Q&A: Disability and student loan liability

Dear Liz: My nephew was persuaded by a recruiter to attend a for-profit technical college. Then, once he entered, his “advisors” persuaded him to take many, many classes — at full price — always handing him student loan paperwork to get more loans. Then they persuaded him to change his major, necessitating a whole new round of classes and loans to pay for them.

The problem is my nephew has Klinefelter syndrome, a genetic disorder. He was not diagnosed until he was an adult and therefore was left with a mental age of about 12. This is what made him so gullible. He did graduate but in the six years since has not been able to find work because it is obvious to employers that he is mentally challenged. Now his training is becoming obsolete, making jobs even harder to get. This means there is no way he will ever be able to pay back the thousands of dollars in loans. Klinefelter is listed in the disabilities registers, but because he can function, any kind of aid is really hard to get. Do you have any advice on what to do about the looming debt?

Answer: The questionable tactics of some for-profit colleges have prompted regulatory investigations and lawsuits. That doesn’t mean the debt that affected students accumulated will be easy to erase.

Many for-profit colleges rely heavily on federal student loans for their funding. If your nephew’s loans are federal, he might be able to qualify for a total and permanent disability discharge of his federal loans, said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of EdVisors, a college resource site.

“He will need a doctor to certify that his disability prevents him from obtaining gainful employment,” Kantrowitz said. “He will also need to earn less than the poverty line annually for the three-year post-discharge monitoring period.”
Kantrowitz has more information about such discharges on his site.
Another option is to consult an attorney, Kantrowitz said. “If he lacked the mental capacity to enter into a contract, he might be able to repudiate the loans,” Kantrowitz said.

Your nephew also may be able to discharge the loans in bankruptcy, Kantrowitz said. Typically student loans can’t be erased this way, but there are exceptions, including one woman in Maryland who was able to erase $340,000 in law school and other education debt after a judge said her Asperger’s syndrome made it impossible for her to hold a job.

“The odds of success are low, but many of the successful discharges involved disabilities, especially when the loan program did not provide for a disability discharge,” Kantrowitz said.

A final possibility, if your nephew has federal student loans, is to sign up for an income-based repayment program. If his adjusted gross income is less than 150% of the poverty line, his required payment would be zero and he would be eligible for the discharge of his debt after 25 years.

Q&A: Student loans and forgiveness

Dear Liz: I have a rather ugly student loan predicament. You mentioned “the possibility of forgiveness” in a recent column. I feel very strongly that I am deserving (if I dare use that word) of partial or full forgiveness of my undergraduate loans, although the loans from my graduate studies sting quite a bit too. I am not sure whom to contact to tell my story. Do I ask my lender, or do I contact the federal government education department? I get beyond frustrated talking to my lender, as they have employees who can only read from a script and can never help with particular issues.

Answer: You don’t win federal student loan forgiveness with an effective sob story. You get it by volunteering, working in a high-need area or following the relatively new rules for erasing remaining balances after many years of on-time payments. You also can get your federal (but not necessarily private) loans discharged if you’re totally and permanently disabled, you die or your school closes before you get your degree.

FinAid.org maintains a list of some of the forgiveness and stipend options available. People who teach full time in low-income districts, for example, can have up to $17,500 of their Stafford or PLUS loans forgiven under the National Defense Education Act. Forgiveness options exist for health workers and attorneys who serve high-need areas. Students in the Army National Guard may be eligible for its repayment program, which offers up to $10,000 for repaying student loans. AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps and Vista also have stipend programs for student debt repayment.

In addition, the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program promises any remaining federal student loan balances can be erased after 10 years of payments. Eligible public service jobs include employment with federal, state or local governments or not-for-profit organizations designated as tax-exempt by the IRS. You can find more information about this program at the U.S. Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid site.

Even if you work in the private sector, you can qualify for forgiveness after 20 to 25 years of on-time payments, depending on when you incurred the debt. Again, see the education department’s site for details.

If you’re finding your payments onerous, you may qualify for the “Pay as You Earn” or other federal income-based repayment plans. If you have private student loans, though, you have far fewer options and consumer protections. You may want to visit the Student Loan Borrower Assistance site run by the National Consumer Law Center to learn more about strategies for coping with this debt.

Q&A: Credit cards vs student debt. Which should be paid off first?

