September 16, 2025 • 12 mins
Florida Prepaid Spokesperson Meredith Westheimer shares details of how the prepaid college tutition program has made its website easier to navigate and the offer of a free $50 for those who enroll in a new 529 Plan by November 10, 2025.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Joel Malcolm for WJ and O dot com and
(00:02):
the Florida News Network, and you know, did you know
September is National Saving for College Month. Florida Prepaid has
some major changes to its website and there's also a
special program right now where you can get an incentive
to get an investment plan. We're going to talk to
(00:23):
Meredith west Timer, Florida Prepaid college spokesperson uc F grad
with the help of Florida Prepaid and her children also
have Florida Prepaid plan. Say that ten times real quick. Meredith,
thank you for joining me, Thank.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
You for having me. Joel always a letter, all.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Right, so let's talk about what's changed you have. Is
it a new website or just redesigned.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yes, so we've reimagined the website for Florida Prepaid. You
can still find all the information that you need at
Myflorida Prepaid dot com, but we wanted to create a
more user friends experience. But were parents who are interested
in saving for college. What new website is informative and
it really empowers families to create a college saving strategy
(01:09):
that works for them and meet them where they are
so we know everybody's journey is different, everybody's budget is different,
and wanted to make this experience more user friendly.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
I mean, how is it not user friendly before? Because
it seemed pretty easy. You had the calculator up there
for the prepaid plans and you could figure out, you
know how all that worked.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
So our calculator is now better than ever. It gives
families the option to choose what they can save and
lets them see what their options are between the five
to nine prepaid plan and the five to nine investment plan. So,
for example, I went online this morning and I plugged
in my six year old's birthday and it said, okay, great,
(01:48):
how would you like to see it? Do you prefer
a guaranteed savings vehicle or do you have interest in
some flexibility and growth? And I said both sound great.
And so what it did was it actually told me
for one hundred and fifty dollars a month, which was
what I told it. My budget was I could secure
two years of university a prepaid plan, so a five
(02:11):
minion prepaid plan, and I can also save the extra
money that was left over, which was about fifty dollars
into an investment plan. And so it told me, you know,
I can take my money, how far I can stretch
my funds to really ensure that I have the best
college savings strategy.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Okay, well, so is AI being used to do this?
Sounds like it sounds like use of artificial intelligence to
help make this thing even more user friendly.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
And I think I would improved calculator to just enhance
the experience. But really letting the consumer drive what their
budget is. So we know everybody's starting at a different point,
you know, with their finances, and you know, maybe what
you can say today isn't what you can say tomorrow.
But we really want to empowered consumer to understand how
these plans can work together beneficially for their kids. So
(03:02):
if you have fifty dollars, you know, you could plug
in that that's your budget and would say, okay, great,
this is one way that you could invest fifty dollars
towards college. And really the online is we want families
to know that any dollar invested is a dollar saved
that they don't have to take out on the back
end in the form of loans, which we know are
incredibly burnsome to start out.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Okay, so now there are two there are two plans,
and I know you have right now a fifty dollars
incentives incentive going on what is the difference between the
five two nine investment plan and the five two nine
prepaid plan. You kind of went over it just now,
but maybe give us delve a little more into that.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Absolutely, so the fact I have prepaid plan, it is
locking in the future cost of college and it allows
the customer to make smaller monthly payments against your savings goal.
So you can go online and you can say, you know,
maybe the calculator tells you for your budget you can
afford a one year university plan. We're now selling each
of the plans as one year university, so we've taken
(04:08):
away a lot of the confusion. I don't know if
I should get two plus two or one year of
university or four year university. Right the parent you know,
I know, we don't know what our kids are going
to corw up to be your increments, and then you
can stack them on top of each other as your
budget willows. But you're locking in the future cross they're
guaranteed they're back by the State of Florida. So for
(04:29):
people who are risk adverse, this is a great option.
