17 Burst results for "Ray Caplan"
WGN Radio
"ray caplan" Discussed on WGN Radio
"Com, our friend ray caplan from the Kaplan law firm is expert in this category. Hey ray, welcome back. How are you today? Hey John, great. Thank you so much. Okay, ray, so I'm just looking at a story in Forbes, and it says this in part. Biden officials are considering a number of possible extensions still. And flexibility to soften the end of the student loan pause, do we know necessarily when the student loan pause ends when you have to start paying? I thought we were waiting for some court verdict or something. Yeah, so basically what they're referring to is the cares act that's been in place since March of 2020, but if you remember, I can't believe it's already been over three years, but in the Trump administration, they started the payment pause because of the COVID pandemic. And then we saw it just became increasingly they just kept extending it. And that payment was set to end and they've tied it to the Supreme Court deciding whether or not the Biden executive order for giving ten or $20,000 of loan forgiveness is legal and constitutional. So that is supposed to be released in June and then payments would be restarting 60 days later, which is in August. So what they're saying is, okay, assuming payments restart in August, we're not actually going to start charging interest until October and really your payments are probably not going to start until around October or November. So they're trying to sort of ease people back into this because really people haven't been paying on their federal student loans for over three years. So it's hard to just turn it back on without all kinds of cold turkey, isn't it? Where it's like, wait a minute, I got to pay $300 a month. So at least we've got this fair warning. But to be clear about that, right? Because we haven't talked or thought maybe much about the pause we're enjoying, but there is still the possibility that we'll get 10,000 or $20,000 of outright loan forgiveness. That's still in play. Yeah, that's still up in the year. We're just monitoring it very closely to see when the Supreme Court is going to release that decision to latest it would be would be the end of June and I really, I'm not sure how they're going to come down on it. I tend to think that it's probably not going to survive, but you never know. It might survive and then people might be getting the ten or $20,000 off their balance and the Biden administration would put the application back up online and that would be a student aid dot gov. So it's still paused for now. We'll know by the end of June and then the payments are going to restart. But they are going to try to ease people in. So it won't be as bad as what people are thinking. I think I do get your point they've given the makeup of this court. It's not likely. If you just had to bet one way or the other, I would say they will find what the Biden administration is doing unconstitutional. And doesn't that hinge on somebody demonstrating harm, somebody has to say that I've been harmed by this group getting a discount, but not me. Yeah, and it's also a matter of standing. So it's really hard to have constitutional standing to sue the president or the administration to have something called taxpayer standing because if you think about it, you can't do it every time you disagree with something that the president did. You can't just Sue the president. You have to actually have standing. And so that's a very narrow way. It's very difficult to have taxpayer standing. So what they're what they're saying is that if they don't have standing, the plaintiffs, in this case, then they don't even get to decide whether or not Biden's order is constitutional. So I mean, the theory behind that, if you think about it, it does make sense. And you disagree with the president. You're remedies at the ballot box. It's not to sue the president. And I tend to agree with that. But that then would be in favor of the court allowing the Biden administration to do what it did. Well, we'll wait and see what they say. In general, then what else should I know about my student loan or remedies for the payments that might come due? Well, one big shake up is that there have been a number of servicers who are exiting the federal loan servicing industries. So now it's really down to mohil aid vantage and Ed financial. Great Lakes is owned by nomad. So a lot of people whose loans are serviced by Great Lakes, you'll be getting letters pretty soon, saying your servicer is now going to be known that. So don't get worried if you get one of those letters that's just the normal course of course of business. But so there's that. And then there's also something called a one time IDR account adjustment. And I think this is really big news because essentially, John, it's an extension of that PSLF waiver. So remember how we were able to get people's loans forgiven under that waiver and it expired in October of 2022. Will this IDR account adjustment has essentially extended that and now we have through December of 2023. So anybody listening if you have federal loans and you work in the public sector or you know somebody in that situation, please have them give us a call because it's very possible we're getting these approval letters every day from the department of Ed for giving hundreds of
WGN Radio
"ray caplan" Discussed on WGN Radio
"Thousands of dollars every day. In fact, I sent one to the other day. Yeah, I was just going to ask you that. So you sent me a copy of that and I'm not as dialed in on this as you are. But how much loan forgiveness then did that person get? Well, in one day, we received letters for three clients totaling over $300,000. So that one person I believe was over a $100,000. And it's every single day. So even if you think that you won't be eligible, let us do the analysis because it's actually pretty complicated because of the way the executive order was worded. And are we speaking specifically about people that are working in the public sector? Yes, people working in the public sector is huge life-changing because that means that those loans that you might have had another three, four, 5 years to pay on, we can get rid of today, tax free. And it also affects people in the private sector because private sector people get private sector loan forgiveness, which is much longer, but this IDR adjustment we get to apply all the way through December might get your loans forgiving. So if you're one of those people and you've had loans since the early 2000s, this will apply to you and potentially get your entire loan knocked out. Like if you took out loans in early 2000s and then later, we can get them all to go back to the early 2000 loans and get them all forgiven. Well, you frequently send me copies of with the private information redacted, of course, but of these massive legal, you know, by the book, discounts for people and I would love to be on the phone when you call these people or see their reaction when they get an email from you saying $69,000 is gone. Ray caplan
WGN Radio
"ray caplan" Discussed on WGN Radio
