HERITAGE Education Fund International (Jamaica) says it has paid out in excess of US$16 million of savings in principal and scholarships to subscribers since the inception of the plan locally, and has vowed to continue providing financial assistance to parents, despite the sluggish economy and the devaluation of the Jamaican dollar.

The plan was introduced to Jamaica in 1996, and presents financial solutions for families in Jamaica who seek a way to save for their children’s tertiary education. Parents are encouraged to start saving towards their children’s tertiary education from birth. The principal from the money invested is then used to finance the child’s first year of university and scholarships are then given to cover the next three years.

“Heritage’s goal is to deliver a safe and flexible solution for parents who seek a way to financially assist their children in pursuing tertiary education” said Jason Maguire, president and chief executive officer of Heritage.

“Subscribers’ contributions are safely invested in US dollar denominated fixed-income and government-issued investments, which we feel is a major feature of our plan,” he said

The plan has been approved by the Financial Services Commission and is sold to subscribers by prospectus only. This means that subscribers would have to agree to the terms governing the funds. Among the terms they agree to, is to save towards the funds until the child is 18 years old and also to have the interest that is earned on their savings go towards scholarships.

In the case of students enrolled in three-year degree programmes, the subscriber could use the funds to pay for their children’s’ upper sixth form education and receive the scholarship payment upon acceptance into the three year university programme.

Agency director Lyndie Headley said they have in excess of 10,000 subscribers in Jamaica. He said persons generally subscribe to the plan because they are paid in US dollars and there is the scholarship component.

“We got a good number of subscribers, (although) I would have to say that this was not our best year. We were down marginally and that’s because of the economy and the depreciating dollar. But overall, it was a good year when you take everything into consideration,” he said

He said that although parents agree to invest for at least 18 years, allowance is made for those who might fall into difficulty and cannot make the payments.

“They talk with us and we can find ways to adjust their plans for them, we can put it on suspension or we can reduce it or we can change the effective dates, so that they don’t have to pay right away. So we have a lot of options,” he said.

With tuition costs steadily rising and averaging four to six per cent increase annually, it is expected that tuition will be over US$150,000 for a four year degree programme in the next 10 years.

“Heritage continues to assist families in Jamaica in building a brighter future for their children. We would like to thank all of our subscribers for their commitment to their children’s future; we are so proud to be part of the journey in making your child’s dreams come true,” Maguire said.

Heritage Jamaica is the sister company for the Canadian-based Heritage Education Funds Inc, which is a distributor of fixed-income registered education saving plans. That company has been helping families save for their children’s post-secondary education since 1965 and currently has almost $2.3 billion in assets under management. Almost 500,000 children around the world have been enrolled in Heritage savings plans.