Please note that this transcript was auto-generated. We apologize for any minor errors in spelling or grammar.

Shawn Morrissey: [00:00:00] Relations at MIFA and I have been at MIFA for about two years now, but I have, um, about 30 years of experience in financial aid and I will let, um, my colleagues introduce themselves.

Stephanie Wells: Hi everyone, I’m Stephanie Wells from MIFA and also Director of College Relations, been at MIFA a little over 23 years and it’s nice to see you all this morning.

Thanks for joining us.

Darina Barreto: Good morning. My name is Dorena Barretto. I am the assistant director of college relations, and I’ve been at NIFA for five years.

Meg Villavicencio: Hello everyone, I’m Meg Villavicencio, um, I’m on the Originations team here at MIFA and I’ve been here a little over 20 years as well. Um, hello everyone.

Shawn Morrissey: So a little bit about, um, the logistics behind the scenes now. If the chat feature is disabled, so if you’d like to ask questions, please enter that in the Q& A. And we [00:01:00] will be answering those behind the scenes as we go through, and if there’s a question that we think we should bring up for the whole audience, we’ll answer that live as well.

Um, there’s also the live transcript feature if you want to see closed captioning, and you can enable that at the bottom of the screen as well. And this video, this webinar will be recorded and we will be sending out copies of the recording as well as the slides to everyone within the next couple of days.

So a little bit about MIFA. MIFA is a state authority that was created in 1982 by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A group of Massachusetts colleges actually petitioned the state legislature in Massachusetts to create entity to provide low cost loans to Massachusetts students. Since then, we’ve expanded, um, to help families not only with low cost loans, but help with planning, savings, and paying for [00:02:00] college.

We also, um, students no longer have to have any ties to Massachusetts to receive our loans. We are a national lender and anyone throughout the country can take advantage of our loan products.

So a little bit about what we’re going to go through today. We’re going to talk about the new interest rates and loan details, some loan guidance for students and families, different certification options in going through how to certify loans through different platforms. We’re going to go over some frequently asked questions, and how to deal with loan refunds and reductions.

I want to talk a little bit more about MIFA’s comprehensive approach to families. So we provide early college planning. We start off with the Baby Steps program, which is one of our savings programs [00:03:00] in Massachusetts, and we get information out to Family starting with the birth of their child, and we try to get information to them very early about planning and saving for college to help them get a good head start on college planning and saving for college.

And we offer this advice all the way. Through from the birth of the child through, um, grammar school, middle school, we have a product that is in middle school in high schools, um, that helps families with college planning as well called MIFA pathway. And it is available in some high schools that use that exclusively, but any family can sign up for that free of, um, free to them on our website.

With our MIFA pathway tool. We also do outreach to families. We do a lot of training and support in the [00:04:00] communities. We did a lot of work with FAFSA simplification, trying to help families get through that whole process this year when everything was delayed and there were lots of changes and glitches that families were experiencing.

We tried to help families with that. We also reach out extensively to the guidance population to help high school counselors as well with helping families to pay for college. Um, we do a lot of webinars, um, short videos, and have a lot of blogs on our website about college financing strategies. We also have, um, a podcast available as well that all talks to families about helping to pay and plan for college.

And for family and student webinars, we have, um, some recorded webinars and some upcoming [00:05:00] webinars. You’ll see here that we’ve done some recently on college admissions declassified, learning about public service loan forgiveness, managing student loan repayments for graduating college seniors, and comparing college loan options.

And there is another college loan options webinar coming up shortly. Um, but there is also the recorded webinar out there. Every time that we do a live webinar, um, the recorded webinars do stay on our site so that families can watch that on an as needed basis if they’re not able to make that live. We also have MIFA Institute webinars for the college administrator community.

Um, we, this one that you’re attending now, the summer loan training, um, is part of the MIFA Institute. We also have some recorded webinars out there right now. For financial aid for college admissions professionals in FAFSA simplification for college officials [00:06:00] that FAFSA simplification was one of many that we had for the college administrator population on FAFSA simplification, but that one was really focused on how to communicate FAFSA simplification to different college officials in college admissions.

So that one may still be helpful to you if you’re still trying to explain all the problems that are happening and the delays that are happening with FAFSA simplification to other offices on campus. There are some strategies and information in that that might be helpful to you. So our MIFA loan rates for 24 25, we’re very happy to announce that they are All below plus, um, rates and for undergraduate loans, our fixed interest rates are between 5.

