To the annals of the obvious, please add: A recent survey reports that 90 percent of parents are worried about the cost of their kids college education. Well, duh. Tuition and fees are rising even as the economy sputters, and the average 529 plan, the tax-advantaged programs designed to help parents invest for their children s education, lost 22 percent in 2008. But thanks to changes in the tax code and, yes, even those market losses parents now have more flexibility to change course, switching their investment strategy or even choosing another state plan entirely.

Until recently, picking a 529 plan didn t feel so complicated. Most parents opted for their home state s plan, often taking a tax break for their contributions. More often than not, they chose what s called an age-based portfolio a mix of stocks and bonds designed to get more conservative as freshman year approaches. But the market crash revealed a wide variation among those plans; some designed for high school seniors lost almost 30 percent, while others gained 4 percent. Some investors had no idea how much risk they were taking on, says Joseph Hurley, the founder of SavingForCollege.com.

At least there s a silver lining for unhappy investors. In response to plan losses, the IRS will now allow parents to adjust their 529 investments twice in 2009, instead of the usual onetime switch. That means parents who bailed on the markets or got burned by their age-based fund now have two chances to get it right, says Greg Brown, who covers the plans for fund tracker Morningstar.

For investors who can t find a comfortable option in their state s plan, experts say there has never been a better time to look at out-of-state options. Historically, it s been hard to leave a plan, because most states reverse the tax break, counting any money that went into the plan as income. But if the account is now worth less than the original contributions, investors may be able to claim the losses as a miscellaneous itemized deduction small consolation, but consolation nonetheless. Tempted to shop around? Look closely at the age-based options, says Cleveland financial adviser Scott Snow; a fund for a student close to college should have no more than 20 percent in stocks. And, as always, pay attention to fees. A good plan should charge less than 1 percent for actively managed funds, half that for index funds.