You know that whatever plan you select as long as
you make your monthly payments together. When it comes time
for your child to use it, you know, when they're
eighteen or they're heading to college, that will be the
plan that's available for you. On the other end, we
have the five two minute Investment plan, and this one
is an investment. It's kind of you know, like a
(04:50):
four oh one K. So as the market goes up,
the girls on that plan will also grow up. The
girls on that is tax free when used for qualified
education expenses, but these plans can be used towards books, housing,
other educational expenses, including also K through twelve. They're great
investment vehicles as well, and so it really just depends
(05:13):
on your investment strategy what works best for you. A
lot of families, if they can, they like to do
you know, both to some degree, maybe a little bit
of a prepaid plan secure of two years of a
university and then invest in any additional funds that they
can into an investment plan. Their preplace plan that's a
set monthly feet and investment plan is a little bit different.
There is no set monthly payment that you have to make.
(05:36):
It's a little bit more flexible in that way that
you can invest what you can when you can, or
you can enroll for as little as twenty five dollars
a month for set increments.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
So it works similar to like if we look at
you know, folks like us who work for companies four
one K, except that it's for your your child's future
college tuition exactly. Okay, yeah, so it works with the market.
Now the other one, the prepaid one that you were
first talking about, that's the one that we you and
(06:06):
I talk about so often because they have open enrollment
periods for it. But I guess you can actually purchase
a prepaid plan anytime, correct, So you're pre.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Enrolling right now. So for families who do sign up
for a prepaid plan, and that fifty dollars bonus, if
you will, that is available for signing up for either
plan now through November tens that can go towards either plan.
So you're pre enrolling for a prepaid plan. You won't
have to start making payments on that plan until early
next year to align with our open enrollment season, which
(06:39):
to your point is wary one through the end of April.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Okay, that's where I was getting confused. It happens from
time to time. So there is open rollment. You have
to do it during open enrollment, but you can pre
get ready for it now and have that. Are you
locked in at a specific price exactly? Okay? So because
come I think you said February, it could be a
(07:04):
different price, it could be higher.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Correct, the prices are. They stay very stable, and the
prices are already out at about thirty five dollars a
month for a baby. So if you're listening to this
and you have a newborn at home, the prices are
about thirty five dollars a month for one year university plan,
and you really can't beat that. I mean, that's a
I don't know what is thirty five dollars a month
these days, but it's a couple of trips to Starbucks,
(07:27):
you know, depending on your coffee order. So it's a
really great benefit. And you know, at the end of
the day, when your baby or your child turns eighteen,
you're going to be so relieved, both of you are.
You know, your child's going to be set up for
success to have to take out those burdensome student loans.
But that's also going to benefit to you also, you know,
not having to worry about it stress about it, or
(07:48):
perhaps as much as you would have to you know later.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Now the investment plan is there's no enrollment period. Then
you can do that all year correct correct, and so
that one so you could do so you get if
you sign up now for either of these through November tenth,
you get a fifty dollars incentive. How does that work?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
So it's applied to your account. In addition to the website,
you know, the new user experience who are looking to
sign up new families across Florida. There's also a new
back end once you're already an existing customer of Florida Prepaid,
So for people who are hearing us who are already
prepaid customers, there's a new experience dashboard. We freed tremendous
(08:31):
feedback about it that it's just easier to understand your
entire college savings goals and platform and you'll see the
credit applied there.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
So earlier, Meredith, when we were talking, you were talking
about the I believe that the calculator is the planned
builder tool, right, that's like the official name of it.
We were talking about that, and you were talking about
something about the one year I remember you used to
be able to look up four you can you not
still do that?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Now you can build on top of you know, we're
selling a one year call it thirty credit hours towards
the university tuition raids, and if you want two years,
then you just buy two of those, and if you
want three and so on. All the way up until four.
What we were really finding, Joel, is that a lot
of families would log on website and there were, you know,
(09:18):
multiple options for college savings. There were college plans and
university plans, and there were two plus two and then
one year university, and so people were just getting confused.
They weren't sure how much they needed. And so this
really simplifies the process so that you say, hey, I
have enough money to fund one year of a university plan.