75 and 8. 95 percent for our graduate loans. Those are fixed between 7. 15 and 8. 95%. And [00:07:00] those again are available nationwide. There’s no application or origination fees on our loan. Our loans are family loans. So they are usually a co borrower between the student. And another family member, and they can get instant decisions on complete applications that they do online for our loans.

I want to talk a little bit about, um, our college administrator’s website presence. Um, we tried to compile all the information that you might need as a college administrator, um, to learn about MIFA loans all in one place. So right up front, we have all the information about the rate, We have a section here on financial aid and FAFSA simplification with different tools that are available on our website that you can link out to right away.

We did have a PDF of who needs an FSA ID that’s available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese that um, Administrators have found very [00:08:00] helpful in helping families navigate who needs an FSA ID and you can download those and share those with families as needed. Um, that’s available free on our website. Then we have a section on online loan certification and there you can Learn more if you are at elm school about how to certify our loans in elm and there’s a whole page on that with frequently asked questions for schools that are using elm and then here we also have the Place that you would log into the mifa online portal if you are Certifying our loans through the mifa portal and it’s a really straightforward process to do that.

You see the link there to log in. There’s also a link to add new users. Um, that’s very easy. Just provide some simple information about the users and we will set that up for you. You can also modify user access. If. [00:09:00] Someone leaves your office, um, and you want to shut off their access. You can do that right online.

There’s also information about setting up a wire transfer or doing an EFT transmittal for refunds. And again, we have an FAQ that’s specific to the portal and there’s also a demo on there. So if you’re new to the portal and you want to watch a demo on as to how to certify a loan, On the MIFA portal, you can just click right through to that demo and get all the information you need.

And then we tried to put all the information about MIFA loans right here in one place for you. So we have all the information about the undergraduate loans in one place. With all the different repayment options and the loan rates. We did the same for the grad loans. We talked about loan eligibility. So what requirements students need to meet.

The details of the loan. Um, so students do need to be enrolled at least halftime, [00:10:00] um, except during the summer semester. So if they are enrolled at least half time for the full academic year, they may be enrolled less than half time for the summer session. And you would just have to certify the loan at the academic level that they are for the rest of the academic year, but know that they can be less than half time for the summer session.

And here, there’s some more information about loan details. In loan repayment options. So we do offer immediate interest only deferred or deferred with co borrower release. And then our disclosure statements are really easy to find right here And you can click on those disclosure statements for all of our different types of loans Um, contact information is there for us.

If you want to contact each of us, you can find our information right there. We also have information about the MIFA Institute with upcoming [00:11:00] trainings and recorded webinars right there for you. Um, that if you need to have some information about professional development training that we’ve done, that’s right there for you.

And right at the bottom, we have frequently asked questions. for a lot of different questions that that we’ve received in the past.

Stephanie Wells: All right. Thank you, Sean. Um, so I’m going to go over just some of the things that we talk about with families and, um, just the guidance that we’re giving them, not, not only when we’re talking to them in person or on the phone, but, you know, Just throughout all of our curriculums at MEFA, all of our webinars.

So I’ll talk just a few, about a few things, the three key pieces that we think it’s important for families to know and you can help us just educating families in general about loans. But one [00:12:00] of the first things that families want to look at And I know a lot of this is, um, standard for financial aid administrators.

You might know a lot of this already, but for families that get really confused at this point in time, and they’re trying to figure out how to pay the bill and even the, the simplest concepts just seem a little overwhelming sometimes with all of the, you know, the bill that they’re looking at paying. So.

The interest rate is going to be the key driver of the cost of that loan. Any loan. Um, the one question I got a few times this week is there’s families are looking for interest free loans and, and I always have to let them know the only interest free loan is the federal direct subsidized loan, uh, for the most part for most families.

So loans do cost money. Any, any loan is not necessarily, um, something that everybody wants to take out, but it could be a good investment in the student’s education. So the interest rate, it’s good for the families to know the difference between the fixed and variable rates. [00:13:00] Some lenders do have both.

MIFA just offers fixed rates, but some lenders do offer variable rates, and I’ll go over, you know, some of those logistics in a second. If they are looking at variable rates, it’s important for them to look at what is the cap on that interest rate? How high can it go? And not only that, but what is the range of the interest rate?

So the full range of interest rates, not just that lowest advertised rate. So MIFA rates start at 5. 75, but most, most people aren’t going to get that lowest advertised rate. Um, unless they have, you know, a very high credit score. So our rates are dependent on credit score and the repayment option that they choose.

