It is fairly common for families to set up a college account for their children during their marriage not only for the children’s future, but also to receive several tax advantages associated with these accounts. However, this savings plan can become problematic after divorce.

Many states permit the court to allocate the contribution to the child’s college expenses by the divorced parents and the child.

This figure will be separate from the preexisting college accounts, and most courts in determining the allocation to each spouse will not consider whether such accounts exist or who owns them.

Because of this, you might want to consider stopping any future contributions to the existing college account and starting a new one once the divorce decree is entered to prevent you from potentially subsidizing your ex’s share of the college expenses.

In many divorce decrees, the court orders that the balance of any existing college accounts be applied first, then the contribution of each parent is applied after.

However, the court rarely considers which parent was funding the account in the years after the divorce and rarely order parents to contribute to the original account.

This could lead to a situation where a father funds a college account for years only to find out that — because the account will be applied before each parents’ contribution — a part of his contribution will be credited to his ex-spouse.

Here is how the math works against such a situation:

• Let us say that college costs $20,000.
• The college account at the time of divorce was $5,000.
• The father contributed an additional $5,000 post-divorce with no contribution by the mother.
• Finally, let’s assume that the court orders college costs to be split 60 percent by the father, and 40 percent by the mother.

If the father continues paying into the original account post-divorce and that account is applied first, here is what it will cost:

• $20,000 total minus the $10,000 already in the account leaves the remaining balance at $10,000.
• The court requires the father to pay 60 percent, or $6,000, after he has already paid $5,000 into the account.
• This makes father’s total post-divorce payments $11,000.

If the father pays into a separate account, however, it would be much cheaper:

• $20,000 minus the $5,000 in the account at the time of divorce leaves a remaining balance of $15,000.
• The father pays 60 percent, or $9,000, of which he has put $5,000 into his separate account.
• This makes father’s total post-divorce payments $9,000.

By creating a separate account and applying it 100 percent to father’s contribution, you can potentially save thousands of dollars in contribution to college expenses.

While there are other considerations to make — not the least of which is how quickly two accounts will grow compared to one — you need to be aware that you could end up subsidizing your ex’s contribution to the college costs if you continue to contribute to the original college account after divorce and your ex does not.