More than two million student loan borrowers have student loan debt greater than $100,000, with 415,000 of that total holding student loan debt greater than $200,000, according to a recent article by Forbes.

With such steep costs, it's no wonder that working parents and students alike are looking for better ways to put aside money to afford higher education.

What many employees fail to realize is that they have the opportunity to begin saving for their children or their own future education with their current employer in the form of a 529 Savings Plan.

Legally known as qualified tuition plans, 529s are sponsored by states, state agencies or educational institutions and are authorized by Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code.

The state of California is already seeing some success with these plans with over 900 employers — including 11 of the state's largest employers — already offering qualified tuition plans under the name ScholarShare 529.

As of October 2017, $8 billion in assets across 300,000 accounts have been invested in the plan. Julio Martinez, executive director of the ScholarShare investment board, says any employer can become a partner with ScholarShare to begin offering 529 savings plans to their employees.

“This means that employers will incorporate 529 savings plans into their menu of voluntary benefits via their company website or in a list of materials a new hire would receive,” Martinez says. “We are considered a direct-sold plan, which means the employees open their accounts on their own. All the employer needs to do is inform the employee that the plan is available to them.”

One of ScholarShare's newest employer partners, the Sacramento County Transit District, is planning to roll out the plan to their employees beginning January 1, 2019.

Donna Bonnel, director of human resources for the Sacramento County Transit District, says the savings plan will be extremely valuable to employees with children expected to attend college.

“The 529 plan is applicable to a number of our employees from those who want to continue their education, to parents, to even grandparents who want to save for their grandchildren,” Bonnel says. “I think if we got a 5% participation rate at the start —roughly 500 employees enrolled in the plan — we would be happy with that result.”

Bonnel adds that had this plan been offered to one of her employees sooner it could have prevented major financial strains on her family to send her son to college.

“This employee's son was getting ready to graduate from his high school as valedictorian and he knew he was going to have a lot of opportunities to go to many of the universities in California,” she says. “He eventually was accepted to UCLA, but the tuition to attend that school is roughly $50,000 per year. Had we made this plan available to our employee years before her son was ready to attend college this financial burden could have been much easier on her family.”

Informing employers about 529 plans has not rested solely on boards like the one Martinez directs. Benefit advisors, such as Ed Ligonde at Nielsen Benefits Group, is informing his clients about the benefits a 529 plan can have on an employee population.

“ScholarShare is just as valuable a benefit as a medical, dental or vision plan in an employers voluntary benefits offering,” Ligonde says. “Even if this is a benefits that we do not profit off of, like an EAP program for example, by bringing in that resource for the employer we are consistently at the top of mind with that client.”

Ligonde adds that the benefit advising industry has become more competitive in recent years and any new offering he can provide to his clients is another reason for that employer to remain his client.

“Our number one goal is to make sure our clients have best in class service and best in class benefits even if that means we don't receive a profit,” he says. “At the end of the day we can get indirect profit through referrals by being innovative brokers.”

More ways to help employees cover college costs:

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