Dear Liz: I have $8,000 in savings. Should I use it to pay the accrued interest on federal student loans that go into repayment soon? Or should I pay credit card debts of $662 at 11.24%, $3,840 at 7.99% and $3,000 at 6.99%?

Answer: Pay off the credit card debt. The interest isn’t tax deductible, and balances you carry on credit cards just eat into your economic well-being.

Your student loans, by contrast, offer fixed rates, a wealth of consumer protections and tax-deductible interest. You needn’t be in any rush to pay them off, particularly if you’re not already saving adequately for retirement and for emergencies. Federal student loans offer the opportunity to reduce or suspend payment without damaging your credit scores should you face economic difficulty and the possibility of forgiveness. Those aren’t options offered by credit card issuers.

If your student loan payments exceed 10% of your income when you do go into repayment, you should investigate the federal government’s “Pay as You Earn” program, which offers more manageable payments for many people, especially those with large debts and small incomes.

Q&A: Consolidating multiple student loans

Dear Liz: I have four private student loans that I would love to consolidate so that I can have one medium-size monthly payment instead of four large ones. How do I go about finding a company that will consolidate them?

Answer: If you have good credit and sufficient income — or a willing co-signer — several lenders now offer private student loan consolidation. That’s a change from the recent past, when recession-scarred lenders largely abandoned this market.

Unless you’re able to get a substantially reduced interest rate, though, you shouldn’t expect your consolidated payment to be much lower than the sum of your current payments. Your payment could even go up if the consolidation loan has a shorter repayment period.

You can start your search at cuStudentLoans.org, which represents not-for-profit credit unions. RBS Citizens Financial Group, Wells Fargo, Charter One and other banks offer consolidation options as well. Some lenders offer fixed-rate options and “cosigner release,” which enables creditworthy borrowers to remove a cosigner after a certain number of on-time payments.

Q&A: Student loans and credit reports

Dear Liz: My daughter graduated from college seven years ago and moved to London. She has not paid her student loans. Do they drop off her credit reports like other unpaid debt? What about the government’s ability to collect? Does that expire as well?

Answer: The government can pursue people who owe federal student loan debt to their graves. There is no statute of limitations for collections activity, as there is on most other debt. Furthermore, the government has powers any private collection agency would envy. The feds can seize tax refunds, garnish wages without a court order and even take a portion of a debtor’s Social Security checks.

Your daughter shouldn’t expect the unpaid debt to vanish from her credit reports either. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act limits the length of time other negative marks can remain, but that doesn’t apply to federal student loans.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act “is silent as it pertains to government-guaranteed student loans,” said credit expert John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education at CreditSesame.com. “The Higher Education Act allows them to remain on credit reports as long as they’re unpaid.”

There are so many affordable repayment options these days for federal student loans that it makes little sense to default. In cases of extreme hardship or low income, payments can be reduced to zero and the loans would still be considered current.

Your daughter needs to make arrangements to pay what she owes, especially if she ever plans to come home. The good news is that the Department of Education will work with her to get her loans out of default status, and clear up her credit, with an affordable payment program. She can start by visiting the department’s site at studentaid.ed.gov.

Q&A: How to get the maximum in financial aid

Dear Liz: I’m having trouble finding information about how to structure my finances to get the maximum financial aid for my kids when they enter college. For example, will contributing to an IRA instead of a taxable investment account matter? Should I focus on paying off my mortgage or should I buy a bigger house and acquire debt in the process if I want my kids to qualify for more aid? There’s plenty of advice out there about how to minimize taxes — for example, by contributing to 401(k)s or selling losing stocks at year-end. But I’m interested in legally and ethically shielding my assets from the family contribution calculations used by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Any idea how I can learn more about the inner workings of the FASFA formula?

Answer: Before you rearrange your finances, you need to understand that most financial aid these days consists of loans, which have to be repaid, rather than scholarships and grants that don’t. Wanting your kids to qualify for more aid could just lead them to qualify for more debt.

Also, the FAFSA formula weighs income more heavily than assets. If you have a six-figure income and only one child in college at a time, you shouldn’t expect much need-based financial aid, regardless of what you do with your assets.

That said, there are some sensible ways to shield assets from the formula, and often they’re things you should be doing anyway: maxing out your retirement contributions, for example, and using any non-retirement savings to pay down credit cards, car loans and other consumer debt.

Using non-retirement savings to pay down mortgage debt helps with the federal formula, but may not help much with private schools that include home equity in their calculations. Either way, taking on a bigger mortgage with college looming is rarely a good idea.

