Betsy Mayotte

So...

Parent PLUS borrowers, you know, people with existing Parent PLUS loans, it's super, super important that if they need access to an income-driven repayment plan or think they might need access to a plan based on their income maybe down the road when they retire, they have to consolidate now.

And that consolidation has to be done, as in processed, but

by July 1st, 2026, where they're gonna forever lose access to those income-driven repayment plans.

Any Parent PLUS borrower that consolidates or takes out another Parent PLUS loan on or after July 1st, 2026, they're going to lose access to all lower payment options forever on all of their loans, both their existing Parent PLUS, whether they're consolidated or not, as well as future loans, which means that they will only be able to use a standard plan.

And if they have a financial crisis in the future or their income drops or gets low,

their only options are going to be these limited forbearances and deferments.

Unfortunately, I think that's going to mean an increase in struggling Parent PLUS loans and an increase of the default rates for Parent PLUS loans going forward.

Now, they also changed the amounts that parent borrowers can borrow on behalf of their undergraduate students.

It used to be limited to the cost of attendance.

Now it's going to be limited to $20,000 per year per dependent undergraduate student with a cap of $65,000 per dependent undergraduate student.

which means that some families may also have to move over to private loans to ensure degree completion.

And private loans have their own difficulties when it comes to managing them when the payments are unaffordable.

So the private student loan market has been interesting to watch since the passing of HR1.

One of the things that happened with HR1 is they reduced the loan limits, not only for parent plus borrowers, but also significantly for graduate students.

And because of that, more undergraduate families, but especially...

graduate students, as well as professional students like people pursuing medical or law degrees, are going to have to look at private student loans in order for their degrees to be affordable or to be able to complete their degrees.

So we're watching with interest on how that's going to play out in the private student loan market.

It's still a little early to tell.

We are seeing some