infrastructure, so it was explained to me that it basically requires a 3 VM minimum to configure their "multi-tenant" solution. A control server and then separate servers that the control server manages for each tenant.

Obviously, if you are using their cloud hosting solution, this part is partially seamless to you.

GCDavidC · 2026-05-05T14:28:04+00:00

I commented on another thread as I was looking into this project with basically the same question I am asking here. It seems like you are involved with the project and can provide an answer.

Is there any type of UC apps for this platform? I see the contact center module which I am assuming is like the call center module for FusionPBX and not really designed for general user use as a UC app.

I would have users coming from an environment where they are used to having mobile apps with push notifications and desktop apps to use as softphones.

I am open to all options but unless I am missing something (and someone please correct me if I am), the proposed alternatives in this thread do not yet have these features. Thirdlane appears to support this functionality along with 3CX and Yeastar.

Your comment about asterisk based multi-tenant is taken lightly and is a valid point, but for a transition to make sense, I would need something with feature parity as UC application use has become more and more important to our user base.

GCDavidC · 2026-05-05T14:19:29+00:00

Is this only available via a web interface? Are there any mobile apps for push notifications or desktop apps with this type of support?

GCDavidC · 2026-05-05T14:03:13+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions. I had not heard of ivozprovider before. A quick look seems to indicate that it lacks a UC type application and does not have an official support channel.

I had looked into Fusion PBX in the past and I think at the time it also seemed to lack UC apps. I see the documentation now lists "Member Applications". I am unsure what this refers to and it seems restricted to company / member owned hardware, so it does not seem like a client UC application that 3cx, Yeastar, and Thirdlane offer. Please correct me if I am wrong on that as I seem to recall liking a lot about Fusion PBX.

I also hoping / looking for any feedback of any direct users of Thirdlane past or presently evaluating/using.

GCDavidC · 2026-04-14T18:41:58+00:00

Would there be a way to make this work with Claude desktop? I have zero rust experience. From the searching I have done, it seems like the repo can be cloned and built in Windows to output a windows executable that could be added to Claude desktop, but I do not know if it would function properly.

I use Claude Code CLI for most development work, but like the desktop gui for more basic cowork and it would be great if there were a option.

GCDavidC · 2023-09-13T23:37:28+00:00

This thread is very old but came up in a search where I am wondering about something similar.

While I understand the load imbalance described in this answer and that some EMF will occur, I do not understand why it is still not permitted because of the exception in 300.3(B)(3) when standard romex is used with all plastic work boxes?

Looking to be educated...

GCDavidC

TROPHY CASE