"Stay right there, mister peck. We've also got questions for our guest, three one two 9 8 one 7 200. Kerry peck, the elder law attorney in Chicago. The chair of a commission that's been convened by those States Supreme Court to look into elder abuse is on a phone line, and we were just talking a little bit about power of attorney who gets to make the decisions for mom and dad. We've got some questions from our listeners and some phone calls too. Okay, then we go there right now, Carrie. Sure, absolutely. I just want to make one quick point and that is that tech Richie, all of our state planning has done on fixed fees. So we don't build hourly for that kind of work. So everybody knows what they're going to potentially pay upfront. And then if I have a question after the fact, I go, but what about this, the meter doesn't start running? Just call us. Your client, we take care of you. I have an accountant whenever. Whenever I call my accountant, I talk really fast. Because we don't nickel and diamond. If you're a client, we take care of it. And I'm not saying my accountant Nichols and dimes me. I'm just saying when I call him, I talk really fast. He's a very good accountant. Let's talk to Cora Lee. Peter, are you going to put the color on? Thanks. Cory, you're on WG and what can we do for you? Well, I have a problem. My husband had dementia and we didn't know it. And he moved out. And he ended up filing for divorce after 64 years. And we had all our papers and like you said, that's moving for us. And power of attorneys and everything. And the divorce went through because he became a person for the state. He has guardianship. They have guardianship of him, and we had to sell a lot of things. And the divorce was final in June. Now, is my trust? Can I just change my trust myself? And my will or do I have to get all those new papers? You should get new papers. The problem with documents that people change themselves, their wills, for example, they never know that that's a problem until they're because they're debt. Like candidly, I've never seen a do it yourself will work. I've seen it yourself will cause a lot of problems, but I've never seen it work. I would encourage you to talk to a lawyer and find out what the cost is going to be and bite the bullet and get it done properly so that when you're gone, your documents are effective. They're not challenged and they're not defective. Cory, when he actually did this divorce, was there another woman involved or was anybody influencing him along those lines? No. No. It's amazing that he was able to accomplish that, Carrie. I don't know how you get a divorce, but it would seem to me like if you are suffering from dementia, somebody should have seen that and it wouldn't be possible. Well, the law does allow, it sounds like with Cora's husband, the public guardian came in to become his guardian. And the law does allow a divorce after someone is declared mentally incompetent if the court concludes it's in that individual's best interest and the case has three filed by The Guardian. So there's a lot of information here that we don't know, but there is a provision in the probate act to allow it. How about that core Lee good luck to you. I appreciate your call. Donna, your next on WGN. What's your question for Carrie peck? Hi. Hi. I was calling about a living trust. My husband and I were told years ago that it wasn't worth the price of an attorney doing it. Attorney told us that. If I can do it for so much money, but it's not worth it. Okay, but it's a living trust. Well, I disagree quite strongly, but it does depend on what assets you have and how they're owned. Let's remember the underlying principle here is that in Illinois, if you own assets in your name alone, okay? I'm going to say it again on purpose. If you own assets in your name alone in excess of $100,000, regardless of what type of asset both could be cash and or it could be real estate, the law requires when you die that a post death probate proceeding, an estate, you'll assume it's in Cook County, be opened on the 18th floor of the daily center. Now, many people don't own assets in their own name. You may own assets with your husband and joint tenancy. And if one of you passes away, it goes to the other. Many people have designations of beneficiaries. For example, on a 401k or payable on death accounts, things of that nature. But a revocable living trust avoids the necessity of that post death probate estate. And that's why it's worth the money. But again, it depends on a close examination of what assets you own and how their title. Good luck to you. Thanks for the phone call. You bet. You know, this reminds me a little bit of our conversations with ray caplan for a couple hundred bucks. You could consult with her, have her look at your student loan situation. And she might be able to save you 20 $1000, $200,000. So as much as you want to hold on to your $100 or your $1000 or whatever some of these people are charging you, I'm not advocating for anybody here. It just seems to me don't be Pennywise and pound foolish. Some of our questions are like this, Carrie. John, can you ask mister peck if trust beneficiaries are entitled to the tax returns of the trust or estate of the deceased? Do we get to see their stuff? Would change recently and it depends on what the document says. So
WLS-AM 890
"ray caplan" Discussed on WLS-AM 890
"Student loan relief ray caplan, nobody better with this. She'll be with me, Steve Cochran. Monday, 5 30 to 9 on the big 89 WLS putting woke ideas back to sleep. Dan bongino. Yeah, that's right. Oh, gotta turn that thing. So yeah, the weaponization of the federal law enforcement in the bureaucracy is now entirely fully complete. You know, it's really sad. I enjoyed living in a constitutional republic. It was fun. The idea that we had inherent God given rights that were protected by the constitution and government, but not granted. That was a great idea. I loved it. Lasted for quite a while. We had a nice run. I think we're going to get back there. I'm long in the United States. I always will be, but we're not there now and we shouldn't really pretend we're there now because we're not. We now live in a totalitarian regime, which is fully weaponized the federal bureaucracy to swamp better law enforcement and Department of Justice to go and attack their political opponents. It's sad. I wish it weren't true folks, but it is. They're now going after Elon Musk. It just doesn't stop. So I'm thinking this way, you probably say to yourself, when I went to break and I said, you know, you won't believe folks who they're going after now. The swamp and the Biden regime. It is a regime, by the way. You should call it bad. You should never call it an administration. It is a regime. You are probably going through the list. You're like, ah, gosh, Navarro. No, they already went after him banning him to Manafort. No, no, they went after him. Cohen went after him too. Let me see. Going down the list of you like, ah, gosh, they pretty much targeted all their political opponents with a bunch of BS investigations. Who could it possibly be? Yeah, Elon Musk. Apparently the Twitter, the Twitter lawsuit, a revelation came out today where Twitter had to acknowledge that Elon Musk is now under investigation too. They hinted some of the pieces that it's being done by the SEC, but folks, it doesn't matter. The three letter, that's all the same at this point. You understand they are so eager to prevent free speech from permeating on Twitter because they're so uncomfortable defending their failed awful horrendous ideas. Do you understand that that they will do anything? Anything to advance speech suppression, including personally attacking Elon Musk for taking over Twitter or potentially taking over Twitter. On the other side of the break, I mean, I'll read to you a piece of this washing examiner piece, describing exactly what's going on here. Twitter says Elon Musk is being investigated by federal authorities over proposed acquisition. But more importantly, this Washington Post piece I want to focus on coming up next. The Washington Post is setting up the narrative now. The narrative they're setting up to attack Elon is the same narrative. The FBI is using to
