Personal finance software such as websites, apps, or digital planning tools can help families manage their budget and reduce debt by pulling together balance and activity information from multiple financial accounts into a single view on an app or a website.

Personal finance software or account aggregation programs like Mint® use a form of technology called data scraping to log in to a user’s account using their personal security credentials and extract information from account web pages.

However, some people may be concerned for their online security: if an account aggregation program is hacked, it could lead the hacker to one point of access where all the user’s information is compromised, instead of just one financial account.

To help security-minded account owners safely share their data, Virginia529 offers account owners the ability to create an aggregator read-only account.

Virginia529’s third-party account access platform will allow your chosen preferred personal finance software to access select Virginia529 account information without having to disclose your personal primary Virginia529 account login information. The third-party account access platform will only give access to basic account and investment details without displaying personal and sensitive information. This will allow you to track your Virginia529 account(s) using third-party financial apps without compromising your account security.

Multi-factor authentication (also known as two-factor authentication, MFA, or 2FA) will be required by Virginia529 for all account owners after October 21. This means that if you have third-party financial apps directly connected to your Virginia529 account (i.e., not using the aggregator read-only account option), those connections will be disabled due to the universal MFA implementation. If you wish to connect your Virginia529 account to third-party services, such as Mint, you will need to follow the steps below.

How to link a Virginia529 account to your personal finance software

• Sign into your online account at Virginia529.com.
• Click Manage My Accounts.
• Select Link Personal Finance Software.
• Create a unique Login ID, password, and expiration date for each service receiving access to your Virginia529 account.
• Direct your personal finance software to enter the newly created Login ID and password at this link.

Upon completion of these steps, your digital application, planning tool or financial institution will receive read-only access to your Virginia529 account summary information. This will allow you to keep track of your Virginia529 investments while protecting your digital security.

PLEASE NOTE: At this time Virginia529 accounts cannot be linked to any Quicken financial tools.