Weekly Round Up – March 21, 2014 - Financial Money Tips

Before we get to the good reads!

Check out this beastly resource on Mutual Fund Types and Investment Tips, and let me know what you think.

A Few Good Reads

Here are a few of my favorite reads from the past week.

1. Who’s to blame for exhorbinant student loan debt?

Every so often some politician makes it their (brief) mission to address the burdens of overwhelming student loan debt. Universally overlooked is that these students chose their institutes of higher learning knowing exactly what the costs of education would be. They intentionally overlooked smaller, less prestigious schools such as State colleges or Community colleges — not to mention technical or trade schools — in lieu of high-priced universities with name recognition.

This recognition and prestige doesn’t come cheap. But tuition fees are not a secret. Everyone goes into higher education with eyes-wide-open. The federal government isn’t blameless in the cost of college tuition and have aided in artificially inflating the cost of higher education by guaranteeing what ever the tuition costs may be. Loans, being so easy to secure invite schools to inflate fees and entice prospective students to think of short-term schooling rather than long-term debt. Get more

2. Student Loan Debt is the Most Difficult Lesson of All:

No one questions that there’s a necessity for higher education to succeed and thrive in this economy. The rising cost of secondary education, however, has caused the national student loan debt to skyrocket.

The Christian Science Monitor reports that the average amount of debt for a student was between $28,840 and $33,649 depending upon which state. Every day, more graduates struggle to find a solution to manage this debt.

Winter Park financial attorneys Eric Lanigan and Roddy Lanigan, of Lanigan and Lanigan, P.L., have the knowledge and skill to advise those wrestling with the staggering impacts of this economic crisis.

The Lanigans review the types of loans that have been taken out, origination dates, lenders of the loan, the Lanigans will generate a plan for managing the debt. Get more

3. Gov’t Report Faults Oversight of ED Debt Collection Program:

A report issued this week by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that a major computer system upgrade with the Department of Education’s debt management division was so poorly managed, it led to months-long delays in loan rehabilitations. The report also showed that ED is not effectively monitoring its private debt collection agencies’ performance.

The report, Oversight of Defaulted Loan Rehabilitation Needs Strengthening, was produced after a lengthy review of the computer upgrade project. The GAO reviewed ED’s policies, procedures, and guidance; contracts and monitoring records for ED’s system contractor and 22 collection agencies; and fiscal year 2011-2013 collections and rehabilitation data. The GAO also conducted site visits to a sample of six contracted collection agencies, based on factors such as loan volume and geographic location. Get more

4. Student loan debt and bankruptcy: focus on specifics of situation

Bankruptcy law is full of nuances and distinctions.

One such distinction is of course the difference between types of bankruptcy. For example, a Chapter 7 generally involves more discharge of debt compared to a Chapter 13. A Chapter 13, by contrast, involves a debt repayment plan that must be approved by the courts.

Distinctions also abound when it comes to the types of debt that can be discharged. In this post, we will discuss a common type of debt: student loan debt.

The general rule is that student loan debt is not dischargeable in bankruptcy. There are limited exceptions, however, for cases of undue hardship. Get more

5. Student Loan Collection Company Sued For Unfair Practices:

A putative class action lawsuit was recently filed against the National Collegiate Student Loan Trust (“National”), a student loan collection company, and the Law Offices of Patenaude & Felix APC. The complaint was filed in federal court in California and alleges that National and Patenaude used deceptive practices to collect student loan debts.

The suit was filed by Dawn Zoerb, who seeks relief under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) and the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“RFDCPA”), a California debt collection statute. Zoerb is filing the suit on behalf of all persons in California who had a collection lawsuit filed against them to recover a consumer debt where the lawsuit failed to identify the original creditor. Get more