Wayne Weber: [00:00:00] Talk about something like that, saving for college, giving a gift for college, like in concept oh my gosh that’s Brilliant idea. Yeah, let’s do this. And then you bring it to an industry and it’s not always met right away with Oh, let’s jump right in. It’s often met with, who are you? What are we working on? 

When I came into this industry, There weren’t many gifting platforms for 529 plans. When you introduce something new, it’s often met with, do we even need that? But it was. It was picked up pretty quickly. It was recognized as, this is something that, yeah, maybe these assets that we’re trying to have under management, which is savings. 

Maybe those can be increased with enhancing, the gifting tools that are out there. 

Jonathan Hughes: Hi everyone, and welcome to the MEFA [00:01:00] Podcast. My name is Jonathan Hughes, and that was our guest on the show today. And our topic, as you may have been able to tell, is college gifting. That is relatives and friends contributing to a child’s college savings fund. It’s something that we’ve talked a lot about on this show before. 

And as we’re recording and releasing this episode in December when folks are doing a lot of holiday shopping, we thought it would be a great time to remind everyone that contributions to a child’s college savings account is an option for a gift. And to help us talk about college gifting, we have with us, honestly, one of the pioneers of the whole field. 

A man who’s made it much easier to grow college savings for a loved one, and who recently worked with me to introduce a UFund themed gift card available at CVS stores across Massachusetts. But I’ll let him tell you all about that himself. I’ll be back to wrap things up after this [00:02:00] talk, but now, let’s hear from our guest. 

Wayne Weber: My name is Wayne Weber my company is Gift of College and giftofcollege. com. And I am the founder and CEO of Gift of College, and it’s really great to have you here. Really excited as we’re gonna get into. We’ve just entered into a partnership with Gift of College, but we’ll get into that for right now. 

Jonathan Hughes: Could you just tell me and everybody the story of? How you created Gift of College, what it does, how you saw the need for it, and how you created the company.  

Wayne Weber: Yeah, it’s all that happened all in the same day. Really? And it was I would say it’s an, I’m an accidental entrepreneur. That all happened. 

I wandered into a Toys R Us store shopping for my nieces and nephews and maybe I was in a bad mood that day or something, but something hit me and I’m like, everything I see in a garage sale in a few months. And I left. That was the day I was like, you know what? How about college? [00:03:00] Education? 

Is that maybe they could save for education. That was also the first day I had ever heard of a 529 plan. Yeah, I went to, I went to gift to one of my nieces and nephews. Do they save for college? Learned. They do. And I guess at the time, two of the eight had five to nine plans. And that’s how I found out about them. 

I went to gift to a five to nine plan. And it was cumbersome. It was a clunky process and this could be better. And here we are a dozen years later still working on it, but that’s how it came to be. It was personal. I decided I wanted to give something more meaningful as a gift. 

And then when I found out that it was a little bit A little bit difficult of an experience. I thought we could make it better. That’s what we did. And as, first of all, as, you’re completely right. That as the father of an 11 year old, I’m still digging out from toys that we got when he was 1, 2, 3. 

Jonathan Hughes: Your instinct was spot on there. So [00:04:00] what was it like actually getting started then? I’m curious about that. What was the first step? The second step? What did you have to do?  

Wayne Weber: Oh my gosh, Jonathan. We have, we need a longer podcast. I got, I think I have to, I gotta go through steps one through a million, I think. You launch a company or an idea. Let’s talk about it as an idea. And you talk about something like that. Saving for college, giving a gift for college, like in concept. Oh my gosh that’s What a brilliant idea. Yeah, let’s do this. And then you bring it to an industry and it’s not always met right away with Oh, let’s jump right in. 

It’s often met with, who are you? What are we working on? When I came into this industry, there weren’t many gifting platforms for five to nine plans. Even yours, when I first started in the industry that many years ago, 10 plus years ago. It was pretty limited. The gifting applications that were out there. 

So when you introduce something new, it’s often met with, do we even need [00:05:00] that? But it was it was picked up pretty quickly. We, it was recognized as, this is something that, yeah, maybe these assets that we’re trying to have under management, which is savings. Maybe those can be increased with enhancing, the gifting tools that are out there. 

But the gift card, which we’ll get to in a little bit, that was met with a very welcome reception and we’ll get into that as well. So the gift card is basically what I think of when I think of gift of college.  

Jonathan Hughes: Were there other ways to give that you championed earlier and are there still? 

Wayne Weber: There absolutely are. We’re a gift registry that, that connects to all 529 plans. Including your plans? All able plans. And student loan accounts that friends and family with a click of a button online can contribute to or a friends family or a company for example, can contribute online directly without a gift card. 

The gift card was an extension of that gift of college gift registry. An extension that the same place you can go and give a gift to a loved one’s five to nine. [00:06:00] Now you can access giving that gift at a CVS store, for example, where our gift of college cards are among many other retailers. 