And I think I share this statistic with you in
(09:38):
the past before that gets you have a dedicated college
savings and they know about it. Are you know, two
and a half times more likely to go to college
and graduate because of that acccasion? And so I want
parents to hear this message. You don't have to do
it all, you don't have to do it all right away,
but just go online and see what you can do.
To get started. I promise that you won't be upset
(10:00):
having that money later down the road. But if you
don't go ahead and get started, you'll be thinking, why
didn't I do this too? You know, why didn't I
let you know that tax free advantage works to my
advantage over time?
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Now, is anybody affected who in the past bought it
the old way, maybe they bought a four year plan
or a two year plan and not separate. Are they
affected at all?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
No, everything existing customers. So anybody who has a quarter
a prepaid plan currently, they their plan is still intact.
They just have a nicer user experience once they log
in to see you know, their dashboard.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
So it just sounds like the whole the whole thing is,
it's just really user friendly, just to make things easier
on the parents, and uh, you know new parents. Obviously
nothing's easy and you know that two times over right.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yes, yes I do. I can emphasize. I know that,
you know, those days of diapers are behind me. But
for many parents who are just starting out, you know,
we just want them to know that it's easier than
you think. And so we encourage everybody to go online,
take a look at the savings calculators. See what you
can do, you know, see how you can get your
attorneys started. Saving for college. There's tons of flexibility with
(11:09):
both of these plans, you know, and a lot of
people say, well, what if my kid doesn't go to college?
And right, what if they get a scholarship? And so
there is these plans work nicely with scholarships if you
don't get to college. Depending on which plan you have,
there are different ways to get your money, either back
with a prepaid plan or with a five two nine
plan investment plan. You can transfer those funds into a
(11:31):
retirement account. There was a new rule that came out
via the legislation a couple of years ago that allowed
for that. So there's tons of options. It's never it's
that ever a bad idea to save ahead for the future.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
The Meredith west Timer not only a spokesperson for the
college prepaid plan. What do you seef on that plan?
And our kids have the plans as well, And the
website is.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
My sort of precade dot com. Again, the fifty dollars
bonus is now until November tenth, So go on and
see what works for you. Take advantage of that free
money and get your journey started
Hey, Joel Malcolm for WJ and O dot com and
(00:02):
the Florida News Network, and you know, did you know
September is National Saving for College Month. Florida Prepaid has
some major changes to its website and there's also a
special program right now where you can get an incentive
to get an investment plan. We're going to talk to
(00:23):
Meredith west Timer, Florida Prepaid college spokesperson uc F grad
with the help of Florida Prepaid and her children also
have Florida Prepaid plan. Say that ten times real quick. Meredith,
thank you for joining me, Thank.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
You for having me. Joel always a letter, all.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Right, so let's talk about what's changed you have. Is
it a new website or just redesigned.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yes, so we've reimagined the website for Florida Prepaid. You
can still find all the information that you need at
Myflorida Prepaid dot com, but we wanted to create a
more user friends experience. But were parents who are interested
in saving for college. What new website is informative and
it really empowers families to create a college saving strategy
(01:09):
that works for them and meet them where they are
so we know everybody's journey is different, everybody's budget is different,
and wanted to make this experience more user friendly.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
I mean, how is it not user friendly before? Because
it seemed pretty easy. You had the calculator up there
for the prepaid plans and you could figure out, you
know how all that worked.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
So our calculator is now better than ever. It gives
families the option to choose what they can save and
lets them see what their options are between the five
to nine prepaid plan and the five to nine investment plan. So,
for example, I went online this morning and I plugged
in my six year old's birthday and it said, okay, great,
(01:48):
how would you like to see it? Do you prefer
a guaranteed savings vehicle or do you have interest in
some flexibility and growth? And I said both sound great.
And so what it did was it actually told me
for one hundred and fifty dollars a month, which was
what I told it. My budget was I could secure
two years of university a prepaid plan, so a five
(02:11):
minion prepaid plan, and I can also save the extra
money that was left over, which was about fifty dollars
into an investment plan. And so it told me, you know,
I can take my money, how far I can stretch
my funds to really ensure that I have the best
college savings strategy.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Okay, well, so is AI being used to do this?
