NCHER is pleased to join The Institute of Student Loan Advisors (TISLA) in offering an inaugural Student Loan Counseling Boot Camp, which will be held on March 10-12, 2021 through Zoom.

As organizational resources continue to be impacted by the economic downturn and tenured staff retire because of changes in the student loan industry, it can be difficult to find trusted and experienced industry experts to assist new staff in learning the ins and outs of the student loan programs. Whether you are an existing federal student loan servicer, private collection agency, or potential winner under the Next Generation Financial Services Environment, we know that the 40 million student loan borrowers who will begin paying their loans back later this year will need repayment assistance. Our industry will need as many experts as possible to help counsel these borrowers.

If you are a FFEL servicer or guaranty agency or a private education loan servicer, we know how important it is for you and your staff to have the knowledge and tools of what is available across federal programs, including the Federal Direct Loan program and FFELP, and how to conduct effective student loan counseling so that you can continue to provide high-quality services to your borrowers.

TISLA President Betsy Mayotte, a nationally recognized expert in student loan regulations and effective borrower counseling, has agreed to offer a series of courses aimed at providing our members with the knowledge they need to effectively counsel student loan borrowers. Ms. Mayotte has provided similar presentations for institutions of higher education, financial planning, and wealth management companies. The first course titled, Student Loan Counseling Boot Camp, consists of nine hours offered over three days. The course will provide participants with the expertise that they need to counsel approximately 99 percent of the borrowers they may encounter.

The course includes the following topics:

• Understanding federal, private, and other student loan programs
• Deferments, forbearances, consolidation, and refinancing
• Repayment options (including all five income-driven plans, two others you probably have never heard of, as well as the other repayment plans available to students and parent borrowers)
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness and other forgiveness and discharge options • Managing and resolving delinquency and default (including how to navigate disputes and other resources)

If you are interested, you can register below. If there is sufficient interest, NCHER and TISLA will hold a second course titled, “Expert Student Loan Counseling,” which will take place likely in April. During this course, members will learn about:

• Detailed eligibility requirements for all federal student loan discharge and forgiveness programs, including those available in the Perkins Loan program
• Spousal consolidations and how to manage them
• Detailed eligibility for all deferments and forbearance types
• A specific module on managing parent plus loans
• How to do basic regulatory research and participate in negotiated rulemaking and other opportunities for comment on policy More on that course later in the process.

Once again, this is a great opportunity for new staff to learn about the ins and outs of the student loan program and the techniques needed to provide effective counseling to students and parent borrowers. So register today!