529 plans are plans, or programs of investment that were established to ensure the access of students to college education, and after some reform, also to other types of certified education, like K-12 education. First established by the Michigan Education Trust in 1986, this savings program was adopted by states and even some private colleges and universities and later it was added to the Internal Revenue Code in 1996 under Section 529, which explains the name of the program. The importance of this savings program is that, aside from having tax benefits both on the federal and state levels, it allows parents to save money with tax benefits so that their children can have access to higher, and some other types, of education, and also, it allows students to access colleges and universities not just in the state where they have taken the 529 plan, but in any institution nationwide, and some from abroad. These programs can be sponsored by higher education institutions, state government and state agencies, like is the case of the MET, but not by C: the federal government, as these are plans that have been instituted in each state.