The PA 529 College and Career Savings Program offers two plans to help individuals and families save for education in a tax-advantaged way—the PA 529 Guaranteed Savings Plan (GSP) and the PA 529 Investment Plan (IP). Earnings on a PA 529 account may be subject to taxes and penalties if you withdraw for an expense not related to education. You can begin the process of opening a new PA 529 account in the Flourish Savings App. In addition to the tax advantages of saving in a PA 529 account, money saved into a PA 529 account can earn interest as time passes. More information on both plans can be found on the PA 529 website.

In addition to the tax advantages and potential earnings on money saved in a PA 529 account, studies show that children from families who save even a little bit of money for postsecondary education are more likely to enroll in and graduate from college.

The Savings Pocket is an FDIC-insured savings account you will open in the Flourish Savings App. Flourish will offer pilot participants an opportunity to open a Savings Pocket through a partner bank, Evolve Bank & Trust. You can transfer money into this account from your connected Funding Account and withdraw money back out of it within 2-3 days, for any reason. There is no penalty or cost to save or withdraw money from your Savings Pocket. Evolve Bank & Trust is a separate entity from Flourish and Commonwealth. Anyone opening a new bank account should read and understand all documents whether electronic or printed before making this commitment.

Participants can earn incentives for completing specific research activities as a part of this pilot. Incentives will be distributed immediately following completed research activities. All incentives, unless otherwise specified, will be distributed via gift cards to merchants of your choice. Merchant choice happens at the time of card receipt. Examples of merchants include Amazon, Walmart, and Apple (full list of merchants). All gift cards are provided by Commonwealth. 

Participants will receive:

• $20 for completing the pre-launch survey
• $15 for each short, monthly survey completed (up to five surveys)
• $20 for the endline survey

If participants complete all surveys throughout the pilot, they are eligible to receive a $50 bonus for completing all research activities. Additionally, select participants may be invited to participate in longer, in-depth interviews

The pilot will end approximately five to six months after it begins. Families will be notified of the specific end date after the pilot has begun.

Unless you choose to transfer any money into your PA 529 account at the end of the pilot, all of your savings held in the Savings Pocket will be returned to your Funding Account. Any savings you transferred into a PA 529 account will remain in the PA 529 account.

No, when the pilot is over, you will not be able to save in the Savings Pocket. All of the money in your Savings Pocket will be transferred back to your Funding Account.

Yes, when the pilot is over you will be able to continue saving in your PA 529 account. Information on how to save directly into your PA 529 account can be found at PA529.com, in the FAQs in the “Contributions & Rollovers” section.

Flourish Savings is a free mobile app that has partnered with Commonwealth in order to create the Savings Pocket.

You can open a PA 529 account by visiting the PA 529 plan website (this can also be done through the Flourish app). To enroll in a PA 529 plan you will need the following information:

• Your address, birth date, Social Security number, or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN);
• Your banking information (to make contributions from a checking or savings account): your account number, routing number for your bank, and/or a “voided” blank check;
• Your successor (optional, in case of incapacity or death) and their birth date; and
• The beneficiary’s name (person for whom you’re saving) and their birth date and Social Security number.

You can either link to your PA 529 account when you first set up your Savings Pocket account in Flourish, or later from the sidebar menu in the app.

You can save as much as you want in the Savings Pocket. During onboarding, you will set your Emergency Savings Goal as either $100, $250, $500, or $1,000. You can withdraw from and replenish the Savings Pocket as frequently as you would like, and you can also change your Emergency Savings Goal throughout the pilot. Once you set your automatic transfer rule to send money into your PA 529 account, money deposited beyond your Emergency Savings Goal will begin to flow automatically into your PA 529 account. However, the automatic transfer will not go through if the amount you are transferring will take you below your Emergency Savings Goal.

Link your Funding Account to the Flourish app to transfer funds into your Savings Pocket. Once you set your Emergency Savings Goal, you can determine how you will reach the goal by setting an automatic contribution for the dollar amount you choose at the frequency you prefer (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.). You can also manually make one-time transfers into the Savings Pocket. 

You can set another automatic transfer rule to send money directly from your Savings Pocket into your PA 529. Once you reach your Emergency Savings Goal, these transfers will begin to happen automatically as long as the amount you are transferring will not take you below your Emergency Savings Goal. You can also make one-time, manual transfers from your Savings Pocket to your PA 529 directly in the Flourish app. Transferred funds will take 2 business days to appear in your PA 529.

You can easily withdraw money from your Savings Pocket to manage any financial hardships that arise over the six-month pilot. The money will go right back to your Funding Account but will take 2-3 days to process. After you withdraw funds, you can refill your Savings Pocket, continuing to save until you reach your goal.

Withdrawing money from your Savings Pocket does not affect your savings in your PA 529 account. Before you can continue saving automatically into your PA 529 account, you need to refill your Savings Pocket to your Emergency Savings Goal.

Right now, you can not link two different PA 529 accounts to the same Savings Pocket account. If you’d like to save into multiple PA 529 accounts, you can do so by creating two (or more) Savings Pocket accounts. These accounts can be linked to the same funding account if you so choose.