Jonathan Hughes: So MEFA you and Gift of College have collaborated on UFund branded gift card, and I mentioned earlier before we started the formal interview here that I know that from my own experience of helping people go out and open 529 accounts and talk to them about the importance of 529 accounts, that this is something that they’ve been asking for a while, right? 

And you said that the card was pretty well welcomed, right off the bat. And you also mentioned some of the other things that folks can use this for so how important is not just the saving aspects, but you mentioned able. First of all, were there able accounts when you started gift of college? 

And then also was the paying of loans something that was also intrinsic to the [00:07:00] beginning of this program? Or is that something that happened later?  

Wayne Weber: All of it happened later. We were in market as a five to nine gift registry, if you will able hadn’t had able legislation hadn’t really kicked off just yet. 

It was just starting as we were, doing our work as a five to nine gifting platform. As soon as it came about, we recognize that this needs to be part of our platform which by the way. Other places, like when you get into employers and things like that, able is actually a really big deciding factor on benefits we’re learning. 

But yeah, we added able and then we decided, it’s saving and paying for education. You have, at the time when we launched the company, there were only about 6, accounts. But there were over 40 million student loan accounts. And today, we have 16, 17 million 529 accounts across the nation, and we have just under 50 million student loan accounts. 

So we recognize that, yes, we want to help. [00:08:00] Our focus is going to be helping the next generation avoid debt, but you also have this huge population in debt. So we definitely added those products along the way, but by the time we launched our gift cards and we’ve launched in Toys R Us stores. By the time we launched our gift cards we had already had it set up where you could take a contribution for five to nine able or student loan. 

And that launched in late 2016. And yeah, we became a top selling brand at Toys R Us leading up to poor Jeffrey, the giraffe checking out on us. It was a good run, but we’ve had a great experience with retailers along the way with the gift card. But yeah, the gift card is one piece of it and 529, as you point out, Jonathan, is one piece of it. 

The other two being ABLE and Student Loan. I’d be remiss too if I didn’t mention the other college savings account that MEFA offers that you can also use gifts of college cards for and that’s the prepaid tuition plan, the U plan, and that’s in Massachusetts. [00:09:00] It’s a smaller program, but one that I worked with. 

Pretty closely, so I was really excited to hear that gift of college cards could be used to give to gift funds into a you plan account as well. Now, I’ve heard you talk about college gifting and I know that you have a vision that you would like to see for college gifting and the ease of it. 

Jonathan Hughes: And I wonder if you could talk about that a little bit.  

Wayne Weber: Yeah, I actually, it’s, the name of my company is Gift of College, right? But I think it’s even more than gifting, right? It’s Gift of College is a company that enables any individual or any organization, the ability To put money into a 529 plan, an ABLE account or a student loan account. 

And gift is absolutely, that core thing that we have, but it can go beyond that, right? The gift is something where online you could give a gift. You could buy a gift of college gift card. You can go to MIFA’s great gifting platform, direct and give [00:10:00] gifts. There’s a lot of ways where you can give that gift. 

And we want to help facilitate just making that easier. If it’s, even if it’s what we are with you, something complimentary to your already cool gifting applications. But beyond that, the same platform that gift of college has that facilitates putting a gift into a 529 plan or an ABLE account can be a platform that your credit card rewards. 

Gift of college is a partner of YouPromise rewards that flow to MEFA’s 529 plans actually come from Gift of College through our platform. So we see rewards as something, and that’s in my vision. Holy cow, I have in my wallet, I have credit card rewards. And they’re aligned to the same thing, travel and restaurants. 

I love Chili’s, Applebee’s, wonderful, right? But it’s the same, it’s the same thing. It’s a market where if my alignment is better used because I have student loan debt, I’d love for rewards to be able to go to them. If I have a kid or a grandkid that has [00:11:00] a 529 or maybe needs a 529, let’s use those rewards there. 

And then I believe the biggest catalyst of 529, when I started the company, I thought it would be gifting in our gift card, but I believe the biggest catalyst to 529 awareness And growth will actually still come from the workplace. I believe that 529 as a employee benefit is what will bring the awareness that our industry needs. 

We’re still under 40%. We’re still in the mid thirties, a percentage of a percent awareness. So if we can have employers introducing that, that’s going to make that biggest impact. And we do work there as well. But that’s my, my, my true vision. Jonathan is making it. So whether it’s in your workplace, whether it’s your credit card or travel rewards, or whether you’re giving a gift, that 529 plans are top of mind in all of that.  

Jonathan Hughes: Yeah so I wanted to talk about the more societal or maybe the [00:12:00] ways in which other than interpersonally, you can gift, right? And so how that’s going to be important. And one of the things that we talk about is to parents, you don’t have to do this on your own, right? You get family and friends involved, but I think you’re right. I think in my experience too, I see a lot of organizations that want to be involved in college gifting. So how can people? Do that if there are employers, if there are organizations that are listening, that want to be able to do that, how can they utilize gift of college for that?  

