All I have is a couple of fully funded Texas Tuition Promise Fund accounts. It occurred to me that I probably need an actual 529 for non-tuition expenses, and I need to do it before my kids get any older and I lose the tax-free growth benefit.

What do yall recommend? Are all 529s the same, or are there actually major differences? Can I change the beneficiary on them if I don't need it for the kid that I put down as beneficiary?

Thanks.

Most of the large brokerages offer 529 plans: Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab etc. Choose a brokerage that you already have an account with.

I like Fidelity's 529 plan because you can customize the page and its super easy to send the link to family members to donate.

the one I have through USAA...sucks.

I'd second Fidelity.
I have one for each kid.
I especially like that I can vary the funds within it being invested into and their percentages. For example, my oldest is now at A&M. In anticipation last year, I stopped contributing to the aggressive growth fund and increased contributing to ones that still had good yields but wouldn't take such a hit from a market downturn when I needed the money.
Also, they will send the money directly to A&M. When it's time to pay tuition and fees, it's just like entering your checking information with a routing number and account number, and A&M gets paid within a day or so. Easy.

And yes, you can actually change the beneficiary.
There's also a rule that you can roll over some of the unused funds (I think the cap is $30k) into an IRA for the kid instead.
I'm seriously toying with the notion of stopping withdrawals at $30k and letting it become an IRA. By the time they retire, it'd be a huge amount. I'd instead take my contributions and pay on their student loans instead, given that the rate of return for the market will be much higher than the APR of a student loan.
But I'm not there yet, have a few years before we have to decide that.

Vanguard. Have all of it in S&P 500 fund and will never change the investment. We also have the Texas prepaid tuition plan (whatever it is called) paid up for 3 years funded by a grandparent. My kid will likely go to grad school, so I will keep the 529 in growth mode in perpetuity. Any residual my kid can use for their own kids if we over fund.

We used Vanguard. Got the credit card to go with it. After freshman year, I would pull the funds and write my kids a check. It was their job to pay the university, rent, and food. We worked out a budget together and they learned how to manage their money. Both left A&M debt free, knew how manage their money, and had good credit scores.

I went with the New York 529 plan. Like many of the others, you can pick and adjust your allocations. The NY plan uses Vanguard funds, which have pretty low expense ratios.

Worth noting that every plan is sponsored by some state. So even if you go Vanguard direct, it's sponsored by Nevada. Fidelity's plan is sponsored by New Hampshire. I'm not sure if any of that really matters, though. There isn't any state tax benefit for Texans, so I wouldn't get too hung up on the sponsoring state.

We opened a 529 for granddaughter through Fidelity. We made an initial deposit and now make monthly deposits through Fidelity credit card rewards. We get 3% rewards. 20% of that 3% is deposited monthly in her 529.