WGN Radio
"ray caplan" Discussed on WGN Radio
"Capitalism what's new on the college loan front ray Kaplan. There is so much that's new on the college loan front that's really actually very exciting. There's this big settlement this sweet versus cardona, which is going to give billions of dollars in loan forgiveness to people who went to certain schools on these lists, ITT devry, Corinthian colleges, a whole bunch of them. ITT here in Chicago. Yes, also the international academy of design technology, IAD. A lot of these for profit schools, if you've previously applied and you were denied, they're going to reinstate your application without you having to do anything and actually get your loans forgiven. We actually have a stack of applications right now that we're getting into the Department of Education. We want to get them in before court ordered settlement agreement, which is supposed to be on July 28th. So we think that we have a better chance of getting these loans forgiven if we get them in by that date. So that's one big thing. And that's where the borrower really doesn't have to do much. The other thing that's big news is that the Biden administration has really drastically expanded this PSLF program and the IDR program that is giving at least 6 billion, but they're saying it's actually closer to 26 billion in forgiveness of federal student loans. But the difference is, here are the borrower has to do something to get that forgiveness what actually I think what you guys and Terry were talking about yesterday. Who is eligible for that money This 26 billion. So if you have previously worked in the public sector, so you worked at a public school from 2007, any time the relevant period is October 1st, 2007 for public sector means firefighter, police officer, municipal employee. Right. Most of the hospital systems, public school teacher, and not for profit. As long as you were full time, you can get your loans much, much closer to forgiveness or actually forgiven in one fell swoop. And is that though for people that made a 120 consecutive payments? Well, what's interesting is that they've loosened that requirement. So now even if you had your loans and forbearance for 5 years, you can still make those 5 years of forbearance where you weren't making payments count and get your loans for giving. So the number is the same, but they're allowing you to count months that you didn't actually make a payment because you were legitimately within forbearance. I know some people who have tried to sign up for this program say, well, the loan you're in is not eligible. You need to roll it over to another loan that would be eligible, but then they're afraid rolling it into a new loan means the clocks back to zero and they lost all of those months of payments. A lot of people are in that boat. Tell me what they should do. Ray caplan is in our studio. She is the attorney who is Chicago's expert on student loans. She's a frequent guest and sometimes advertiser here at this radio station. And I've heard from people on and off the air ray who say that this loan forgiveness program, which will even include the months you didn't make payments because of forbearance, will now require you to roll the loan into a type of loan that will participate in this forgiveness program. But when they do that out of one loan into a different one, people are worried that the clock resets to zero, and now they don't have any credit for all the payments they've made. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yes, that's a very understandable concern on everybody's part because I also have spent years telling people don't consolidate talk to us before you consolidate. I don't want you to reset the clock and lose credit for the months that you've made before that you have under your belt. So this is an exception to that rule, under this PSLF waiver, you can't get hurt by doing a federal consolidation. Now, this is really important. Don't do a private refinance. You
WGN Radio
"ray caplan" Discussed on WGN Radio
"Student loans but as a result we opened up a floodgates We built Pandora's box Yeah in a sense And I think it's one of those things where the intention was good We want to give everybody access to college And how do you do that exactly and keep the costs down So there's got to be a way to do that that Congress just hasn't thought of lately but I do think that they're going to have to address that issue with the colleges And one of these universities I know we've talked about this before They have huge endowments with billions of dollars that they're just sitting on And so that's got to be addressed too I mean what is the point of having all that money Why not give it to students who deserve it or have certain great point averages et cetera Well I'll tell you what Harvard says about that They say we know we have billions of dollars but that money's earmarked for certain things we can't use it that way It's not designated for that which is a crock This is Terry you're on WGN with ray caplan Terry what can we do for you Hey listen You know listening to this is why this is a conversation that we can have for two or three hours every day I have two brands who are out of college one out of college probably four years one out of college one year And I'm going to tell you if they got a $10,000 break First of Hugo with that And I don't care if you're a Republican president Democrat These kids are fighting to get these loans paid off So they can start a life My wife grants hug is paying off a hill living at home So when he leaves home he could actually afford to go rent an apartment for a whole tried to save for a house and my undergrads had hopefully to start planning for a way He and his fiancee are right now trying to get rid of these college loan debt because they can't really plan like that Do you have any idea how much these grandkids all I think one is on the verge of just about 15 to 20 left because for three years or four years he's been paying oh maybe a $1000 a month to get it off the stack Okay hold on Terry We're out of time and I'm so glad you called I won't rate a respond to what she's heard Sure Absolutely So I think one of the biggest problems that Congress really needs to address is allocating enough money to the servicers so that when a borrower has federal student loans that they get quality service from the servicers who can actually tell them what their options are because there is really no need for them to be paying a $1000 a month.
