Eight years ago, Rob Brems of Lehi found out about the Utah Educational Savings Plan. Now, three of his five children have used the money he tucked away to get through college.

"If you start early and just start doing that regularly, you never miss that money, and all of a sudden it's accumulated to that point and your children are ready to go to college and you're so glad you have it," he said.

Brems opened the account in 1998. Now he is president of the Utah College of Applied Technology. His twin daughters are working on degrees in cosmetology and business, and another daughter graduated from Southern Utah University.

The Utah Educational Savings Plan marked its 10-year anniversary on Friday. UESP is Utah's 529 college savings program and has no minimum deposits or balances. UESP offers federal tax benefits, gift tax benefits and Utah taxpayers get state tax benefits and reduced fees.

"It makes perfect sense to me now," Brems said. "Earlier on we didn't know about UESP, and so as we started saving for our kids' college, we were buying savings bonds. I believe this grows faster because of the investments that are made by the folks at UESP. And of course there's the tax break on your Utah state taxes that you don't get with the savings bonds."

Duane Hill was the first Utahn to begin saving with UESP. Ten years ago, he opened accounts for his granddaughters, Marley and Kira, when they were three and one years old.

"The girls have grown. Fortunately, so have their college savings," Hill said.

John Carlquist's parents opened his college savings account 10 years ago; he is now 25. "This spring, I graduated with honors from the University of Utah," he said. "Having a UESP account really helped with the bills, and I was able to finish school without going into debt."

Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. declared September to be College Savings Month. Huntsman's deputy for education, Christine Kearl, said, "Because of increased earning potential and economic development for our state, Utah youth need to prepare for higher education, participate in higher education, and complete their degree or certificate."

To learn more about UESP, call (800) 418-2551 or visit www.uesp.org.

Anna Chang-Yen can be reached at 344-2549 or annac@heraldextra.com.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B1.