Louisiana START 529 Move: Two Conflicting Cutoff Dates Before October 5

The cutoff problem for START savers

Louisiana START 529 and START K12 accounts are scheduled to reopen on October 5, 2026 under Ascensus. The current Louisiana Board of Regents transition page says the old platform stopped taking trading and deposit instructions at the end of September 23. Its linked transition guide gives a different deadline: October 1 at 3 p.m. Central. If you have a pending contribution or a tuition bill to pay, that conflict matters more than the new app.

The Board's live page, last modified September 21, gives September 23 as the START 529 and K12 cutoff. The guide attached to that same page is marked August 2026 and says good-order transactions with trade dates through October 1 are processed as usual until 3 p.m. The START documents agree on the October 2-4 migration and October 5 reopening. They do not agree on the last day to use the old system. A second conflict appears in the separate ABLE guide: the Board webpage gives October 14 as the ABLE cutoff, while that guide gives October 22 at 3 p.m. Central. This article uses the later-maintained webpage for the timeline, but you should confirm your own transaction with the program before treating either cutoff as a promise. Do not assume a pending instruction went through because you submitted it before October 1.

Two programs, two calendars

START College Saving and START K12 share one migration calendar. Louisiana ABLE has a later calendar. Mixing the two is an easy way to miss a payment or try to sign into the wrong portal.

The two reopening dates are 21 calendar days apart. Measured from September 23, the START portal opens 12 days later and the ABLE portal 33 days later. The ABLE transition guide agrees on the October 26 reopening but lists October 22 at 3 p.m. Central as its old-platform deadline, eight days later than the Board webpage. Those intervals describe the Board's schedule, not a guarantee that any particular transfer will post in a set number of days.

The Board says records, balances and transaction histories will transfer automatically. You do not need to request a rollover just because the administrator changes. It also says scheduled bank transfers for START 529 and K12 will continue. Payroll direct deposits need more attention: the Board says contributors using payroll should give their employer updated instructions when received. The linked guide says a separate payroll letter will follow. Check your pay stub and new account ledger after the first payroll run on the new platform.

Why the two official cutoffs disagree

Both cutoff conflicts are visible in the source documents, so they should stay visible in your plan. On the Board's September transition page, the instruction is to submit START transactions by September 23 and resubmit any unfinished transaction after the new platform opens. Page 10 of its linked August guide says transactions received in good order with a trade date through October 1 will be processed until 3 p.m. Central. That is an eight-day difference in the published final date.

We cannot tell from the public documents whether the guide is outdated, whether its October 1 language applies only to transactions already in a processing queue, or whether the webpage changed after the guide was printed. The Board's page was modified more recently, which is why the table above follows it. The safe practical test is your transaction record: look for a completed trade or deposit in the old ledger, then check the migrated history when the new portal opens. If a time-sensitive withdrawal is involved, contact the plan directly. A confirmation that you entered an instruction is not the same as a posted withdrawal.

The guide says paper transactions and automatic bank debits dated October 2 through October 5 are expected to be processed after the upgrade at October 5 market values. That statement is specific to those methods and dates in the guide; it does not resolve the old-platform cutoff contradiction. Market value also means the number of investment units you receive may differ from a price you saw before the pause.

What happens to your investments

The transition is an automatic investment mapping, not a cash payment to you. Existing START College and K12 holdings are scheduled to move into new portfolios with similar investment approaches. The Board says the balance and transaction history move too. The guide says its automatic mapping does not use one of the two investment changes an account owner may make during 2026. If you already used both changes, the automatic migration still goes ahead.

The guide identifies five individual portfolios for START College: short-term bond index, bond index, international bond, US equity index and international equity index. It identifies four K12 individual portfolios and four K12 target-risk portfolios. Those counts describe the menu, not the number of funds each family should hold or how any option will perform.

Read the fund-mapping pages of the START and K12 transition guide against your current statement. For example, several old Vanguard US stock choices are grouped into the new START US Equity Index Portfolio, while the old Louisiana Principal Protection holding maps to the START Capital Preservation Portfolio. A similar label does not prove the same underlying holdings, risk, fees or future return. The new disclosure booklet is the document to check for those details when available. The old START FAQ still describes the former Vanguard lineup; it is useful as a record of what you owned, but not as a reliable description of the post-migration menu.

A statement check for a real family

Imagine Renee has an $8,000 START College balance and contributes $100 through each monthly paycheck. Her child is due to start college next fall, so she has a tuition withdrawal in mind. The transition does not require Renee to sell her 529 and open another account. She should save her September statement, record the old account number and list each old fund. After October 5, she can use the new account number sent by mail to create new credentials, compare the migrated $8,000 starting balance with her statement, and inspect the mapped portfolio and full transaction history.

The $8,000 is an example, not a promised October 5 balance. Market prices can move during the migration, and a contribution still in flight may appear as a separate transaction. Renee should reconcile dollar contributions and units or shares before treating a difference as an error. Because her $100 comes through payroll, she also needs the new payroll instructions; the Board says ordinary scheduled bank transfers will continue, but payroll may require action by her employer.

Renee should call the program before a time-sensitive tuition withdrawal rather than rely on an October 5 login alone. The federal tax benefit of a 529 generally depends on how withdrawals are used, not on which company administers the account. The IRS qualified tuition program guidance explains that distributions used for qualified education expenses generally are not taxable; it does not say a transition excuses a missed school payment or changes the plan's processing timeline.

Fees and the state match: wait for the new disclosure

The August guide says START College's Earnings Enhancement remains available to eligible savers. That is a statement about the program continuing. It does not tell you that your own family will receive a match this year, or that the amount is unchanged after every possible eligibility check. Confirm the current terms with the new disclosure before changing contributions based on a projected match. START K12 and Louisiana ABLE should not be assumed to share the college match.

Do not use an old fund's expense ratio to estimate the cost of the mapped portfolio. The old START site still lists its pre-transition Vanguard choices and fee descriptions. The transition guide names the new portfolio options but sends account owners to a new Program Disclosure Booklet for charges and expenses. Until that document is available and checked, a dollar forecast for the new fees would be invented. A proper fee comparison will need your mapped portfolio, its disclosed annual expenses, any plan charge and your actual account balance.

The migration also does not force a comparison with a Trump Account or a different state's 529 today. If you are deciding where future child savings should go, our Trump Account, 529 and custodial Roth comparison explains the different tax treatments. Keep that separate from the immediate task of confirming that your existing Louisiana balance and payroll deposits arrived correctly.

What to do before and after the switch

Before the new START portal opens, save a statement or screenshot showing your balance, fund selections, recent deposits and pending withdrawal requests. Keep the program's mailed notice with your new account number. Do not share that number in a forum or with a site offering to move your money for you; the Board says the migration itself is automatic.

On October 5 or afterward, register through the official Board-linked portal. Use the new account number and create a new password. Compare the opening statement with your old ledger. The important checks are the account owner and beneficiary, transferred balance, each mapped portfolio, scheduled bank contributions, payroll contributions and withdrawal history. If something is missing, gather the old confirmation and new ledger before calling. START 529 and K12 account owners can use the contact information on the Board transition page. Louisiana ABLE account owners should use their separate October 26 instructions.

The most useful conclusion is small and practical: the platform changes automatically, while account access and payroll instructions may require work from you. The START and ABLE cutoff conflicts remain unresolved in the public material checked on September 25, 2026. Treat the current Board page as your first source and verify any money that was in motion around the change.