If new schools join the plan, you get retroactive benefits--your previous contributions lock in whatever tuition the new school charged when you invested, at a discount equal to the median discount schools in the plan offered that year.

FORBES: Pay Now, Learn Later

So there's sure to be much interest in September when more than 200 private colleges begin offering the Independent 529 Plan--a complicated new scheme that lets you prepay a child's private college tuition at a discount to today's rates.

FORBES: Pay Now, Learn Later