Many clients find great satisfaction in donating to a charitable mission that they are passionate about. And it doesn’t hurt that there’s usually an associated income tax benefit to giving as well. As a financial advisor, you’re in a unique position to help your clients create and implement a giving strategy to achieve their philanthropic and tax planning goals.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has changed the 529 plan—helping to make these accounts more attractive when it comes to qualified expenses. The act also provides some much-needed rollover flexibility to 529 ABLE accounts. Here, I will discuss some of these changes and why you may want to reposition 529s as education rather than college savings accounts.

If you're like many of the advisors I work with, you spend a lot of time helping your clients develop and manage a plan to simultaneously save for college and retirement. But after years of planning and saving, how many of these clients incorrectly assume that they won't qualify for financial aid or assistance?

To help clients explore all of their options, you can start by debunking some common financial aid myths.

Would you be surprised to learn that the average cost of one year at a private college is $45,370 (Trends in College Pricing 2016)? Or that student loan debt, which totals $1.3 trillion in the U.S. alone, is now the second-highest consumer debt category (behind mortgage debt)? And, perhaps most important, have you thought about what these numbers mean for many of your clients? The answer is simply this: college tuition is likely to be one of their most significant expenses—and creating a college savings strategy has never been so vital.

With ever-rising tuition at both public and private universities, many of your clients likely spend a lot of time thinking—and worrying—about how they'll pay for their children's higher education. At the same time, these clients may also be struggling with meeting their own retirement savings goals. And that’s exactly where you come in. As the trusted advisor, you can help clients with education planning by laying out the facts when it comes to the true cost of college, plus strategies to keep their savings on track.