I do 529 contributions for my niece and nephew. I pestered my brother until he finally opened accounts for them rather than doing it myself. Primarily because I wanted him to feel ownership of the process and (hopefully) get in on contributing as well.

You can start one easily, and you can easily change or add beneficiaries later, even yourself if you decide to go back to school.

Just to add... I like the idea of yousetting one up. It gives you options over the next 20 years. Maybe the parents divorce, maybe it turns out the parents will withdraw the money someday for an emergency, maybe thekids just hates you. Who knows. But if I wanted to setaside funds over the long haul in a 529, I'd want the control over it and how its invested.