So it’s important for families to, to look at that mid range, which I’m going to show you a great graphic about that in a second. And the, the interest rates are tied to folks credit. For most, uh, alternative or private loan lenders, the interest rate is tied to the credit score. So it’s important for families to know that and to know going in.

If, if mom or, you know, one of the parents don’t have great credit, [00:14:00] but they need the loan and they can afford the loan, then maybe they have another family member with a good credit score added on as a second cosigner. That’s always an option, but it is important for them to understand, you know, what, what they’re looking at.

And then, of course, the repayment term. has another big direct cost on the loan. I’m going to show you some examples of a couple disclosure statements, including NIFA’s that detail the total cost of the loan. So families really need to think about not just how far, how much can I push off the payment?

That might be what some families need to do, but that’s going to cost them more. The deferred options have a higher interest rate. And not paying principal and or interest while the students in school is also going to add on to the total cost of the loan. So while deferring the loan is an option, it might not be the best financial decision for the family if they can afford the monthly payment on maybe an immediate repayment on [00:15:00] interest only type loan.

So it’s important for them to really understand what deferring those loans mean in the total cost of the loan. And also how long do they have the. to pay it back. Uh, we have two repayment options that start immediately. One is 10 years, one is 15 years. So sometimes they might want to make that immediate repayment, but having that extra five years on the 15 year plan might just give them that smaller monthly payment to make it affordable.

Um, so there’s a lot of things that we can talk to families about and there are different options, but the repayment term is something that kind of goes under the radar as far as the impact of the cost of the loan. And then co borrowers. If I had a nickel for every family parent I talked to that was thinking about borrowing and said, well, I’m just going to co sign the loan.

It’s really the student’s loan. I’d be rich. So I, I always let them know. It’s great that you’re co signing, but you’re equally responsible for that loan. Anybody who signs on the [00:16:00] dotted line for any type of loan is equal. Equally responsible. And we actually look at the primary borrower as the creditworthy co borrower on an undergraduate loan, not the student, although the student is on the loan.

So, like Sean said, it’s a family loan, doesn’t have to be a parent or a family member that’s a cosigner, but usually it is. So having that, you know, good credit can help decrease the rate and increase chances of approval. And graduate students can get co signers too, uh, but they don’t need them as much as an undergraduate because a lot of them have established credit.

So let’s get back to the point about the mid range and the range of interest rates. As you know, as a college administrator, you’ve probably seen lots of, you know, loans out there and they have ranges of interest rates, except for the federal plus loan, which has just the single fixed rate. So you can see MIFA, we put that one up top and the bars show you, you know, the, the length of the range, how wide the range is.

So some of these loans, loan lender [00:17:00] A, B, and C, other, other for profit private lenders, you know, they have good starting rates, but you have to have a very, very high credit score, uh, probably in the mid, Low to mid 800 credit score range to get that lowest advertised rate, which most people don’t get. Uh, with most lenders, we find that most families, if you want to just estimate, they fall in the middle.

So most people fall somewhere in the middle there, uh, when they’re applying. So the MIFA rates 575 to 895, depending on the repayment option they choose. And then we have the plus loan, which is a little bit higher this year at 9. 08%. Not don’t and don’t forget about those fees on that federal plus loan.

So it’s good for families to look right in the middle. Are there fees? Is it a fixed rate? Is it a variable rate? So you can see the different range but if we start looking at just, you know, what is in the middle of those ranges? What is that middle rate that families can kind of ballpark that they might be looking at realistically?

With [00:18:00] MIFA the exact middle is going to be 7. 35 percent plus as we know there’s no range on that. So So everybody’s getting the 9. 08%, which is much higher. Uh, but then if you look at some of the other lenders here, although they might have a very low starting range, many of the families that are borrowing through these lenders are going to get much higher rates, even sometimes in the double digits.

So it’s really important for families to look at not just that lowest rate, but the range of interest rates. And the application to solicitation

disclosures, that tells you everything you need to know about a loan or a lender. Federal guidelines require alternative or private loan lenders such as MIFA to show the application to solicitation disclosure up front before families apply. Unfortunately, the PLUS loan is not required to provide an APR or any type of disclosure up front, so families can’t look [00:19:00] at that on the PLUS loan.

But with the, um, Private loans. This should be on every lender’s website. So if we look at the undergraduate loan page here, you can see the disclosures are right there up front and center and every lender has this on their website. So it’s going to show you the range of interest rates. It’s going to give everybody a 10, 000 example at the highest rate for that lender for each repayment option.

