Boston Student Loan Lawyer

Law Office of Adam S. Minsky

U.S. Dept. of Education Targets For-Profit Schools

| Articles Current Events For-Profit Colleges Loan Forgiveness Policy & Reform

This week, the U.S. Department of Education announced the creation of a new Enforcement Unit to target colleges and universities that engage in misconduct and deceptive practices. The new unit will be comprised of three components:

  • An investigative team that will audit colleges and universities;
  • A sanctions board that will punish colleges and universities who engage in misconduct (presumably by cutting off federal student aid, which often is key to funding these schools); and
  • A team of attorneys to review requests by borrowers for student loan forgiveness based on unfair and deceptive practices by schools.

Some other key facts about this new unit:Read More

7 Student Loan Tips for Tax Season

| Articles Income-Driven Repayment Loan Forgiveness Taxes

The holidays are over, and we’re already tired of winter. You know what that means: It’s tax season!

As your W-2’s, 1099’s, and other tax forms start arriving in the mail this month, it’s a good time to discuss how your student loans can affect your taxes, and how your taxes can affect your student loans.Read More

Will Public Service Loan Forgiveness Be Eliminated?

| Articles Current Events Loan Forgiveness Policy & Reform

This is a question I’ve been getting a lot lately, and it’s no surprise. Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) is one of the most beneficial federal student loan programs available to borrowers, providing a critical safety net to people who work in generally lower-paying government and non-profit jobs that also require a college degree (and often a graduate or professional degree, as well).

PSLF has been recently targeted by some politicians and segments of the media as a wasteful program that is being “abused.” In particular, the media has been focusing on doctors and lawyers, who often have the highest levels of student loan debt and may get substantial portions of it forgiven under the program. Of course, these stories often fail to note that PSLF may be one of the few reasons an attorney would choose to work as a public defender, assistant district attorney, or in legal services (high-need and high-stress occupations with starting salaries typically in the $40,000’s), or why a doctor would choose to work in a high-risk, public, rural, or correctional medical facility where the pay is often a fraction of private practice salaries. The articles also tend to downplay the fact that all borrowers on track for PSLF must make at least 120 monthly payments (10 years) before they can even apply for forgiveness, just like all of the teachers, nurses, police officers, firefighters, and career soldiers who may also benefit from PSLF’s safety net.

But no borrower is eligible for forgiveness under PSLF until 2017, and news has been swirling about proposals to modify or eliminate the program. Let’s take a look at what’s actually going on here, and what may be possible down the road.Read More

BREAKING: Huge For-Profit College Chain Settlement

| Articles Current Events For-Profit Colleges Loan Forgiveness

The Obama administration and state attorneys general have announced that they have settled a massive lawsuit they filed against Education Management Corp. (EDMC) – the parent company of large for-profit college chains such as the Art Institutes (including the New England Institute of Art). The lawsuit against EDMC was filed on the basis that the company defrauded students by using illegal recruitment tactics, providing sub-par education, and exaggerating its career-placement statistics.

Good news? Kinda-sorta.Read More

BREAKING: New REPAYE Federal Student Loan Repayment Plan Details and Release Date Announced

| Articles Current Events Income-Driven Repayment Loan Forgiveness Policy & Reform

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it has released final regulations governing the newest income-driven repayment plan, called the Revised Pay-As-You-Earn (“REPAYE”) plan. This new income-driven plan may provide substantial relief to millions of federal student loan borrowers who are currently ineligible for the Pay-As-You-Earn plan due to that plan’s strict eligibility requirements.

The final regulations for the REPAYE plan essentially reflect the draft regulations that were released a few months ago. Here are the key details:Read More

Student Loan Benefits for Military Service Members

| Articles Income-Driven Repayment Loan Forgiveness Student Loans 101

There was a time when serving in the military could essentially guarantee a young American a free college education. Not anymore. Today, many people who serve in our armed forces are also student loan borrowers. Luckily, there are some important student loan benefits and programs that are specifically geared towards military service members, although too few people are aware of them:Read More

U.S. Dept. of Ed Announces Debt Forgiveness Plans for Defrauded Student Loan Borrowers

| Articles Current Events Loan Forgiveness Policy & Reform

Likely in response to the growing debt strike, whereby former students of the now-collapsed Corinthian Colleges chain have been refusing to repay their federal student loans because of massive fraud and misrepresentation, the U.S. Dept. of Education has announced a plan that could result in more of these students being eligible for student loan forgiveness. The plan’s outline includes the following main elements:Read More

BREAKING: Expanded “Pay As You Earn” Program Details Released

| Articles Current Events Income-Based Repayment Income-Driven Repayment Loan Forgiveness Pay-As-You-Earn Policy & Reform

Last year, the President announced that he intended to expand access to the “Pay As You Earn” (PAYE) plan, an income-driven repayment plan that is significantly better than the widely-available Income-Based Repayment (IBR) plan, but is presently restricted to only the newest federal student loan borrowers. That means that most federal student loan borrowers currently in repayment cannot select the PAYE plan.

For months, the U.S. Dept. of Education has been engaged in what we call “negotiated rulemaking,” working with key stakeholders to flesh out the details of the expanded program and draft proposed regulations. Here are some key components of the program from the negotiating rulemaking committee:Read More

7 Signs of a Predatory “Student Loan Relief” Company

| Articles Current Events Income-Based Repayment Income-Driven Repayment Loan Forgiveness Pay-As-You-Earn

I was recently interviewed by MarketWatch about the rise in student loan “relief” and “assistance” companies that purport to help student borrowers manage their debts, but often turn out to be predatory.

The problem, as the article points out, is that the rapid increase in student debt burdens, combined with the dearth of resources to assist borrowers, has resulted in an explosion of various companies promising (sometimes falsely) to help student loan borrowers manage, or even eliminate, their debts.

Many of these operations have recently gotten into big trouble because of their predatory nature. State attorneys general have been filing suit against some of the companies that have been essentially functioning as high-priced student loan document processing mills, blindly performing routine tasks such as federal loan consolidation and repayment plan selection, without providing any relevant counseling or competent advice, and often messing up. Other companies, such as GL Advisor, have been cited for poor customer service and actively defrauding their clients and investors. Still other companies are simply scammers: shell corporations set up to take as much money from student loan borrowers as possible, while providing minimum (if any) real services.

All that said, there are also legitimate people out there providing real, valuable assistance to borrowers.

So how can you tell the difference between a student loan assistance firm that may be legitimate, and one that may be predatory? Here are a few things to look for:Read More

Introducing “Student Loan Debt 101”

| Default Loan Forgiveness Policy & Reform

Students are moving into their college dorms this week, but recent graduates are just beginning to struggle with their student loan debt as grace periods end and their loans enter repayment. As many of you know, student borrowers often have little to guide them in navigating the byzantine world of student loan servicing and repayment management.

With that in mind, I am thrilled to announce the launching of my book: “Student Loan Debt 101.” The book is a concise, user-friendly guide to understanding critical concepts that will enable borrowers to better manage their debts. Topics include:

  • Student loan types and subtypes
  • Key players
  • Interest rates
  • Deferment and forbearance
  • Repayment plan options
  • Loan forgiveness
  • Default prevention and resolution
  • Reform proposals

After months of hard work, the book is now available on Amazon. In the coming weeks, I will be making the book available on other platforms, and I will also be offering a print version. My hope is that this will be the first in a series of pocket guides that will help borrowers understand and manage their student loans.