The Virginia Education Savings Trust (VEST) has been ranked as one of the most cost effective direct-sold 529 college savings options in the country, a new study shows.

Available through the Virginia College Savings Plan, VEST ranks as the 8th least expensive college savings option from among more than 65 such tax-advantaged plans nationally. That’s according to www.savingforcollege.com, a widely used source of 529 industry information, which recently released its annual 529 plan fee study.

The savingforcollege.com study – created to give individuals and families an easy way to explore and compare the costs of multiple 529 plans – is an important consumer measure since lower fees generally preserve more of an investor’s savings, while also allowing those unspent fee dollars to grow further.

The study compares the 10-year costs of all direct-sold 529 plans, based on a hypothetical $10,000 investment earning 5% a year. Included in the 10-year total costs are any program-level asset-based fees, including management and administrative fees, and annual account fees charged by various plans.

Based on those criteria, Virginia’s VEST plan had an estimated 10-year cost of $396, not including VEST’s one-time, $25 application fee. Louisiana and Utah were tied as the lowest-cost plans nationally, followed by Oregon and Ohio, whose direct-sold plans had the next lowest 10-year cost with a projected total of $273 in Oregon and $293 for both the resident and non-resident plans in Ohio.

Other 529 plan options – including the Virginia Prepaid Education Program (VPEP), Virginia’s broker-sold CollegeAmerica and the state’s CollegeWealth bank products – were not included in the savingforcollege.com study.