The disclosures also show what the federal loan options are. That is a requirement. And then any other notes such as fees and things like about that and a little bit more. So families, do you want to look at that rate? Are there any hidden costs, late payment fees, things like that? What will be the total cost of the loan?

So if we take the MEFA loan solicitation disclosure and compare it with lender B, We’ll look at this 10, 000 example. So if we look at an immediate repayment loan for [00:20:00] me for our lowest rate is going to be at that 10 year loan. And the maximum rate that they could be charged will be eight and a half percent.

So that’s what the disclosure is going to show. Sort of the worst case scenario. What is that total cost if the family makes minimum payments for the full term of that loan? So this 10, 000 loan is going to cost over 15, 000. Now with, you know, Any education loan families can prepay, make larger payments with no penalty, which they should do if they can swing that.

Now, if we look at the immediate repayment for lender B, just based on the sheer high interest rate, the total amount is over 27, 000 at their highest rate. Now, most people aren’t going to get charged the lowest rate, but also most folks aren’t going to get charged the highest rate either. But it is good to know, you know, what is the worst case scenario here.

Then if we look at the deferred loan, which is a very popular option, one of the most popular options with MIFA that families like to borrow, that 10, [00:21:00] 000 loan because of, you know, the interest rate being slightly higher, but also not making payments of interest in principle while the students in schools owe almost 22, 000.

But then if you look at lender B, That 10, 000 loan at the highest rate is over 47, 000. That is an astronomical number. Not everybody’s going to get charged that high amount, but it’s still very important when you’re looking at ranges of interest rates and comparing loans to really understand what is the difference and not just look at that lowest advertised rate.

So the MIFA loan, the immediate repayment, you know, Is almost 12, 000 cheaper in 20 over 26, 000 cheaper just, um, by, by sheer, you know, the highest rate. So then if we look at a fixed rate example, now I’m switching over where we’re not looking at MIFA loan disclosures anymore. These are other lenders who, you know, I’ve left off the names, um, [00:22:00] just to show you some of the things that families should be looking at and thinking about, um, you know, looking at any hidden costs, looking at that fine print.

So you can see it every, it shows the 10, 000 example, which is good, as well as, um, the range of interest rates from the lowest to the highest. The disclosure will also show that total cost of the loan for each repayment option, as I mentioned on the previous slide. And again, that’s the worst case scenario.

That’s for a fixed rate example. You can also see here the loan fees. So this particular lender doesn’t have any origination fees, which is great, but they do have a 5 percent late payment fee, a return check fee. MIFA doesn’t have any fees, no late payment fees or anything like that, but any other additional fees would be listed here in the disclosure statement.

Now, if we look at a variable rate, uh, disclosure, again, MIFA doesn’t have variable rates, uh, but the, [00:23:00] some lenders do. So we can see here the range of interest rates, 8. 94 to over 16%. The other good thing is that, again, it shows the fees here, but the back, the second page of the disclosure for variable rate loans, it tells you.

What is added to the rate to get that rate? So what is the variable rate based off of? Is it based off prime or LIBOR or another index? That’s a really important figure for folks to know. And also, most importantly for variable rates, what is the cap on that rate? How high can it go? Uh, in this particular loan, it can go as high as 18 percent based on the index that it’s tied to.

So although disclosure statements, all the fine print, it’s, it’s not fun to look at, but it has a lot of good, good stuff in there for families to consider. Now, of course, in addition to the cost and the rate and the repayment options, the [00:24:00] first, one of the first things I ask families when I’m talking to them and we find out what they, what they owe is how much can you afford per month?

I want to know how much can you put forth out of pocket before borrowing. So MIFA has a great monthly payment calculator here. Again, it shows the MIFA rates, of course, but if I put in, let’s say, you know, a 20, 000 loan, which is a common number when we’re talking to families at four years before graduation, if it’s a freshman, and then we have to put in the credit profile, which is good, very good, or exceptional.

I’m going to put very good, which is right in the middle, which is kind of where most families fall, and we hit calculate, and this great calculator will show you. What the payment is for each repayment option, just to give them some estimates and ballpark and come up with a financing strategy so they can see, you know, they might have been thinking, oh, you know, I need to defer, but geez, that 15 year loan, I can afford 200 a month, might not be able to do [00:25:00] it every year while at least for the first year I can do the immediate repayment.

So they really want to look at what they can afford per month. And if they’re affordable monthly payment is higher than the loan payment, then they should be putting something on a payment plan. Or putting money in cash towards the bill and then borrowing. That should definitely be part of their strategy.

