It’s been a few months since we last wrote about the changes to Illinois’ BrightStart college-savings plan, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that Illinois parents are getting a good deal. A Morningstar.com  report says that BrightStart’s index-fund option “jumps immediately to the head of the class” and that Illinois’ focus on lowering costs “offers college savers everywhere hope.”

Here’s some of the skinny on BrightStart’s low costs:

• The index-fund options in BrightStart’s age-based plan charge expenses of just 0.20% to 0.23% a year, plus a $10 annual account  fee.  Morningstar says these are easily the lowest costs of any 529 college savings plan in the nation.
• Costs inside actively managed portfolios range from 0.56% to 0.60% a year. Only a South Dakota plan has lower costs for similar investment options.
• The advisor-sold version charges expenses of 0.81% to 0.86% annually, including a broker-servicing fee of 0.25%. Morningstar says these, too, are among the cheapest of their type.

Morningstar offers only a few quibbles with the structure of the plan. It says the stock-market choices, both indexed and actively managed, are a little too heavy on large-cap stocks.  And it says the actively managed portfolios have a “thin lineup” of underlying mutual funds.