Hawaii Issues 529 RFP

The state of Hawaii has issued a request for proposals to manage its $35 million 529 plan because the firm it had been using did not want to renew the contract.

The state of Hawaii has issued a request for proposals to manage its $35 million 529 plan because the firm it had been using did not want to renew the contract. Scott Kami, administrator of the financial administration division, said Hawaii wanted to extend Delaware Investment‘s contract, which runs out in March. But Delaware investments did not want to renew, as it is scaling back its 529 business, he said. “We had an option to extend [the contrat] for another term, but they didn’t want to,” he said.

The state will look at both open-architecture and bundled providers, and wants to get the responses to the RFP in by the first week of November. Kami said Hawaii needs to move quickly to get a transition team in before the March deadline. He added that with Delaware the funds in the plan were proprietary but there is no requirement that the 529 be structured the same way a second time.

Calls to Chris Reimer, the relationship manager for Hawaii at Delaware, and spokeswoman Laurel O’Brien, were not returned by press time.