Wayne Weber: Yeah, no, for sure. And there’s two ways. One is definitely in the employer front and the other one is more giving and philanthropic. On the employer front we’ve built a very robust solution that we’re finding is serving well for employers that have employees across multiple states. As different states have varying tax advantages for their 529 plans. There’s a lot of different reasons why looking to your state 529 plan might be [00:13:00] something you want to do in the whole evaluation. 

So with Gift of College being a platform that hooks up to all 529 plans, and then again, ABLE accounts and student loan accounts, that same gift platform is actually just a payroll deduction and matching platform. Allowing an employer to engage with 529s, ABLE accounts, student loans, just like they do with retirement, where they can have employees do voluntary payroll deduction and have the employer optionally match. 

We got into that business because of our gift cards. Our gift cards started being used for new baby programs. Talent acquisition and retainment programs were in rewards and recognition programs. So sometimes companies have an on the spot award or milestone type awards where you get some points. 

You can use those for gift of college. And then education, right? Providing education in the workplace around, particularly 529 plans and ABLE plans. So [00:14:00] we’ve engaged with dozens and dozens of employers. Actually, 40 of our employer clients are doing some sort of baby or event type program using our gift cards. 

One of the clients, our gift cards is more on the philanthropic space, but it’s 5th 3rd bank every May 3rd find some hospitals that they partner with and in those hospitals, the babies that are born, those families all get 1, 053, 5th 3rd gift of college gift card. So that’s how we’ve engaged some nonprofits as well as employers with a true benefit. I believe it should be. Retirement, health, education, like that should surface as the third, top three, three most important benefits to American families. 

Jonathan Hughes: In a sort of related question in your experience, do you have any success stories, any sort of personal stories or anecdotes that have been relayed to you from a customer? 

Wayne Weber: That [00:15:00] shows perhaps, the importance of saving and gifting in particular or paying loans or able or whatever it may be. And then my question is, I heard your tale about beginning the company.  

Jonathan Hughes: Did have those nieces or nephews? I can’t remember. Have they gone to college yet? Yes, some of them. 

Wayne Weber: I’ll back into it. Some of them have have gone to college. And yeah, five to nine plans being injected into the mix, though, my contributions may have been pretty small, but I, it’s about gifting, right? The importance of giving, getting those plans started. So yes, some of those kids have gone and actually we have graduates now since it’s taken a long time as an entrepreneur to build a company, you start when they’re, in school and all of a sudden as your company starts to grow, they’re already graduating. 

Graduating from college. So yeah, we, we do have that. And then your first question, sorry, back to your first question. Yeah. We do have tons of employer testimonials. We have lots [00:16:00] of family testimonials about how this is, changed their trajectory in college. For me, Seeing literally hundreds of thousands of people on a platform that are leveraging it and may have not have been saving before or may have not had as much saved before, to me, that’s the biggest testimonial seeing, seeing the use of the product, but I will say one thing. 

And I know this is a lot on five to nine, but I always love to bring up able when we’re in the workplace, I have had more meetings than I ever thought I would imagine where somebody across the table is tearing up in the conversation and that’s how close able is and disability is to either an individual or their family. 

It’s very often that it’s somebody, an HR director or somebody that we’re working with that didn’t know. About able. So 5 to 9 and bringing all this education. If you do it right, that’s a huge value add to a [00:17:00] company. And when you introduce able on top of it we’ve had some very emotional experiences. 

So that I think is probably a testament to the product that our whole industry has the power. Any final pieces of advice for anybody listening? Time wise, tis the season. Remember the little ones, the loved ones in your life and the little ones may be 18 heading off to, a college campus in the future. 

Everything we’re trying to do is make education savings, top of mind, right? To avoid student loan debt. So going into the holidays with this podcast I would say yeah, that would be my final thought. Keep your, keep education savings top of mind when you’re doing your gifts this holiday season. 

Jonathan Hughes: Thank you for being here so much. And I thank you for doing what you’re doing. I’m happy that you are, and I’m happy that MEFA is, gift of College to offer the UFund branded gift card. So thank you so much for being here, Wayne.  

Wayne Weber: Thanks, Jonathan. Thanks for having me.[00:18:00]  

Jonathan Hughes: All right, that was our show, everyone. I want to thank Wayne Weber for being with us today and sharing that great gift. Experience, perspective, I really do appreciate that. And folks, if you liked what you heard today, and you want to hear more from us on planning, saving, and paying for college or career readiness, then please follow the show! 

And you can do that wherever you find your podcasts, and please rate and review us, as it helps us to keep doing what we’re doing, and getting the show out in front of folks like you. I’d like to thank our producer, Shaun Connolly, as well as Lauren Danz. Lisa Rooney, Meredith Clement, and AJ Yee for their assistance in getting this show out the door. 

Once again, my name is Jonathan Hughes, and this has been the MEFA Podcast.