TG Updates

TG offers training to assist financial aid professionals with entrance and exit counseling

Many institutions have relied on their lender and servicer partners to conduct mandatory entrance and exit student loan counseling for students. However, according to new federal regulations effective July 1, lenders, servicers, and guarantors will no longer be allowed to provide such counseling on behalf of the school.

TG understands that financial aid directors generally have limited staff resources and thus are unable to monitor every counseling session. However, schools do bear the responsibility of making sure that every borrower completes the required entrance and exit counseling sessions.

TG offers help in the form of a new training session for Positive+Balance™, TG's workshop series on financial literacy for students and default management for financial aid offices. It's important that your financial aid staff are properly trained in meeting all regulatory requirements. TG's training session is crafted to help your staff meet those requirements.

A tool to help
TG's Effective Loan Counseling session provides information to aid institutions as they develop and deliver effective entrance and exit counseling to students. The session establishes a curriculum and knowledge base that financial aid professionals can use to conduct entrance and exit counseling sessions.

Among other things, the session helps financial aid professionals:

• Understand the basic requirements of loan counseling,
• Implement specific strategies to counsel students effectively, and
• Identify resources to enhance understanding of loan counseling requirements.

The training session builds on the premise that the primary purpose of entrance and exit counseling sessions is to inform students about their rights and responsibilities as a borrower.

To learn more
To find out more about Positive+Balance, contact your account executive at (800) 252-9743. You can also learn more from Rett Anderton or Joe Braxton, TG's default aversion consultants. Rett Anderton may be reached at (800) 252-9743, ext. 4765, or by sending an e-mail message to rett.anderton@tgslc.org. Joe Braxton may be reached at (800) 252-9743, ext. 4696, or by sending an e-mail message to joe.braxton@tgslc.org.

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With customer help, Mike Nowlin works to make TG's EFT even more effective

TG began disbursing loan funds through its Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) process in 1991, and, since then, has made over $19 billion in disbursements electronically. Funds can be transferred overnight, which students appreciate. Schools and lenders like the automated electronic reporting feature, which offers a daily audit of all transactions. And the process can handle private, TG-guaranteed, and non-TG-guaranteed FFELP loans together, which provides convenience to all institutions involved. It's also currently one of the least expensive options on the market.

Managing such an important process for TG customers involves many of TG's team members. However, it's the job of one in particular to gather feedback on EFT and help turn that customer request into a system reality. Mike Nowlin, product manager for EFT describes his work this way.

"One of my main functions is to initiate projects to enhance TG's current funding tools, and to create new services based on feedback from schools and lenders," said Mike. "I also serve as a central point of information for customers about TG's funding service."

A balancing act
According to Mike, TG's first priority for EFT funds is to make sure that the money always gets where it is supposed to go; however, a close second is helping schools and lenders track those transactions through effective reporting.

"To do it right requires tools that are complex but that also must be very reliable," said Mike. "It is a lot of responsibility, because it is an important service that we provide to our lender, servicer, and school customers. Balancing that complexity and responsibility can be challenging."

Mike gathers feedback about TG's EFT in a variety of ways. He talks regularly with TG's lender consultants and listens to what customers need through interviews, focus groups, surveys, and interaction over the phone and by e-mail.

"Once we get to the point of initiating a project to enhance or create a tool, part of my job is to ensure that we are delivering features that will be the most beneficial to the largest number of customers, including lenders, servicers, and schools," said Mike.

Mike works closely with TG's customer-facing teams to define and prioritize the features that will be included. In addition, he frequently speaks with lenders and other customers to make sure they have all of the information they need to answer questions and solve issues related to TG's funding products.

Cutting cost with efficiency
Mike brings a varied background in Web development and consulting to his responsibilities. He worked for several years for The University of Texas System in the distance education department, building tools to help students take online courses. That experience gave him a good understanding of the education industry in general, as well as some of the specific issues facing schools and students in Texas. He also gained a solid foundation for understanding the technical intricacies of TG's EFT tools from his work as a Web project consultant with Cobb Information Systems.

TG offered a natural progression for Mike's skill set and personal interest. "TG gave me a great opportunity for using my background in technology and my business education to help students continue their education," he said.

Helping students gain affordable access to education is a great benefit of his job, says Mike. "I also like visiting our lenders and schools to see how people on the front lines do their jobs. It helps me find ways to help customers do their jobs better, faster, and cheaper."

For more information
To learn more about TG's EFT process, or for questions related to EFT, contact TG's product support team at (800) 332-1455, or send an e-mail message to product.support@tgslc.org.

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