And of course, you know, looking at that total cost, that’s one of the. Primary things I look at when I’m talking to families and I point these numbers out, I call them the big scary numbers, uh, the total cost of that loan. And as we’re strategizing, I might say, okay, well, you know, you said you, you might be able to put 5, 000 down, maybe out of savings.

So let’s change that loan to 15, 000. And then we can see how much lower that total cost goes down and how much lower. those monthly payments go down. So it takes, it takes a little bit of time, not much time, but it’s an important step in the affordability process for families and [00:26:00] students to look at, you know, what is this loan going to cost me?

And don’t just jump to the first loan. Um, you know, don’t necessarily just jump to the plus loan, because that might be more expensive. If the family has decent credit, then they should be looking at all their different options. We get asked all the time as well, what’s the difference between MIFA loan and PLUS?

That’s that’s one of the most common questions we get at MIFA. So we like to show this up front for them, what the different rates are, and you all know what the PLUS rate is. We heard about We heard that good news in May and June. Uh, 9. 08%, the highest it’s been in a very long time. So, very important for families to look at all their options, especially this year in a high rate environment.

You know, are there fees? Can the student take over the loan? The answer to that is no. They could maybe make the payments for the parent, but they can’t consolidate the loan, they can’t refinance it. Because the student is not on that plus loan, [00:27:00] so they can’t transfer that responsibility. Whereas with a me for loan, for example, both both are on the loan.

So there’s equal responsibility there. Then you have the different repayment options. The other thing to consider also is. The consumer safeguards. So death and disability benefits or forgiveness for total death and disability of maybe the student and or maybe the co borrower. What is the criteria there?

So for the MIFA loan, if the student, God forbid, should pass away and become totally disabled, the loan is forgiven. And with the PLUS loan, since the Parent is on the loan. Um, the parent or the student, God forbid, if anything should happen, the loan is also forgiven. You don’t have to file the FAFSA with the MEFA loan, but you do with the PLUS and we always recommend that families file that FAFSA.

Even after the year we’ve had with the FAFSA, it’s well worth the effort, even if families don’t think they’re going to get financial aid because they might need to take out [00:28:00] that PLUS loan or the student might want to get that unsubsidized loan. Um, so it is, it is worth the effort to fill out that FAFSA.

All right, so I am going to turn it over to Darina and she is going to take over with Meg to talk about loan processing.

Darina Barreto: Thank you, Stephanie. Uh, so just getting into the MIFA loan processing section of this webinar, I’m going to kick things off with the MIFA loan certification and disbursement options.

For certifying our loans, you have two options, the first being through ELM, which we also do disburse via ELM NGN, if you have that set up with ELM. When you are processing NIFA loans on ELM, I just want to quickly note that the undergrad loans should be processed as a parent or sponsor loan. As Stephanie mentioned, for most undergrad students, they don’t have a credit established, so they will need someone on the loan with them.

And, um, [00:29:00] For us, we do consider that person to be the primary bar, so they do need to be on the certification as well as the student and, uh, Sean did point out. We have a great, um, uh, F. A. Q. page. Do check that out. Uh, all the common questions that we get through the academic year is on there and it serves as a great reference point.

The second option for certifying MIFA loan is to our MIFA online certification system, which you can request access directly on our website at MIFA. org slash certify. Sean did a great demo of this earlier on. For our schools that process on our portal, you have two options for payment. The first one being wire EFT.

Um, and you can establish that if you don’t already have that established with us by completing the wire transfer authorization form on our website, we do highly recommend getting set [00:30:00] up a wire EFT because you do not get any delays in receiving the payments for the student. But if you don’t set up wire EFT, the default payment will be a paper check that is payable to the school.

Um, again, we have a great FAQ page, highly recommend checking that out, um, if you get a chance. So now that you know how you can certify and how you can expect payments, I just want to go over our MEFA loan eligibility requirements. So when you are completing that certification, you are ensuring that the following statements are true.

The amount that you certify the loan for is equal to or less than the student’s cost of attendance, less other financial aid received for the academic period that the loan is being certified for. That the student is enrolled at least half time in an accredited degree granting program. Um, so they, Would not be [00:31:00] eligible for me for loan if they are a certificate student.

So I just want to quickly note that they would have to be enrolled in a degree granting program to be eligible for me for loan. And the student will also need to be making satisfactory academic progress as defined by your institution.

