Rhea-AI Sentiment reads the wording of the document, how positive or negative its language is on a 1 to 5 scale. The balance of points shown with the takes weighs what the document actually discloses, so the two can disagree, for example when a trial that missed its main goal is described in upbeat language.
Four plans move up to Gold as Morningstar analysts find improvements across investment teams, oversight, and costs
CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment insights, today reveals the 2026 Morningstar Medalist Ratings™ for 60 of the nation’s most prominent 529 college savings plans. The Morningstar Medalist Rating for 529 College Savings Plans is a forward-looking assessment designed to help investors identify 529 plans that Morningstar analysts believe are best positioned to serve investors over the long term. Analysts evaluate the quality of a plan’s investment approach; the people managing it, state oversight, and costs, giving investors a way to compare plans beyond past performance. Plans receive one of five ratings: Gold, Silver, Bronze, Neutral, or Negative.
This year, Morningstar analysts assigned nine Gold ratings, 14 Silver ratings, 12 Bronze ratings, 19 Neutral ratings, and six Negative ratings. Gold ratings nearly doubled from five last year, and more than half of the plans (35 of 60) earned a Bronze rating or better.Analysts upgraded 10 plans, up from one in 2025, and downgraded none.These plans account for more than 90% of 529 industry assets, which surpassed $550 billion thus far in 2026.
"This year's ratings show how improvements behind the scenes can ultimately strengthen the choices available to education savers," said Hyunmin Kim, manager research senior analyst, Morningstar. "We're seeing examples of stronger investment teams, more robust state oversight, and thoughtful investment processes contributing to higher conviction from our analysts. With the cost of education continuing to rise, identifying high-quality plans remains an important part of helping families make informed savings decisions.”
The share of rated plans earning a Bronze rating or better rose 5 percentage points year over year (53% to 58%).All five plans that were Gold last year kept the rating, and four new Gold plans saw an upgrade from Silver in 2025. The five plans that maintained Gold ratings are Alaska's T. Rowe Price College Savings Plan, Illinois' Bright Start Direct-Sold College Savings Plan, Massachusetts' U.Fund College Investing Plan, the Pennsylvania 529 Investment Plan, and Utah's my529. Four plans moved up from Silver: California's ScholarShare College Savings Plan, Connecticut's CHET Direct College Savings Plan, Georgia's Path2College 529 Plan, and the Michigan Education Savings Program.
Stronger investment teams, and state oversight drove most of the boost in ratings. California, Georgia, and Michigan moved up due to TIAA-CREF, an investment manager that strengthened teams by adding analysts, and formalizing research processes, ultimately addressing concerns Morningstar raised last year about resources growing thin as its business expanded. Connecticut's State Treasurer’s office earned a higher oversight rating for stronger oversight and investment expertise.
Kansas' Quest529 Program and Schwab 529 College Savings Plan each moved up two rating levels, rising from Neutral in 2025 to Silver in 2026. Both plans changed investment managers from American Century to TIAA-CREF, helping lead to higher assessments from Morningstar analysts. The plans also became significantly less expensive. College Savings Iowa 529 Plan, and Invest529 rose from Bronze on stronger investment processes, and Wisconsin’s Edvest 529 Plan on a stronger team. North Carolina’s National College Savings Program jumped to Bronze, and Maine's NextGen College Investing Plan Connect also received its inaugural Morningstar Medalist Rating of Bronze.
Morningstar's rating methodology for 529 plans focus on each plan’s investment merits relative to its peers. The Process Pillar, weighted at 50%, examines investment quality as well as the rigor and resilience of the underlying investment process. The People and Parent Pillars are each weighted at 25%, equally highlighting the critical role of experienced management and effective state oversight. Plan fees are evaluated using modified z-scores that adjust a plan’s rating based on how its average expense ratio compares with the peer group median. The resulting Medalist Rating provides a holistic assessment of both investment quality and affordability.
About Morningstar, Inc.
Morningstar serves investors and financial professionals across the investment ecosystem, from individuals and advisors to asset managers, retirement plan providers, institutions, and issuers. Through independent data, analytics and research; credit ratings; indexes; and investment management and services, Morningstar helps them evaluate opportunities, manage risk, and break down the barriers that can stand in the way of their goals. More than $3.6 trillion in assets are linked to Morningstar indexes, and Morningstar offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries with approximately $398.7 billion in assets under management and advisement as of Sept. 30, 2026. For more information, visit www.morningstar.com/company. Follow Morningstar on X @MorningstarInc and LinkedIn.
The expense ratio is the annual fee a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund charges to cover its operating costs, shown as a percentage of the fund’s assets. Think of it like a yearly maintenance or subscription fee that quietly reduces your investment’s returns; even small differences matter over time because the fee compounds against your gains. Investors compare expense ratios to judge how much of their returns will be eaten by fund costs.
A modified z-score is a robust measure of how far a single observation lies from the center of a dataset, calculated using the sample median and the median absolute deviation (MAD) rather than the mean and standard deviation. It is commonly computed as 0.6745 × (value − median) / MAD; because the constant 0.6745 makes the MAD comparable to the standard deviation for normally distributed data, a modified z-score above about 3.5 is often used to flag an outlier. Unlike the conventional z-score, the modified z-score resists distortion by extreme values but requires a nonzero MAD and can be less informative for very small samples.
assets under management and advisementfinancial
Assets under management and advisement is the combined total value of client money a firm directly manages (it makes the investment decisions) and the assets it advises on (it provides recommendations but the client keeps final control). Investors watch this number because it signals the firm's size, fee-earning potential and market reach—similar to how the number of customers and sales show a retailer’s scale and income prospects.