WGN Radio
"ray caplan" Discussed on WGN Radio
"To handle with ease The life heats up around us we just try to stay afloat We let the water boil Reaching out isn't easy but you've never been interested in easy You join because you are not afraid of hard work You are not a frog If you or a veteran you know needs support don't wait until the water boils Reach out Find resources at VA dot gov slash reach That's VA dot gov slash reach brought to you by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and the ad council We should call ray caplan on this conversation to the attorney who specializes in college debt But let me just read you a couple of texts If you're driving you'll want to pull over Almost 40% of Americans over the age of 65 have knee osteoarthritis A tissue wears away and a dud and grow back You don't need me to tell you that researchers say if E three to 6 ounces of fish at least four times a week a lot of omega three there that's good for you Here's another good choice for you The joint relief institute in Orland Park oak brook and northbrook they can't restore the lost cartilage but they can put a lubricating gel into the spot where it was in a works Their expert at this a quick non surgical procedure that your insurance is probably going to pay for So eat smart and stay lean and fit and hobble on over to the joint relief institute near you There are three locations and it's the same website or phone number for any of them You can do this Just click on Joint relief institute dot com are called 708-888-0000 as.
WGN Radio
"ray caplan" Discussed on WGN Radio
"Forgiven as of 9 p.m. last night How much $71,000 You could hear his wife in the background because she knows too A lot of times guys will say honey what's my name again $71,000 $71,000 Ray caplan he mentioned you on the radio how are you Hi John Great Thanks yeah I was listening to your show at the time and we were all really happy when we heard that So what happened there Well I think what happened there if I'm correctly identifying which client this is if these are somebody who's loaned to a forgiven under the disability section of the statute or the new expanded PSLF by administration waiver So what we're doing is we're auditing our clients and having their servicers audit their files as well to see if we can get their loans for given under one of those sections of the statute And we're having a lot of loans forgiven I think right now the number is over $4 million in loans have been forgiven in federal student loans from our office and that's just federal student loans I can't actually remember what the number is for private loans but I think we're over $2 million in private loans as well But with the new guidelines and these changes to the statute which remember are temporary there is a lot of loan forgiveness out there available Well that gentleman said it was his daughter I don't know how old that makes her but I would guess that it wasn't disability Well you'd be surprised though There are a lot of people out there who qualify for disability forgiveness of their loans If they have some sort of a medical illness or ailment let's say you're in your 40s or 50s and you have some sort of we actually had one forgiven for anxiety disorder So there are your doctor can sign off on the application that you have a medical illness or ailment that means that you're not going to be able to go back to work and that it's probably going to persist for 5 years then you are likely eligible to have your entire loan balance forgiven under that section So it might actually be disability on that one Well I don't want to diminish the reality of mental disorders and if somebody has anxiety so crippling they can't work then that's the same as breaking your leg I understand that But that also seems vulnerable to manipulation to me ray Not really because it's a medical doctor the medical doctor is signing off on the application They state with a lot of specificity what their diagnosis is And in this particular case it was pretty crippling anxiety So and then the department of ad reviews it And sometimes they request additional information from your doctor but no I don't think so I really don't think this is one of those things where there's manipulation Look the department of that is very thorough in reviewing these applications It's not like they want to forgive loans right But under these two sections of the statute I think they're going to probably end up forgiving about a $1 billion under this new PSLF program What is that So you said disability or PSLF What's PSLF I'm sorry Yeah that's the public sector loan forgiveness waiver So public sector loan forgiveness is the one that was in the news all the time 60 minutes did a segment on it about how people would apply but the program wasn't run very well and everybody was getting denied Well they've decided to expand it so that if you previously were denied you likely will qualify now But there are a few steps that you have to take that are a bit confusing under the new guidelines And this is only open to people for another ten months So this is a really good opportunity to potentially have all of your loans wiped out But it is going to mean that you need to do a federal consolidation of your student loans in most cases but not all cases and it is important that you have some guidance before you do anything But that's for people that are working in the public sector for a period of time right Correct So they do need to show that they had ten full years of employment in the public sector But the new waiver is that even if you're not working in the public sector right now if we can show that you had qualifying payments for ten years anytime from 2007 forward then we can try and get those loans forgiven and we're having a lot of people who are previously told that they needed another years of payments where they were going to have to pay many thousands of dollars like 60 50 $70,000 even more having their entire balance for given And it's a tax free forgiveness which is really nice No income taxes on that forgiveness Yes There have been previous calculations where they'd say well forgive your loan but paying it off requires income that you don't have will treat it as income now you pay taxes So it wasn't a 100% So that's nice too I know you don't mean to talk about my son here but you know my son has a student loan and he works in the Chicago public schools But he's been working for a year So I guess he misses the boat on this because he doesn't have his ten years in or does he kind of get grandfathered in and in ten years Well I guess in ten years he would qualify for forgiveness anyway right That's right So in ten years he'll qualify if he's been making payments for this last year Well actually he should not have been making payments during COVID forbearance but people who were making payments is kind of interesting too People who were making payments for the last 22 months under COVID forbearance you can get a refund of all of those payments.
