A. Morningstar Names The Best 529 College Savings Plans For 2018 – Back in 2011, Morningstar launched its Analyst Ratings, which were intended to be a qualitative forward-looking assessment of investment managers (to use in addition to or in lieu of its backward-looking-performance-based Star Ratings), and over the years the Analyst Ratings have been expanded beyond just mutual funds to now include 529 College Savings Plans as well.
In Morningstar's latest evaluation of 62 different 529 plans (representing more than 95% of all 529 plan assets), Morningstar rates less than half of them (27) as achieving at least a Bronze or Silver rating, and only 4 earning the coveted Gold rating: the Utah my529 plan, Virginia529, the Illinois BrightStart plan, and Nevada’s Vanguard 529 plan.
Notably, all four gold-rated plans are direct-sold plans to consumers that don’t necessarily include any advisor compensation (which helps to bring down their fees and likely improved their ratings),