Heather,
I wanted to reach out and request assistance. I am looking for a student loan expert who can assist in getting my son and mother out of a significant financial burden. When my son was choosing schools to attend he decided on NYU Stern school of Business. He did good in school and graduated but unfortunately this happened at the beginning of the recession and with a ton of debt. We are now several years after graduation and are still well over 100K in debt with no feasible way for my son to handle the burden. While he is working his income is not nearly enough to pay the interest never-mind the full payments. When the loans originated I was not in a position to co-sign however, my father did allowing my son to attend. The problem is that my father has now passed and the burden is eroding my mothers retirement funds quickly. I am personally contributing somewhere between $500 and $1000 a month to the effort but we still make very small progress on the overall debt.

What I am looking for is someone who has the expertise to work with us to consider our options. My mother is in her 80’s and the loans look to take several more decades to pay off. I know there are government programs based on income (my son makes approx 60K a year) and I am sure there may be private options as well. This all being said anytime I go online to research I am left more confused than when I started.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Mr. Kelly Reiser

Dear Mr. Reiser,

I am sorry you are facing this situation.  To the extent that your family is dealing with federal student loans, there are lots of options.  I recommend you start by contacting the loan servicer (the company that accepts the payments).  Ask about income driven plans specifically.

Take care in evaluating any potential adviser.  You’ll see my thoughts on that here: http://askheatherjarvis.com/blog/lawyers-representing-student-loan-borrowers

Best,
Heather