Sounds like it sounds like use of artificial intelligence to
help make this thing even more user friendly.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
And I think I would improved calculator to just enhance
the experience. But really letting the consumer drive what their
budget is. So we know everybody's starting at a different point,
you know, with their finances, and you know, maybe what
you can say today isn't what you can say tomorrow.
But we really want to empowered consumer to understand how
these plans can work together beneficially for their kids. So
(03:02):
if you have fifty dollars, you know, you could plug
in that that's your budget and would say, okay, great,
this is one way that you could invest fifty dollars
towards college. And really the online is we want families
to know that any dollar invested is a dollar saved
that they don't have to take out on the back
end in the form of loans, which we know are
incredibly burnsome to start out.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Okay, so now there are two there are two plans,
and I know you have right now a fifty dollars
incentives incentive going on what is the difference between the
five two nine investment plan and the five two nine
prepaid plan. You kind of went over it just now,
but maybe give us delve a little more into that.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Absolutely, so the fact I have prepaid plan, it is
locking in the future cost of college and it allows
the customer to make smaller monthly payments against your savings goal.
So you can go online and you can say, you know,
maybe the calculator tells you for your budget you can
afford a one year university plan. We're now selling each
of the plans as one year university, so we've taken
(04:08):
away a lot of the confusion. I don't know if
I should get two plus two or one year of
university or four year university. Right the parent you know,
I know, we don't know what our kids are going
to corw up to be your increments, and then you
can stack them on top of each other as your
budget willows. But you're locking in the future cross they're
guaranteed they're back by the State of Florida. So for
(04:29):
people who are risk adverse, this is a great option.
You know that whatever plan you select as long as
you make your monthly payments together. When it comes time
for your child to use it, you know, when they're
eighteen or they're heading to college, that will be the
plan that's available for you. On the other end, we
have the five two minute Investment plan, and this one
is an investment. It's kind of you know, like a
(04:50):
four oh one K. So as the market goes up,
the girls on that plan will also grow up. The
girls on that is tax free when used for qualified
education expenses, but these plans can be used towards books, housing,
other educational expenses, including also K through twelve. They're great
investment vehicles as well, and so it really just depends
(05:13):
on your investment strategy what works best for you. A
lot of families, if they can, they like to do
you know, both to some degree, maybe a little bit
of a prepaid plan secure of two years of a
university and then invest in any additional funds that they
can into an investment plan. Their preplace plan that's a
set monthly feet and investment plan is a little bit different.
There is no set monthly payment that you have to make.
(05:36):
It's a little bit more flexible in that way that
you can invest what you can when you can, or
you can enroll for as little as twenty five dollars
a month for set increments.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
So it works similar to like if we look at
you know, folks like us who work for companies four
one K, except that it's for your your child's future
college tuition exactly. Okay, yeah, so it works with the market.
Now the other one, the prepaid one that you were
first talking about, that's the one that we you and
(06:06):
I talk about so often because they have open enrollment
periods for it. But I guess you can actually purchase
a prepaid plan anytime, correct, So you're pre.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Enrolling right now. So for families who do sign up
for a prepaid plan, and that fifty dollars bonus, if
you will, that is available for signing up for either
plan now through November tens that can go towards either plan.
So you're pre enrolling for a prepaid plan. You won't
have to start making payments on that plan until early
next year to align with our open enrollment season, which
(06:39):
to your point is wary one through the end of April.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Okay, that's where I was getting confused. It happens from
time to time. So there is open rollment. You have
to do it during open enrollment, but you can pre
get ready for it now and have that. Are you
locked in at a specific price exactly? Okay? So because
come I think you said February, it could be a
(07:04):
different price, it could be higher.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Correct, the prices are. They stay very stable, and the
prices are already out at about thirty five dollars a
month for a baby. So if you're listening to this
and you have a newborn at home, the prices are
about thirty five dollars a month for one year university plan,
and you really can't beat that. I mean, that's a
I don't know what is thirty five dollars a month
these days, but it's a couple of trips to Starbucks,
(07:27):
you know, depending on your coffee order. So it's a
really great benefit. And you know, at the end of
the day, when your baby or your child turns eighteen,
you're going to be so relieved, both of you are.