You can get some idea of how much the federal formula expects you to pay for your children’s educations by using the “estimated family contribution” calculator at FinAid.org. Another great source of information is the book “Filing the FAFSA: The Edvisors Guide to Completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid” by Mark Kantrowitz and David Levy.

Q&A: What to do with a big tax refund?

Dear Liz: I got a big tax refund this year and am trying to figure out what to do with the money. Right now I have school loans with a 4% interest rate that I do not need to make a payment on until 2024 with my current payment plan, but the amount I owe is pretty hefty and I know it’s going to compound more over time. I also have a very low-interest car loan (1.9%) that will be paid off in 31/2 years. I also could put that money in the market in hopes that it will grow. I should add I am 27 years old. Any advice?

Answer: Yes: Please review the terms of your student loans, because it’s likely you’ve misunderstood your obligation.

Federal education loans typically don’t allow you to go 10 years without payment, said financial expert Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of Edvisors Network.

“With federal education loans, the economic hardship deferment has a three-year limit and most forbearances have a three-year limit, with one or two having a five-year limit,” Kantrowitz said.

“One could potentially consolidate the loans after getting a deferment and forbearances to reset the clock and thereby get a new set of deferments and forbearances on a new loan. But most of the forbearances aren’t mandatory, so one can’t count on stacking deferments and forbearances to get a 10-year suspension of the repayment obligation.”

Another possibility is that you’ve signed up for an income-based repayment plan that has reduced your payment to zero, but your eligibility is determined year by year. “2024 is a very specific date, so it seems unlikely that this is [income-based repayment],” Kantrowitz said.

“The most likely scenario is this borrower is misunderstanding the terms of his loan,” Kantrowitz said. “The next most likely scenario is that this borrower is not referring to a qualified education loan, but to a particular personal loan that he was able to obtain that few other borrowers would be able to obtain.”

Whatever the case may be, one of the best uses for a windfall is to boost your retirement savings. Even if you don’t have a workplace plan, you could set up an IRA or a Roth IRA as long as you have earned income.

Once you’re on track for retirement, your next goal would be to build your emergency fund, since you don’t have any high-rate debt. Once those goals are met, you can start paying down lower-rate debt (such as your student loans).

Should you hide assets to get more financial aid?

Dear Liz: We have a son who is a high school junior and who is planning on going to college. We met with a college financial planner who suggest we put money in a whole life insurance policy as a way to help get more financial aid. Is that a good idea?

Answer: Your “college financial planner” is actually an insurance salesperson who hopes to make a big commission by talking you into an expensive policy you probably don’t need.

The salesperson is correct that buying a cash-value life insurance policy is one way to hide assets from college financial planning formulas. Some would question the ethics of trying to look poorer to get more aid, but the bottom line is that for most families, there are better ways to get an affordable education.

First, you should understand that assets owned by parents get favorable treatment in financial aid formulas. Some assets, such as retirement accounts and home equity, aren’t counted at all by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA. Parents also get to exempt a certain amount of assets based on their age. The closer the parents are to retirement, the greater the amount of non-retirement assets they’re able to shield.

Consider using the “expected family contribution calculator” at FinAid.org and the net cost calculators posted on the Web sites of the colleges your son is considering. Do the calculations with and without the money you’re trying to hide to see what difference the money really makes.

Most families don’t have enough “countable” assets to worry about their effect on financial aid formulas, said college aid expert Lynn O’Shaughnessy, author of “The College Solution.” Those that do have substantial assets have several options to reduce their potential impact, including spending down any custodial accounts, paying off debt and maxing out retirement plan contributions in the years before applying for college.

Another thing to consider is that most financial aid these days comes as loans that need to be repaid, rather than as scholarships or grants that don’t. So boosting your financial aid eligibility could just mean getting into more debt.

Meanwhile, it’s generally not a good idea to buy life insurance if you don’t need life insurance. The policy could wind up costing you a lot more than you’d save on financial aid.

If you’re still considering this policy, run the scheme past a fee-only financial planner—one who doesn’t stand to benefit financially from the investment—for an objective second opinion.

