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TG Updates

Shoptalk Online 362, June 27, 2006

TG Updates

Update on TG's implementation of Grad PLUS

TG's business partner services team has been working diligently since the signing of the Higher Education Reconciliation Act (HERA) of 2005 to integrate Grad PLUS loan processing and other changes due to HERA provisions into TG's products and services. We would like to provide an update on TG's plan to accommodate this new loan type with our business partners.

July 1 is the day that processing of Grad PLUS loans will begin. This new loan type will be integrated in two phases:

Phase I concerns AdvanTG Web™, which has been completed as of June 25, 2006; and
Phase II concerns TG Loans By Web™ (LBW) and TG PLUS Credit Connection™ (PCC), which are targeted for completion by September 15, 2006.

Phase I includes all of the core Grad PLUS functionality related to AdvanTG Web to include applications, loans, change transactions, and electronic funds transfer (EFT) processes as well as reporting.

Phase II will include all of the LBW components necessary to accommodate Grad PLUS functionality within the LBW application.

AdvanTG Web changes
Here is an overview of important points regarding completed tasks and upcoming changes pertaining to the Grad PLUS program and other HERA-related provisions:

TG has already completed all of the work related to the required addenda for the Stafford and PLUS loan Master Promissory Notes. Borrowers have the ability to print these documents from LBW (for Stafford and PLUS). In addition, TG is including the addenda in our application packets for our Application Printing and Processing Services (APPS) customers. The June 25, 2006, release of AdvanTG Web accommodates the printing of these addenda and Master Promissory Notes for both application types.
Upon implementation, AdvanTG Web will accommodate a complete life of the loan process for Grad PLUS, allowing our AdvanTG Web customers to import and create applications and post disbursement change transactions, as well as everything in between.
This also means that schools using financial aid management systems that are not capable of accommodating the new loan type of GB (for Grad PLUS) may still use AdvanTG Web for processing applications and receiving loan responses.
All AdvanTG Web reports will be updated and will accommodate Grad PLUS loans.

An important note for LBW schools
TG would like to highlight for LBW schools that LBW will not be available for Grad PLUS applications until September. Since LBW will not accommodate Grad PLUS processing until Phase II of TG's implementation plan is complete, schools will not be able to save the application for retrieval on LBW as is currently done. Instead, LBW schools will need to certify Grad PLUS applications and submit them individually through AdvanTG Web for guarantee. A school also has the option to move temporarily to a batch guarantee process in order to submit the Grad PLUS applications en masse to TG for guarantee.

Furthermore, LBW schools will need to import, create, or edit Grad PLUS applications with the lender ID. For more information on how to process Grad PLUS for LBW schools, please download the training document titled "TG's Plan to Implement Grad PLUS" from TG Online at http://www.tgslc.org/resources/lweb.cfm (located on the right column of the page).

More information
Please contact your TG account executive if you have any questions, or you may e-mail the TG product support team at product.support@tgslc.org.

Doors opening: It's NASFAA conference time!

Next week, more than 3,000 financial aid professionals are estimated to arrive in Seattle for the NASFAA National Conference, scheduled for July 5-8 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. Several of TG's own team members will be in attendance to meet friends old and new, deliver innovative training experiences, and demonstrate how TG cares through its products and services and commitment to customer service.

If you will be attending, you will have several opportunities to experience TG throughout the days of the conference.

Visit TG's booth, claim your bag, and meet new friends
When you visit TG's booth (#501), be sure to have some fun with TG's Big Red Bag giveaway. TG representatives will give out Big Red Bags to conference participants. The bags — which are large enough to hold all of your conference materials — will have a yellow, numbered tag attached to each one.

Be on the lookout for other conference attendees carrying TG Big Red Bags. If you find someone carrying a bag with the same number as yours, return to the TG booth together and each of you will win an Apple® iPod® Shuffle™. In addition, if you find someone carrying a bag with a consecutive number to yours (ex. 5 and 6), return to the TG booth together and each of you will also win a prize.

Participate in one of our training sessions
You won't want to miss out on the exciting and informative training sessions presented by TG representatives. TG experts will present various industry and professional development sessions. To find out what TG is offering, visit the NASFAA conference page on TG Online at www.tgslc.org/nasfaa2006/index.cfm.

Join us for a reception celebrating 25 years
Join TG for a reception to celebrate TG's 25 years of service to students and their families. Stop by for some food and drinks and stay to enjoy the music of a live jazz band while meeting and catching up with your colleagues and friends. The reception will be held on Thursday, July 6, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Leonesa Room of the Grand Hyatt Seattle at 721 Pine Street.

More information
For descriptions of the training sessions TG will offer at NASFAA, to learn more about the reception, download a flyer to share with other attendees, and to get the complete set of rules about the Big Red Bag giveaway, visit the NASFAA conference page on TG Online at www.tgslc.org/nasfaa2006/index.cfm.

Reporting Back: 1991

TG's Annual Report for 1991 looks back at TG's previous report as a standard for judging that year's success, discovering that Fiscal Year 1991 was a year of outstanding success for TGSLC. Here are some highlights from that report, focusing on "The Everyday Business of Building Futures:"

In our FY '90 Annual Report, we told our customers that we would continue efforts to shift our portfolio to a more stable "mix" of low- and high-risk loans. In 1991, we reported that 81% of the loans we guaranteed during FY '91 were low-risk loans. What makes this achievement so significant is that we were able to accomplish it while increasing loan volume. During FY '91, TGSLC guaranteed $706.4 million in new loans, up from the $703.7 million guaranteed in the previous fiscal year.

However, "hidden" in what appears to be a modest increase in loan volume is an extraordinary figure: in FY '91, TGSLC reported a 23% ($102 million) increase in low-risk volume through its two- and four-year schools...

Our FY '90 Annual Report stated that we would increase the electronic ties with our lender and school partners by introducing more of them to our LINC (Loan Information Network Clearinghouse) electronic process. Our goal was to sign up 16 new LINC customers. We signed 73...

We promised to continue our public awareness campaign about PLUS Loans, making parents of all incomes aware of this valuable low-interest loan program that can help them pay for their children's college education. Our goal was to increase our PLUS Loan volume by $8 million. We increased it by $15 million...

Helping students prevent defaults was high on our list of priorities. In pursuit of this goal, we installed additional toll-free "800" numbers and Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) units in our Default Prevention and Collections departments, increasing the number of borrower contacts by 54%; enhanced our skip-tracing efforts to locate "missing" borrowers; created a special Recovery Unit to work with defaulted borrowers prior to the payment of a claim; and began a re-write of our preclaims system that will help us more accurately track and manage our default prevention efforts...

We went out on a limb in our FY '90 Annual Report, unveiling our most ambitious undertaking to date: an electronic network of services (under the working tide "TG-Net") that would dramatically reduce the amount of paperwork our customers would have to handle when managing their student loans. TG-Net soon became "TexNet" (The Texas Electronic Exchange Network) and, by the end of FY '91, TexNet pilots in electronic funds transfer, destination point processing, enrollment reporting, and pre-purchase verifications were underway.