WGN Radio
"ray caplan" Discussed on WGN Radio
"Caplan with the Kaplan law firm is here Tell me about some of the texts that you sent me this morning ray Okay so I know there's some confusion about parent plus them So I just want to take an opportunity to clear that up right now because I think one of the interesting things about student loans is that there's a lot of incorrect information out there that leads people down the wrong path And this is a really important decision that you're going to make with your family If you need to finance your kids college education So the text messages I sent you were the following examples If we have a parent who has two children that they need to put through college and let's estimate $40,000 a year times two kids for four years each they will wind up with about 320,000 if they took up federal not private but federal parent plus loans if that parent and that situation makes about $60,000 a year and works in the public sector they sent you after ten years on that $320,000 loan they would only have paid back 91,000 and the entire balance plus all the interest would be forgiven tax free So I know not everybody fits into that particular set of circumstances but the point I'm trying to get across is that the important thing is not just the interest rate because the interest rate is kind of high at 6.28% But as you see in a lot of situations the way the repayment terms which are all governed by the federal statute you don't have to pay the interest So the interest is not the only thing to consider And there's an interesting thing going on where in general you don't want to take out a loan that's high interest in the most most cases that make sense but with subtle term plus loans and we can kind of customize their strategy for people because it does apply to people differently but in many circumstances it's the best thing you can do And it's a total game changer You know Terry savage council's people against taking out parent plus loans I do And I actually did reach out to Terry I sent her an email We work with a lot of financial analysts and consultants because really I think you have to be an attorney to know this stuff because it's all governed by this statute So I understand where care is coming from in terms of in general you don't want to take out high interest loans but in many cases you make an exception to that will because of the repayment terms Because oftentimes I mean and you know John we have WGN listeners who have really benefited from the statute by taking out federal parent plus loans oftentimes you only have to pay a percentage Now some people have to pay the full amount but oftentimes you only pay a percentage back in the balances for a given So it's important to do an analysis as it applies to each person individually You protect the privacy of your clients but every now and then you tell me the story of one of our listeners who by virtue of that has saved money Do you have an example off the top of your head Well we have so many people who if you work in the public sector and right now they have huge loan balances and because of the PSLF waiver that's happening right now we're able to get those loans for given we had one recently for 70,000 that just got completely wiped out We had another couple actually from Ireland I believe and they were going to be able to finance their kids college education and pay back over ten or 20 years I think it was going to be under $30,000 So it really is important to know how the law works because these are federal parent plus loans and they're totally different animal they're different than private loans They're different than credit card debt So the normal rules don't apply The whole different set of rules Yeah But it looks like student loan forgiveness is not going to happen Even though forbearance has been extended maybe I should be making payments on my student loan because it will go directly to the principle and lower the overall payment What do you make of that strategy right now Well so the answer to that is it depends but in most cases I would say here's a good rule of thumb If your income is lower than your loan balance and we're talking about federal loans here okay The ones where the forbearance has been extended by 90 days If your income is higher than your loan balance it might not be a bad idea to make some payments because you will be knocking down the principal Although we have to do an analysis because we can't say that that's the right thing to do all the time But for most other people where your income is lower than your loan balance it makes virtually no sense to make payments on the principle during this time of forbearance because the loans are completely frozen There's no interest that's accruing So there's really no point in making any payment especially if you might be eligible for some type of forgiveness because then you can probably get that money refunded to you in many cases but in some cases we can't So really it's important to make sure that we can kind of analyze with you how the statute is going to apply to you Our numbers three one two 9 8 one 7 200 if you've got a question for ray caplan you can call or text three one two 9 8 one 7 200 How long are they going to now extend forbearance to So they did another 90 days So everything was coming through in February and for most people that's going to be extended to make And right now is a good time for us to put together your individual plan of how to either get these loans forgiven or how to deal with them I.
WGN Radio
"ray caplan" Discussed on WGN Radio
"As of 9 p.m. last night How much $71,000 You could hear his wife in the background because she knows too A lot of times guys will say honey what's my name again $71,000 $71,000 Ray caplan he mentioned you on the radio how are you Hi John Great Thanks yeah I was listening to your show at the time and we were all really happy when we heard that So what happened there Well I think what happened there if I am correctly identifying which client this is if either somebody whose loans were forgiven under the disability section of the statute or the new expanded PSLF by administration waiver So what we're doing is we're auditing our clients and having their servicers audit their files as well to see if we can get their loans for given under one of those sections of the statute And we're having a lot of loans forgiven I think right now the numbers over $4 million in loans have been forgiven in federal student loans from our office and that's just federal student loans I can't actually remember what the number is for private loans but I think we're over $2 million in private loans as well But with the new guidelines and these changes to the statute which remember are temporary there is a lot of loan forgiveness out there available Well that gentleman said it was his daughter I don't know how old that makes her but I would guess that it wasn't disability Well you'd be surprised though There are a lot of people out there who qualify for disability forgiveness of their loans If they have some sort of a medical illness or ailment let's say you're in your 40s or 50s and you have some sort of we actually had one forgiven for anxiety disorder So there are your doctor can sign off on the application that you have a medical illness or ailment that means that you're not going to be able to go back to work and that it's probably going to persist for 5 years then you are likely eligible to have your entire loan balance forgiven under that section So it might actually be disability on that one Well I don't want to diminish the reality of mental disorders and if somebody has anxiety so crippling they can't work then that's the same as breaking your leg I understand that But that also seems vulnerable to manipulation to me ray Not really because it's a medical doctor the medical doctor is signing off on the application They state with a lot of specificity what their diagnosis is And in this particular case it was pretty crippling anxiety So and then the department of ad reviews it And sometimes they request additional information from your doctor but no I don't think so I really don't think this is one of those things where there's manipulation Look the department of that is very thorough in reviewing these applications It's not like they want to