You know, your child's going to be set up for
success to have to take out those burdensome student loans.
But that's also going to benefit to you also, you know,
not having to worry about it stress about it, or
(07:48):
perhaps as much as you would have to you know later.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Now the investment plan is there's no enrollment period. Then
you can do that all year correct correct, and so
that one so you could do so you get if
you sign up now for either of these through November tenth,
you get a fifty dollars incentive. How does that work?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
So it's applied to your account. In addition to the website,
you know, the new user experience who are looking to
sign up new families across Florida. There's also a new
back end once you're already an existing customer of Florida Prepaid,
So for people who are hearing us who are already
prepaid customers, there's a new experience dashboard. We freed tremendous
(08:31):
feedback about it that it's just easier to understand your
entire college savings goals and platform and you'll see the
credit applied there.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
So earlier, Meredith, when we were talking, you were talking
about the I believe that the calculator is the planned
builder tool, right, that's like the official name of it.
We were talking about that, and you were talking about
something about the one year I remember you used to
be able to look up four you can you not
still do that?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Now you can build on top of you know, we're
selling a one year call it thirty credit hours towards
the university tuition raids, and if you want two years,
then you just buy two of those, and if you
want three and so on. All the way up until four.
What we were really finding, Joel, is that a lot
of families would log on website and there were, you know,
(09:18):
multiple options for college savings. There were college plans and
university plans, and there were two plus two and then
one year university, and so people were just getting confused.
They weren't sure how much they needed. And so this
really simplifies the process so that you say, hey, I
have enough money to fund one year of a university plan.
And I think I share this statistic with you in
(09:38):
the past before that gets you have a dedicated college
savings and they know about it. Are you know, two
and a half times more likely to go to college
and graduate because of that acccasion? And so I want
parents to hear this message. You don't have to do
it all, you don't have to do it all right away,
but just go online and see what you can do.
To get started. I promise that you won't be upset
(10:00):
having that money later down the road. But if you
don't go ahead and get started, you'll be thinking, why
didn't I do this too? You know, why didn't I
let you know that tax free advantage works to my
advantage over time?
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Now, is anybody affected who in the past bought it
the old way, maybe they bought a four year plan
or a two year plan and not separate. Are they
affected at all?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
No, everything existing customers. So anybody who has a quarter
a prepaid plan currently, they their plan is still intact.
They just have a nicer user experience once they log
in to see you know, their dashboard.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
So it just sounds like the whole the whole thing is,
it's just really user friendly, just to make things easier
on the parents, and uh, you know new parents. Obviously
nothing's easy and you know that two times over right.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yes, yes I do. I can emphasize. I know that,
you know, those days of diapers are behind me. But
for many parents who are just starting out, you know,
we just want them to know that it's easier than
you think. And so we encourage everybody to go online,
take a look at the savings calculators. See what you
can do, you know, see how you can get your
attorneys started. Saving for college. There's tons of flexibility with
(11:09):
both of these plans, you know, and a lot of
people say, well, what if my kid doesn't go to college?
And right, what if they get a scholarship? And so
there is these plans work nicely with scholarships if you
don't get to college. Depending on which plan you have,
there are different ways to get your money, either back
with a prepaid plan or with a five two nine
plan investment plan. You can transfer those funds into a
(11:31):
retirement account. There was a new rule that came out
via the legislation a couple of years ago that allowed
for that. So there's tons of options. It's never it's
that ever a bad idea to save ahead for the future.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
The Meredith west Timer not only a spokesperson for the
college prepaid plan. What do you seef on that plan?
And our kids have the plans as well, And the
website is.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
My sort of precade dot com. Again, the fifty dollars
bonus is now until November tenth, So go on and
see what works for you. Take advantage of that free
money and get your journey started
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