“Most of my clients come to me when they have had these loans for at least 10 years or more. They may be in a better financial situation and are trying to figure out what they actually need to do now. There’s a lot of anxiety around what they need to do and are stressed the fuck out. It’s going to take some time and here’s the plan that you can work on.” Stanley Tate
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Listen to the Episode
Show Notes
Stanley-I’m an attorney and I’m solely focused on helping people solve student loan issues.
Michelle-How did you get into this?
Stanley-I was a federal bankruptcy clerk and I was in the process of transitioning into the workforce. It was suggested to go into Student Loan law and that there was a huge issue with it. At the time it was 2014. The complexity intrigued me. I realized that it gave me the opportunity to be a hero to people.”
Michelle-What were some of the key problems that you found yourself helping people with over and over again. Most people are relying on the other people on the other end of the phone to guide them on their personal situation. A lot of times I was looking at which payment plan that they were in and finding solutions including being on track for forgiveness as well.
Michelle-Could you talk about folks who go into default?
Stanley-The debt can be reset once you get out of default and now some of my clients are on track to access Student Loan Forgiveness.
Michelle-What have you noticed around this topic, what are you notice about SLF as a topic
Stanley-I talk to about 5,000 people a year who have student loans. For many of the people that I work with, 10K doesn’t really do much because they have advanced degrees. 10K doesn’t change things when you owe over $100k. But, these programs are still helpful. A lot of it has to deal with the emotional weight of the debt.
Michelle-What do you think both Federal and private lenders could be doing better when working with their borrowers?
Student Loan Lawyer Focus
Stanley-People have a hard time applying the general to the specific. How do we talk to this individual and get them the help that they actually need?The Department of Education has helped with their PSL help tool and needs better training for the servicers. There are also issues related to the complexity of the programs and the different loans. Maybe it’s easier to have one program vs. four
Michelle-You mention the $10k vs. a different amount. What are your clients saying about this? This amount doesn’t really change anything in their lives. That said, there are people where this will make a huge difference. They may want to wait until the $10k hits their balance. Most people are hoping to get more and there are concerns about income caps. What would you do if you were working on this policy?
Stanley-There’s room to improve the current programs vs. blanket forgiveness. Expand to include contractors working in the same space but are excluded because they are contractors. Older borrowers who have Joint Spousal Consolidation loans because Congress has blocked them from access to many of these programs. Do a better job of communicating the benefits of current programs. We don’t necessarily need a big policy shift but need a better focus on the policies that are already here.
Michelle-What’s to say that we aren’t going to end up in the same situation 10 years from now after a forgiveness action?
Stanley-Students want all of these things, but colleges say yes to their client demands. Do we need to do a better job as “investors” as a student? It doesn’t make sense for students to borrow $200k we need to hold schools accountable and we need to be better consumers
Michelle-What can the Department of Education do to make sure it’s not a part of the problem?
Stanley-We need to be better at prosecuting schools that prey on students. We also need to improve the Borrower Defense to Repayment program so that it runs more smoothly. There needs to be a greater emphasis on policing these schools regarding the results for these students.
Michelle-I have a question about the cost of education and the impact on opportunity.
Stanley- Most of my clients come to me when they have had these loans for at least 10 years or more. They may be in a better financial situation and are trying to figure out what they actually need to do now. There’s a lot of anxiety around what they need to do and are stressed the fuck out. It’s going to take some time and here’s the plan that you can work on.
Michelle-Is it fair for people to be angry about this conversation?
Stanley-Just because you did something doesn’t mean that forgiveness isn’t right for other people. You have to address this issue because taxpayers do carry some of this burden.
Follow Stanley
- Stanley Tate–https://www.tateesq.com/
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