Widower may be out of inheritance

Dear Liz: My wife of 34 years died five years ago. Her father is 94. He has accumulated a large amount of wealth over the last 40 years. I always made a point of staying out of financial discussions between my father-in-law and his daughters. He told us for years that upon his death all his wealth is to be divided between us (my wife and me) and her sister. Recently, a gold digger reappeared on the scene. My father-in-law and his late wife took her in at a young age when her parents died. I don’t know if she was ever formally adopted or not, or how that affects the situation. My question is, do I have any legal rights, upon my father-in-law’s death, to any distribution of his estate if I am not listed in the actual trust or will?

Answers: Your chances of inheriting from your father-in-law may have died along with your wife.

Sons-in-law don’t really have inheritance rights. If your father-in-law dies without an estate plan, state law would dictate who his heirs would be: typically his surviving spouse (if he has one) and any living children. Even his kids would have no legal right to inherit if he has a will or trust that disinherits them.

Estate plans sometimes make provisions for a child’s spouse, particularly if the money eventually will be inherited by the grandchildren. Such a trust might give you the right to income from assets that on your death would go to your wife’s children, for example. If there aren’t grandchildren, though, the money your wife would have inherited may simply go to her sister (and possibly the “gold digger,” as you describe her, if she’s included in the estate plan).

Of course, if the old man likes you, he could make a bequest to you in his will. But you have no legal right to demand that he do so, and any attempt to pressure him could raise the question of who is the actual gold digger here.

Moving student loan debt

Dear Liz: My daughter has $30,000 in student loans from obtaining her masters degree. The loans have about a 7% interest rate. She will be eligible to have $5,000 forgiven if she works five years in a low-income school. Although she is currently so employed, she does not know whether she will stay there for five years. I have a line of credit available with a 4.8% interest rate. It seems to me that she will pay less overall if she uses my line of credit to pay off her student loans and makes the monthly payment on the line of credit. Does she miss out on developing a good credit score by using my credit? Is it worth paying the higher interest rate to develop that credit history?

Answer: There are several reasons not to use your credit line, and they don’t have to do with her credit scores.

The student loans are helping her scores now and will continue to do so even after they’re paid off, since most lenders continue to report closed accounts for years.

If she uses your line of credit, though, she won’t be able to deduct the interest she pays. Student loans provide a valuable “above the line” income adjustment for most borrowers. They don’t have to itemize to take advantage of this adjustment, which is the smaller of $2,500 or the interest actually paid. The ability to take this tax break is phased out in 2013 when modified adjusted gross income is between $60,000 and $75,000 for singles and $125,000 to $155,000 for married couples filing jointly.

Also, your line of credit carries an adjustable rate that can (and likely will) go higher. The rate would have to rise only two percentage points before it equals the fixed rate on her federal student loans. Federal student loans offer a number of other protections, including income-based repayment options, forgiveness after 10 years in public service jobs (after 25 years otherwise) and forbearance or deferral should she experience an economic setback. She can learn more about these options at studentaid.ed.gov.

Finally, if she failed to make payments on your line of credit, your credit scores would be on the line — as would your home, if the account is secured by your home equity.

It’s commendable that you want to help your daughter, but in this case you both may be better off keeping the debt in her name rather than putting it in yours.

Should she use 0% credit card offer to pay student loan debt?

Dear Liz: I currently owe $27,000 in student loans at an 11.5% interest rate. I have excellent credit and about $8,000 in savings and contribute 17% of my income to a workplace retirement plan. Should I invest less in my 401(k) and pay off debt instead? I just got a balance transfer offer for 0% for 15 months with a 3% transaction fee. I’m considering taking $3,000 and putting it toward my high-interest student loan.

Answer: If you had federal student loans, transferring any part of your debt to a credit card would be a bad idea. That’s because federal student loans come with consumer protections that allow you to reduce or even eliminate your payments if you fall on hard economic times. You certainly wouldn’t want to reduce your retirement savings to pay off these flexible, fixed-rate loans.

The higher rate you are paying indicates that you have private student loans, which typically don’t have the same protections and which usually have variable rates that will climb higher when inflation returns.

Credit card debt has similar flaws — plus you would lose the interest rate deduction on any student loans you paid off this way. Instead, you may want to investigate the option of refinancing and consolidating your private student loans with a credit union. Credit unions are member-owned financial institutions that often offer better rates than traditional lenders. One site representing credit unions, CUStudentLoans.org, currently advertises variable rates on consolidation loans that range from just under 5% to just over 7%.

If you continued to make your current payments on a consolidated loan with a lower interest rate, you would be able to pay off your loans years faster — saving on interest without jeopardizing your future retirement.