Evaluate all of your 529 options.

Don’t just focus on the broad strokes of how a 529 college savings plan works. Take a closer look, and you’ll find you can strategize according to your unique financial situation — whether you start investing late in the game, choose a plan outside your home state or your child decides to attend a school you didn’t expect. Here are seven things you may not know about 529 plans.

Some state plans offer “tax parity.”

Contributions to another state’s 529 plan typically bring no tax deduction, but a handful of states offer what’s called “tax parity.” That means account owners get a deduction for 529 plan contributions to any state’s program. Tom Corley, a certified public accountant in Rahway, New Jersey, and author of “Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals,” points out that a few states, such as Colorado, New Mexico, South Carolina and West Virginia, offer a tax deduction up to the full amount of the annual plan contribution.

You can switch beneficiaries without tax consequences.

Those tax-free distributions still apply if a plan owner needs to switch beneficiaries. That comes up in situations where the plan beneficiary gets a scholarship and doesn’t need the money saved in the 529 plan. In those cases, there is generally no taxable event if the plan beneficiary is changed to another person in the family.

You can switch plans, too, if it makes sense for you.

Lynne Ward, executive director of the Utah Educational Savings Plan, says she sees some plan buyers use a strategy of investing in their home state’s plan until the point at which they receive a tax break. “Then if they have more money they want to save, they’ll send it to another state’s 529 plan,” she says.

There are aggressive options for late starters, but be careful.

Plenty of families who haven’t saved enough hope to play catch-up as their child approaches college. However, by taking too much equity risk, you can put your nest egg in peril, says Richard Feigenbaum, partner at law firm Feigenbaum & Uddo and co-author of “The 529 College Savings Plan Made Simple.” It’s important for late starters to be realistic in their expectations, he notes. “If you’re counting on a lucky tailwind market to raise your portfolio by 25 percent in three years, perhaps you’re taking too much risk, and that’s not appropriate,” he says.

Performance isn’t the only reason to pick a plan.

“People should not chase performance,” says David Smith, a wealth advisor and co-chief investment officer with Robinson Smith Wealth Advisors in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Smith explains that different asset classes move in and out of favor, and last year’s red-hot investment may have cooled off. “There’s quite a disparity between U.S. and international stock performance over the last six years. Some [state 529] plans, like New York, don’t offer any international exposure,” he says.

In fact, you may want to prioritize taxes over performance.

Joseph Hurley, founder of 529 plan research site SavingForCollege.com, says rather than first focusing on performance of plans throughout the country, parents and grandparents should investigate the tax advantages of their home state’s plan. If the beneficiary is a teenager nearing college, a state tax advantage could outweigh a plan with better performance in the past three to five years. “First check out your state’s plan, then start shopping around,” Hurley advises.

Prepaid plans actually have some advantages.

Jerry Slusiewicz, president of Pacific Financial Partners in Laguna Niguel, California, says there are a few situations in which a prepaid plan could be the right solution. “If it’s late in the game, and you’re making a lump-sum contribution, and your child is a little bit closer to college age, some programs allow you to accelerate payments. I could see it making sense in that situation,” he says.

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7 Things You Didn’t Know About 529 Plans originally appeared on usnews.com