And then I just want to quickly highlight we get a lot of questions about our summer policy and our prior balance during this time of the year. Um, I believe Sean quickly mentioned. A little bit about our summer loan policy, but I’ll just highlight it quickly. Um, so if a student is currently enrolled for the academic year, they can borrow a me for loan for less if they’re enrolled less than halftime for the summer session.

Um, you would just default to their. enrollment status of at least half time during the academic year. Um, when you are certifying, you do have to put at least half time for the certification [00:32:00] to go through. So if they’re enrolled at least half time for the summer, you can just use that, but if they’re less than half time, then you’re defaulting to their enrollment status of what it is for the current academic year.

And in terms of our prior balance policy, uh, AMIF alone can be used to cover prior balance. It is for, uh, previous semester. Uh, at the time of the certification, the student must be enrolled, intending to enroll or have completed a degree. A quick thing to know is that we do not count summer as a semester.

Um, so if in the fall you a student you have a student that has a prior balance for the spring term They are able to use a MIFA loan for that And before I move on I just want to go over a like three questions that we commonly get in terms of our eligibility Uh terms and that is what is our minimum required [00:33:00] amount for a loan?

That is 1500 But you are able to certify Uh For the lowest amount of 750, which is the amount that we are able the lowest amount we are able to disperse for, um, we also get asked if international students are eligible for me for loans, and unfortunately they are not all me for borrowers have to be a US president or a US citizen to be eligible for our loans.

And, uh, we also get the question of the certificate student, uh, which I did mention earlier on. Unfortunately, we do not have a loan for a certificate student at the moment. And lastly, we do get asked by a few schools if we process on ScholarNet. And unfortunately, at this time, we do not process on ScholarNet and don’t have any new news to share in terms of that.

But if we do have, uh, Something new to share in the future. We will [00:34:00] communicate that out to all of ScholarNet schools.

And I’m going to close things out on my end by going over our own processing guidelines. Um, as I mentioned earlier for our MIFA undergrad loans, they should be processed as a parent or sponsor loan in Elm. When you are completing the certification and you’re entering in the estimated financial aid or other financial aid received, it should not include the MIFA loan in the value.

And the me for loan amount certified should not exceed cost of attendance less than other financial aid received. And something new that we’re seeing a new case that we’re seeing in terms of errors and things kind of getting mixed up is if a student has multiple applications that they submit on the same day.

When the school [00:35:00] also process it on the same day, there is crossover that is happening between their. All of their existence application. And so we’ve worked with them to come up with a few recommendations that I just want to quickly go over today, which is if you do see a case like this with student has submitted, you know, two, three applications on the same day.

You just want to make sure you kind of. Just be more vigilant about, uh, when you’re processing those certifications to make sure they do get processed the way that you intend to. So a few recommendations that we have is to manually certify those loans on elm one, um, or you can certify the oldest request first, wait to see, uh, you know, how that processes, and then move on to processing the other certification or certifications that you may have for that same student.

Um, you can also certify using the lender communique ID from the initial request. [00:36:00] And lastly, um, if you do certify them at the same time, just double check to make sure they get processed with the information that you intended it to. And if not, then you just want to get in touch with us so we can help you fix it.

And lastly, uh, this is nothing new. The common line processing prevents figures that are over 100, 000. That’s for the value of cost of attendance, estimated financial aid, and loan amounts. And unfortunately, again, it’s a common line issue that we can’t fix, but we do have a recommendation for a workaround, which is using our MIFA online portal.

And when you do certify on our portal for cases like this, It will flow into Elm and everything will get updated and you will still receive the disbursement through Elm NGN. So nothing will kind of get mixed up if you do have to do that in cases like this. [00:37:00] I’m going to go ahead and pass it on to Meg.

Stephanie Wells: Great. Thank you, Doreen. A couple of things I just wanted to mention real quick that you brought up that I thought was a good point with the multiple loan applications. So Doreen went over the certification issues that can arise in ELM, but just in general. We, we are always trying to get families and if you could help recommend families, just apply for the full academic year upfront, whatever they think they’ll need, it’s so much easier to reduce the loan, reduce a disbursement, um, you know, cancel a loan if they need to.

No interest is gonna be assessed on that loan until the monies are dispersed, so it really doesn’t do them any harm financially or otherwise. In fact, it’s more helpful. Because they don’t have to apply for multiple applications and they have their money locked in at, at the rate, um, based on that credit score.

So it’s really, really so much [00:38:00] easier for families. They don’t realize they’re not going to get charged interest till the money’s dispersed. So they, they apply one semester at a time and they don’t really need to do that because they can adjust the loan. That’s very easy to do as you know. And then the other thing with the 100, 000 loans.

