The contributor owns and controls the account completely. The 1997 law allows QSTPs to have many special benefits. Unfortunately, most states are not taking advantage of them all. Also, these plans don't let you choose your own investments, and many states have picked some investment companies with miserable track records. And once you've allocated funds, you often can't change the allocations.
Some states prohibit rollovers to other beneficiaries or other states.
Some impose penalties for non-qualified withdrawals massively exceeding those Uncle Sam requires. But I quickly discovered that there are some excellent plans . I'll be recommending this plan to all of my financial planning clients. The plan has a web site , but before you click, be aware that they haven't yet updated the site for recently added benefits. So if you read it online, you're not going to find out how good it is.