forgive loans right But under these two sections of the statute I think they're going to probably end up forgiving about $1 billion under this new PSLF program What is that So you said disability or PSLF What's PSLF I'm sorry Yeah that's the public sector loan forgiveness waiver So public sector loan forgiveness is the one that was in the news all the time 60 minutes did a segment on it about how people would apply but the program wasn't run very well and everybody was getting denied Well they've decided to expand it so that if you previously were denied you likely will qualify now But there are a few steps that you have to take that are a bit confusing under the new guidelines And this is only open to people for another ten months So this is a really good opportunity to potentially have all of your loans wiped out But it is going to mean that you need to do a federal consolidation of your student loans in most cases but not all cases and it is important that you have some guidance before you do anything But that's for people that are working in the public sector for a period of time right Correct So they do need to show that they had ten full years of employment in the public sector But the new waiver is that even if you're not working in the public sector right now if we can show that you had qualifying payments for ten years anytime from 2007 forward then we can try and get those loans forgiven And we're having a lot of people who are previously told that they needed another years of payments where they were going to have to pay thousands of dollars like 60 50 $70,000 even more having their entire balance for given And it's a tax free forgiveness which is really nice No income taxes on that forgiveness Yes There have been previous calculations where they'd say well forgive your loan but paying it off requires income that you don't have will treat it as income now you pay taxes So it wasn't a 100% So that's nice too I know you know what I mean to talk about my son here but you know my son has a student loan and he works in the Chicago public schools But he's been working for a year So I guess he misses the boat on this because he doesn't have his ten years in or does he kind of get grandfathered in and in ten years Well I guess in ten years he would qualify for forgiveness anyway right That's right So in ten years he'll qualify if he's been making payments for this last year Well actually he should not have been making payments during COVID forbearance but people who were making payments is kind of interesting too People who were making payments for the last 22 months under COVID forbearance you can get a refund of all of those payments.
WGN Radio
"ray caplan" Discussed on WGN Radio
"Ray caplan with the Kaplan law firm is here Tell me about some of the texts that you sent me this morning ray Okay so I know there's some confusion about parent plus them So I just want to take an opportunity to clear that up right now because I think we'll have an interesting things about student loans is that there's a lot of incorrect information out there that leads people down the wrong path And this is a really important decision that you're going to make with your family If you need to finance your kids college education So the text messages I sent you were the following examples If we have a parent who has two children that they need to put through college and let's estimate $40,000 a year times two kids for four years each they will wind up with about 320,000 if they took out federal private but federal parent plus loans if that parent and that situation makes about $60,000 a year and works in the public sector but in that example I sent you after ten years on that $320,000 loan they would only have paid back 91,000 and the entire balance plus all the interest would be forgiven tax free So I know not everybody fits into that particular set of circumstances but the point I'm trying to get across is that the important thing is not just the interest rate because the interest rate is kind of high at 6.28% but as you see in a lot of situations the way the repayment terms which are all governed by the federal statute you don't have to pay the interest So the interest is not the only thing to consider And there's an interesting thing going on where you know in general you don't want to take out a loan that's high interest in the most most cases that make sense But with federal term plus loans and we can kind of customize the strategy for people because it does apply to people differently but in many circumstances it's the best thing you can do And it's a total game changer You know Terry savage council's people against taking out parent plus loans I do And I actually did reach out to Terry I sent her email We work with a lot of financial analysts and consultants because really I think you have to be an attorney to know this stuff because it's all governed by the statute So I understand where Terry's coming from in terms of in general you don't want to take out high interest loans but in many cases you make an exception to that will because of the repayment terms Because oftentimes I mean and you know John we have WGN listeners who have really benefited from the statute by taking out federal parent plus loans oftentimes you only have to pay a percentage Now some people have to pay the full amount but oftentimes you only pay a percentage back in the balances for a given So it's important to do an analysis as it applies to each person individually You protect the privacy of your clients but every now and then you tell me the story of one of our listeners who by virtue of that has saved money Do you have an example off the top of your head Well we have so many people who if you work in the public sector and right now they have huge loan balances and because of the PSLF waiver that's happening right now we're able to get those loans for given we had one recently for 70,000 that just got completely wiped out We had another couple actually from Ireland I believe and they were going to be able to finance their kids college education and pay back over ten or 20 years I think it was going to be under $30,000 So it really is important to know how the.
WGN Radio
"ray caplan" Discussed on WGN Radio
"Out more But anything else you want to say before we pick up some phone lines No but I think that one little thing would be that there are going to be big changes in the student loan world coming up in the next couple of years So just to keep your eyes open for changes that might benefit you Because you think that the program has been too generous Well I think that right now the push is to give more people access to relief of their loans but I think what's going to happen after that is that it's going to end up costing the government a lot of money and then there's going to be a swing in the opposite direction to give less people relief So if you're taking out loans now you'll be fine because it's going to be part of your promissory note your contract that you're going to be eligible for these programs But I'm thinking maybe for talking like looking through a crystal ball probably in 2007 2008 maybe a little bit later than that they're going to start making some changes to make it a little bit harder to access this type of relief Yeah well at least we're not talking anymore about total forgiveness or $50,000 forgiveness or not really That doesn't seem to have gone away But I thought we were going in that direction Everybody was leaning that way and now it seems to have dissipated too Trish you're on GM with ray caplan Trish what can we do for you You're on the air Oh hi Yeah my grandson is the senior now And we're wondering how we're going to finance his college or help them finance it So is it I've heard yes they should get a student loan when I heard no it's not good for the student to get the loan So the deal So he's a senior in high school ray what do you say So what you want to do and we do a lot of this pre debt planning with parents students grandparents in many cases is that you want to take out or you want your grandson to take out federal student loans as much as he can qualify for the way you do that is he's going to fill out the fafsa the free application for student aid and he has to disclose his parents income whoever his guardian is their income and their assets.