Um, another option, correct me if I’m wrong, during a MEG, but if you didn’t certify in the portal, you could always email us and say, you know, I could only certify a loan for 99. 99. Can you increase it to this amount? Or, you know, maybe the cost of attendance was over 99. 99, um, and you couldn’t get that number in.

Just, just email us what the correct number should be, and we can update that on our end as well. But great, great overview, Darina.

Darina Barreto: And that, that’s correct. Stephanie, thank you for bringing both of those points forward. I think that was really good to highlight. Um, and I’ll just say for, The issue with the common line can definitely email [00:39:00] us.

You can just adjust the number how you need to to set up the disbursements for the amount that you need. And then we can make the adjustments to the cost of attendance and other financial aid received to make sure it’s updated in our system.

Stephanie Wells: Yeah, great. And, and Elm is great, but there, there’s some things that it allows you to do, um, that, that we can easily fix later if something happens.

So, so feel free to email us, uh, at MIFA certify. All right, Meg, we’re going to turn it over to you.

Meg Villavicencio: All right. Sounds good. Thanks, Doreen and Stephanie. So, um, we’ll talk a little bit about loan amount changes. We often get, um, questions about whether you can change the loan amount after the initial certification.

So up to, um, when the loan disperses, decreases can be made, um, up to three days before it goes out. And we’ll talk a little more about the timing, um, in a moment. In terms of increases, Um, and then, um, in [00:40:00] terms of the loan amount, the school can request an increase up to the original amount the bar requested up until the final disbursement goes out.

So, um, in terms of after post disbursement, if you needed to make a decreased funds have already gone out. You need to handle through a school refund, which will talk more about the details of how to process the refund. And then again in terms of increasing the loan amount up until the final disbursement, you can request the increase.

Increasing the loan amount is a manual process on MIFA’s end because we need to get the updated cost of attendance and financial aid numbers from you. So if you make the request through ELM, we will reach out to you, um, you know, assuming that the information we have in the technical updates for contact information is correct.

That’s how we would reach out to get that. Um, In terms of timing, if you’re coming right up until the three days before disbursement, we’d ask that you also, you know, as Stephanie mentioned earlier, just reach out to us, send us an email, give us a call, um, just to make sure we can get that [00:41:00] through before the final disbursement.

Because once the loan is fully disbursed, um, if the student, if you want to increase it, The student would need to reapply once it’s finally dispersed because those records get transferred to our servicing system.

Okay, so a little more about the timing. Um, we also get the question about when you know if I certified today when you know when the disbursement can be. Um, so it’s a little Um, different in the MIFA portal, you know, if you’re certifying, um, on the portal versus certifying through ELM. So it’s based, the first disbursement date is based on the following, um, that the borrowers have a three day right to cancel period.

And then in the, in the portal, there’s a one day pre lock before the funds go out. And of course, if you’re getting internal MIFA disbursements, Funds go. We only disperse on Fridays for internal disbursements um So you can see this chart here if you know if you [00:42:00] certified on monday of a given week then uh There would have to be the borrower’s three day right to cancel period And with the lock day, then it would push it to the following friday for the funds to go out Um, so again based on this um You know, certifying through the portal where, you know, you’d want to request any changes on Wednesday, um, just to make sure that those get processed before the loans lock

Stephanie Wells: make. I know we’re going to talk about Elm on the next page. Um, but just in general, if for the portal and Elm, if the loan needs to be reduced or changed rather than doing a refund. We can always pull the loan from the disbursement. It won’t go out that week, but at least we can pull it from going out at a certain point.

Meg Villavicencio: Yeah, that’s a great point, Stephanie. And, you know, and again, that’s, you know, another, [00:43:00] um, you know, situation and where would be great just to give us send us an email, call us because we do have. The ability, as you said, with the portal to pull it on Friday. So the loans get, um, to pull it on Thursday before it goes out on Friday and the portal, and as Stephanie mentioned, you know, then if you want to reduce it, well, it might not be able to disperse that Friday, but it might be better to pull it, reduce it.

So you don’t have to process the refund.

Stephanie Wells: Thanks Mike.

Meg Villavicencio: And then, so, um, Elm is, you know, um, similar process in terms of the right to cancel period, but of course, different in the fact that we disperse every day. Um, through Elm NDN. So, you know, same thing. The certification is completed. And then there’s the three day right to cancel period for the borrower.

