40K in 2004 – 529 College Plan for my daughter in 2004

Question

My grandmother recently passed. She started a 529 college savings plan for my daughter born in 2004.My grandmother recently passed, I gained control/access to the account.She put $40,000 in the account in 2004 with Smith Barney. After they went out of business for fraud, American Funds took over the account.Since 2004, they took $40,000 and turned it into $70,000This seems like criminal financial malfeasance to me.I's like some input. I have transferred the account to me as owner, but I havent moved funds.What do.Any recourse, aside from the phone call with American Funds ghetto call center with people who had zero financial acumen, but were supposedly managing daughters account.Using the same tropey dialog "im sorry you feel that way sir"Then putting holds on funds for days due to me updating the mailing address for the account.Do I have any recourse due to the utter failure of these orgs?

dekhn · Accepted Answer

I am having trouble understanding exactly what you are complaining about. I think you're saying that you expected the money to be more? I did a quick calculation based on my investments and $70K is about what I expected. Are you using a very high rate of return? Accounts like this are typically managed conservatively to make the likelihood of large losses small.

samstave · Answer

The reason I am bringing this question to HN, is that this community has had to deal with hard financial shifts more than most industries and might have experienced such....
I am livid, but about to puke on the malfeasance from their handling of this account.
THERE IS NO FUCKING way you can invest into a college fund, $40K and it hasint even doubled in size in 17 years.

Amfy · Answer

ask this in bogleheads.org instead.