WGN Radio
"ray caplan" Discussed on WGN Radio
"Studio ray caplan of caplan law firm financial relief dot com is her website if you want to find out more but anything else you want to say before we pick up some phone lines No but I think that one little thing would be that there are going to be big changes in the student loan world coming up in the next couple of years So just to keep your eyes open for changes that might benefit you Because you think that the program has been too generous Well I think that right now the push is to give more people access to relief of their loans but I think what's going to happen after that is that it's going to end up costing the government a lot of money and then there's going to be a swing in the opposite direction to give less people relief So if you're taking out loans now you'll be fine because it's going to be part of your promissory note your contract that you're going to be eligible for these programs But I'm thinking maybe for talking like looking through a crystal ball probably in 2007 2008 maybe a little bit later than that they're going to start making some changes to make it a little bit harder to access this type of relief Yeah well at least we're not talking anymore about total forgiveness or $50,000 forgiveness or not That's all seem to have gone away But I thought we were going in that direction Everybody was leaning that way and now it seems to have dissipated too Treasure on WGN with ray caplan Trish what can we do for you You're on the air Oh hi Yeah my grandson is the senior now And we're wondering how we're going to finance his college or help them finance it So is it I've heard Yes they should get a student loan when I heard no it's not good for the Student to get the loan So the deal So he's a senior in high school ray What do you say So what you want to do and we do a lot of this pre debt planning with parents students grandparents in many cases is that you want to take out or you want your grandson to take out federal student loans as much as he can qualify for the way you do that is he's going to fill out the fafsa the free application for student aid and he has to disclose his parents income whoever his guardian is their income.
WGN Radio
"ray caplan" Discussed on WGN Radio
"To find a good deal these days just go to Jerry haggerty Chevy dot com and scroll through pages and pages and pages of pre owned cars and trucks and SUVs These are vehicles that are thoroughly inspected that you can trust that look feels drive even smell like new 33 years Jerry's been doing it hassle free Blaster like my treatment from these people We've had a lot of laughs We've had good times I had a question the other day called up my cagr Had a nice visit You're going to like the way they treat you too And they're going to find you the vehicle you want There are 300 Roosevelt road in Glenn Allen Tell him John Williams sent you Chevrolet Find new roads It's ten 21 on WGN All our lines are ring as frequently happens when you're in the studio ray caplan of caplan law firm financial relief dot com is her website if you want to find out more but anything else you want to say before we pick up some phone lines No but I think that one little thing would be that there are going to be big changes in the student loan world coming up in the next couple of years So just to keep your eyes open for changes that might benefit you Because you think that the program has been too generous Well I think that right now the push is to give more people access to relief of their loans but I think what's going to happen after that is that it's going to end up costing the government a lot of money and then there's going to be a swing in the opposite direction to give less people relief So if you're taking out loans now you'll be fine because it's going to be part of your promissory note your contract that you're going to be eligible for these programs But I'm thinking maybe for talking looking through a crystal ball probably in 2007 2008 maybe a little bit later than that they're going to start making some changes to make it a little bit harder to access this type of relief Yeah well at least we're not talking anymore about total forgiveness or $50,000 forgiveness or not really That does seem to have gone away Boy I thought we were going in that direction Everybody was leaning that way and now it seems to have dissipated too Trish you're on GM with ray caplan Trish what can we do for you You're on the air Oh hi Yeah my grandson is the senior now And we're wondering how we're going to finance his college or help them finance it So is it I've heard Yes they should get a student loan when I heard no it's not good for the student to get the loan So the deal So he's a senior in high school right What do you say So what you want to do and we do a lot of this pre debt planning with parents students grandparents in many cases is that you want to take out or you want your grandson to take out federal student loans as much as he can qualify for the way you do that is he's going to fill out the fafsa the free application for student aid and he has to disclose his parents income Whoever his guardian is their income and their assets and then the department of bed in the school make a determination of how much he qualifies for in his own student loans and then if you need more to cover the cost of.
