What Retirement Savings Do You Have to Report on the FAFSA?
By Kaitlin Mulhere (Money on Time.com)

Q. My husband and I have $350k in a brokerage account earmarked for retirement. It is not in an IRA or 401(k), even though it is intended for retirement. Do we need to report that on the FAFSA? If so, where?

A. Retirement savings don’t have to be reported as an asset on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, but—and this is a big “but” in your case—only if the money is in a qualified account.

You can’t leave an asset off the aid application simply because you intend it for retirement. It has to meet the legal definition of a retirement account, says David Sheridan, a financial aid director and member of the National Association of Financial Aid Administrators, who participated in MONEY’s recent FAFSA chat on Twitter.

Qualified retirement accounts include an IRA, 401(k), 403(b), or pension plan. Unfortunately, a brokerage account is not on that list, so you’ll need to report it as an investment, says financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz. (It goes on page 4 of the 2016-17 FAFSA.)