Now with Elm NDN, there’s a two day lock. Um, so that’s, you know, something to take into consideration in terms of determining the first disbursement date. And so kind of similar to What we talked about with the internal disbursements. We have an ability to pull loans off [00:44:00] of the elm roster, not on the final lock day but on the like the two days before so if so if you’re in that situation and you really want, you know, rather pull the lawn adjusted and then have a disperse at a later date, contact us and we’ll absolutely you know, try to make that happen.

And then this.

Stephanie Wells: Oh, sorry. Go

Meg Villavicencio: ahead. Final thing. Um, so with Elm, um, you know, we disperse every day, but of course the, you know, we use your set disbursement dates, um, to, to determine when the funds will go out.

Stephanie Wells: Great. Thanks, Meg. And, and you, you all have our email MIFA certify at MIFA. org. That’s our college relations team, or you can just call our 800 number as soon as possible.

And we can, you know, email Meg and get in touch with Loan Originations to pull that if we need to. Um, but definitely, uh, reach out to us as soon as possible to make sure we can accommodate that.

Meg Villavicencio: Perfect. Thanks, Stephanie. So a little more about, um, if you [00:45:00] do have to send a refund, um, refunds have to be processed the way the disbursement went out.

So if the disbursement went out, um, via Elm NDN, you can send it back via Elm NDN. Um, and then if the disbursement came directly from MIFA, uh, it would have to be sent back to MIFA directly, not through Elm. Um, sometimes questions come up if you know if you’ve switched if you were processing through Mipha, and then you switched and got onto Elm, but the first disbursement went out through Mipha, even though you’re currently using Elm, you’d still have to process to refund how that disbursement went out.

So to send back to Mipha, um, we can, uh, set up an electronic transfer, which I believe Sean talked about earlier, or you can send a paper check, um, to Mipha at our address in Boston, which is here. Thank you One other thing about refunds, particularly refunds, um, processed through Elm NDN, we only process refunds once a week on Wednesdays.

We have had some schools that, you know, might submit a refund request through Elm and maybe don’t, you know, see that it [00:46:00] hasn’t gone through, so submit another one, and then we wind up processing the refund twice. Um, so, you know, to be aware, we only do it once a week on Wednesdays, and just check with us, you know, before submitting a duplicate request so that that situation doesn’t happen.

And then once the refund is processed, uh, interest will be reversed on the refunded amount. Um, and the borrower will be notified that the refund has been processed.

Stephanie Wells: Okay, thank you, Meg. This is great. And, um, feel free folks, we’re wrapping up now, but if you have any questions, type those in the Q& A. We don’t have any yet, but feel free to type them in. And we are happy to stay on a few more minutes and talk about questions. But just to wrap things up about MIFA’s guidance, Sean went through a lot of it in a good amount of detail, uh, but wanted to also just reiterate a few other things that families can take advantage of, you can take advantage of.

If you like [00:47:00] podcasts, we have a great podcast. We have Experts all the time as guests on that short videos. If you’re following us on social media, you’ll see some of those short videos and promotion of our webinars and things like that. We are in the community, both virtually and in person here in Massachusetts in person.

And then we also do one on one appointments with families so they can request that online. This is particularly helpful for families. When they’re trying to create that combination strategy and really just want to run through the numbers and have somebody take a look at their financial aid offer. We do a lot of that in the spring where we can help them compare their offers and understand what it’s going to cost them at each school before they make that decision.

And then of course blogs and um, You know, videos that we have on our website. Our website is full of information. Whenever I need to ask a question, answer a question, I just put it in the MIFA search tool and I’m usually able to find a [00:48:00] good article about it, um, to send to a family. So feel free to refer families and use all these great resources for yourself as well.

And again, here’s our social channels. Our phone number, our 800 number. College administrators are number one on the queue. So you just have to hit one and, uh, our email address for college administrators is MIFA certified MIFA. org. So with that, I’m just going to open it up for questions and see what we have here.

Don’t see any questions yet, but I’ll leave it open for another couple seconds for those. Oh, good handouts. I have a question about handouts. So we are going to email everybody who registered for this webinar link to the recording as well as a PDF of the PowerPoint slides. So we will definitely get that out to everybody.

All right, I don’t see any other questions coming in. So I just want to thank everybody for joining us today. Um, and. [00:49:00] Thank Meg, Sean, and Jarena for the great presentation, and we look forward to hearing from you over the summer. I’m sure we’ll be hearing from a lot of you as loan processing gets busier, and uh, looking forward to it.

So thanks everybody for joining us today, and have a great one.