Helping families maximize financial aid and minimize college debt.
Serving NY & NJ families with a junior or senior in high school who want to maximize needs-based and merit-based financial aid by choosing the right college and creating a plan to pay for it.
Forecast financial aid awards at thousands of colleges & universities
3 one-on-one virtual coaching sessions with one of our Certified Financial Planners™
We'll submit FAFSA and CSS forms for you with this extra service.
Additional video coaching sessions available to meet your specific needs
By answering a series of questions about your family’s makeup, finances, and your student’s academic achievement, College Money Match helps you forecast financial aid awards at thousands of colleges and universities.
We’ll help you choose a school within your budget and create a 4 year plan to pay for it. Our goal is to help you avoid taking on additional debt by pre-planning your college expenditures.
You will receive access to the College Money Match software and 3 one-on-one virtual coaching sessions with one of our Certified Financial Planners™:
$500 upfront and $200 Feb 1 of senior year.
Add-on Services for Subscribers
+$200 for Additional coaching sessions
+$500 for FAFSA/CSS form entry service
Cereus Financial Advisors’ owner, David Haas, enjoys helping clients solve tough financial planning questions like “How can I send my children to college,” so you can rest easy. David has undergone rigorous training and testing to become a Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) and is an active member of the Financial Planning Association® (FPA®).
Before joining Cereus, Mike got years of first-hand experience in managing many of life’s financial planning challenges, having planned for and financed college, graduate school and medical school for his daughters, buying and managing a vacation home, saving and investing for retirement, and planning for the care of elderly relatives. He enjoys providing the benefits of his experience in helping clients plan for their financial goals.
You need income and asset information for both parents and the student. The income information comes from your tax return for the prior year (For a HS Senior in 2020/2021, you need your 2019 tax return) and the asset information comes from bank and brokerage statements. Business owners will need an estimate of the worth of their businesses.
It is really too early to sign up for College Money Match for a Sophomore in high school. We would be happy to help you on an hourly basis with financial advice on how to plan and save for college.
At Cereus Financial Advisors, we help clients plan for their financial goals including paying for a college education. We can help you with comprehensive financial planning services and investment management. Please give us a call.
We often advise clients to minimize their use of loans over and above Federal Student Loans. But if you require them, we can advise you which types of loans might work best for you and what the pros and cons are for each type of loan. We do not provide student loans ourselves, but our software does have a private student loan search engine that may be helpful.
Foreign colleges and universities are not part of our expertise. Our software only supports domestic colleges.
Parent assets only count 5.64% towards effective family contribution on the FAFSA. Families who try to hide assets often find that their money becomes tied up with expensive non-flexible financial instruments and their income precludes them from getting needs-based financial aid anyway. We help you get the best deal you can legitimately get, paying for college, but do not work with you to hide assets. The biggest winner when you try to hide assets is usually the salesperson who sold you the product, not you.
We are not sports agents and sport recruiting budgets are totally outside the databases that we use for our software. We can forecast aid based on academic merit aid only. We can help your student with their college search based on needs-based and academic achievement only.
Located in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, Cereus Financial Advisors offers private, professional services for families and individuals seeking financial advice on retirement, higher education, divorce, elder care, disability, investments, unemployment, inheritance, social security, taxes, insurance, and more. We are Certified Financial Planners® and specialists in comprehensive financial planning, education planning, estate planning, insurance advice, investment management, retirement planning, and tax planning.
Fill out this form to get started and we will email you a planning agreement and payment information.
If you’re inquiring about a sibling group (i.e. twins), please email us instead.
Fill out this form to get started and we will contact you.
For existing College Money Match customers only
November 8, 2021, 7:30-8:30pm
Will You Utilize Loans When You Pay For College?
Do You Understand Them?
