More than 8,000 students attended college in the 2022-23 school year using College Illinois!^® benefits of approximately $90 million. While the Program remains closed to new enrollments, it continues to operate as usual for the beneficiaries of nearly 19,000 current contracts, with no change in benefit payments, customer service, or plan administration.

Thanks to the support of Governor Pritzker and the General Assembly, in spring of 2022 Governor Pritzker signed a bill providing a Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 supplemental appropriation that included a $230 million lump sum payment to the Illinois Prepaid Tuition Trust Fund. To protect these funds from market volatility and ensure their availability to pay tuition and fee benefits in the near term, the $230 million payment was invested in a laddered portfolio of U.S. Treasury securities.

Based on actuarial reports and projections as of June 30, 2021, the $230 million in funding would have substantially eliminated the College Illinois! Program’s unfunded liability.  Making a single payment of $230 million, rather than continuing to seek smaller annual appropriations that reduce the unfunded liability over time, is expected to save the state $75 million over the remaining life of the plan, making it a win not just for contract holders but for all Illinois taxpayers.

The Program retains a substantial investment portfolio in a separate trust fund to pay obligations. According to the June 30, 2023, Actuarial Soundness Report, Program assets totaled about $565 million, and the program is considered fully funded as of June 30, 2023. As always, actuarial reports necessarily represent a point in time and will change in the future up or down based on a variety of factors, including market volatility and tuition and fee growth. College Illinois! continues to prudently invest funds in a diversified portfolio.  

Program financial statements, including the June 30, 2022 Actuarial Soundness Report, are available at https://www.collegeillinois.org/AboutCollegeIllinois/529Financials.html.