WGN Radio
"ray caplan" Discussed on WGN Radio
"An opinion about this ray How are you Good thanks Yeah I do We'll talk about it We'll talk about student loans in a second That's your expertise But the other video I saw the other day was people with a van and a pickup truck Park in front of a grocery store middle of the day they fill up the carts with what looked like those big tubs of laundry detergent and then they just wheel them out and just throw everything in the truck and people are going hey hey there's a thief going on here And then they just drive away Nobody suits him nobody punches him They just brazenly get away with it in the middle of the day And I thought where are they going with that And this person also says John if people would stop buying stuff from these Thebes the market would dissipate that is the people that are stealing all that cologne and Brooke probably sell it online Right And that's what I think if you're clicking around and you go hey honey that $40 detergent is only $7 on this website Let's get some You probably know you're part of the criminal chain And you don't think you did anything wrong and I'll leave that up to you and your God to decide what you should do but you're part of the problem I don't know how you know but maybe you do Maybe you know Kind of like getting cable if you're kind of piggybacking on somebody else's cable Well in that case you absolutely know Yes It's a committing a crime I got a friend of mine Got it He was broadcast her to station I worked at And he made enough money and he worked and he was a high profile person in the community he says I'm stealing it off my neighbor You're kidding me I don't know if that's still a thing or not Do people still do that Do you guys do that at your house No we do not Yes you do Oh my God Ray caplan is here from the caplan law firm You sent me a screen grab which I you know we won't mention the name or any of the identifying details but a client of yours who is a listener of ours what happened Well she was slated to get public sector loan forgiveness of her federal student loans and I think about another 6 years because we couldn't under the old rules get her previous payments to count as qualifying payments You need a 120 That's kind of the magic number So she still had a few years left to go But under this new PSLF waiver which is because it's an executive order it's a limited time opportunity This is a Biden administration Spider administration So they've loosened up the rules for public sector where we could go back to previous years that previously did count make those payments count and then we got her entire loan balance forgiven How much 32,000 So one day she had 32,000 she's still owed on Right The next day zero Yes And she doesn't pay interest on the amount that that does that count as income No it doesn't So she's not going to have to pay attention to that or anything She just gets it wiped out What we think per day or per month Per month I believe her payment was around a little over $300 a month You said she was in line for the forgiveness which means that if you make consecutive payments for ten straight years a 120 payments actually doesn't have to be consecutive just if you have a 120 qualifying payments even if they're not consecutive Is it that her payments didn't qualify Well because under the previous rules she had something called fell loans which was the old program and those fell loans didn't qualify for public sector loan forgiveness So she'd been making a whole bunch of payments in which came to see us we said sorry those payments don't count but these next payments will count And so you know she was you know she understood the roles the role and it was just kind of a very strict interpretation Interpretation but yeah now we can for this next year And this is what's a little confusing about it The rules have been changed for the next year So under the next year if we can get that application in and get previous payments to count then we can get the loan forgiveness But then they're going to close it off again So the window is briefly open Yes That's amazing Right I didn't know that and I talk about this all the time Yeah But it's your business The number is three one two 9 8 one 7 200 If you have a question about borrowing for college or paying off a loan three one two 9 8 one 7 200.
WLS-AM 890
"ray caplan" Discussed on WLS-AM 890
"The things I didn't know by the way I really appreciate you spending time with us and helping us understand this better because parents out there are understandably nervous about heading down that path Right Don't know what they don't know and there is that pressure and the pressure is you gotta make this happen And for lack of better terms I feel like it pushes people to make bad decisions Our makeup snap decisions that aren't in their best interests Absolutely because you know there's a lot of there are a lot of unknown variables out there right You don't even know if your kid is going to want to go to college So should you be saving money rather than investing it How much should you be saving What kind of college is your kid going to want to go to Are they going to get scholarships And so there are a lot of unknowns out there and then once the child does get into a good college I think there's a lot of sticker shock how much it actually costs because nobody really does that much investigating It's very rare I can't get into northwestern I'm done It's not like they put it on the front page of the website either It's not like when you buy a car and it's got the little little thing on the windshield of how much this car costs It's not that easy to find And even when you're on their website and you're looking at the cost of attendance plus the cost of living you have to do some you have to do some adding there because likely they're going to be living on campus and that's an additional cost And the numbers are always very very big Anywhere I think about this what college looks like moving forward in the age of COVID I mean the idea that the federal loans you're going to have a little more protection and maybe a little more flexibility Flexibility is the word right Right absolutely So federal loans in my view are kind of a no brainer They're the way to go So you get and people always ask me okay well should my child take out the federal student loans are being offered this amount But there's a cap on how much undergrad students can qualify for So the first year it's 5565 175 hundred with a cap being 31,000 over that entire four year period So it's not much if you're talking a school that's $45,000 a year That's a drop in the bucket So you probably are going to need federal parent plus loans very likely So that's something that we go over with clients and we do an analysis and determine okay if the dad's the borrower here's what it's going to look like when it's time to repay If the moms of borrower here's what the payment's going to look like when it's time to repay And I think that provides a lot of relief for people because then they know with a lot of certainty what the plan is and how exactly it's going to look There's not just entering into this black hole of debt I need you to go stand by your phone and your website right now because I have a feeling it's going to blow up Three one two two 9 four 89 89 or financial relief dot com You can talk directly to ray caplan at three one two two 9 four 89 89 because I think a lot of parents out there who are either in the situation or they've got that sophomore or junior they're looking at the colleges they need to talk to you This could be the difference in hundreds of thousands of dollars Because I basically used my own money I saved and I don't think I should have done that I probably should have gone in retrospect The.
WLS-AM 890
"ray caplan" Discussed on WLS-AM 890
"In Into a special presentation of wls making the grade navigating the world of higher education Now back to Bruce Saint James and Judy plague Hi I'm Bruce Saint James And I'm Judy pilak Welcome back to making the grade Sponsored by the Kaplan law firm And joining us right now is ray caplan attorney at law with the Kaplan law firm a student loan law expert and law firm which by the way I didn't know that was a thing I think it was not a thing previously It's a thing more recently Is that because so many people were inquiring Well it was mostly because I wanted to figure out how to deal with my own federal student loan So I started reading this statute that applies to student loans and student loan law and a lawyer would do right And I also wanted to be able to tell my clients something and be able to help them deal with their student loans Most attorneys basically tell you there's nothing you can do student loans or non dischargeable and bankruptcy which is true about 60% of the time not all of the time And so we wanted to really dig in and kind of do a deep dive and that's what we've done It does get kind of lost in the shuffle that for many people This is a huge investment and I get the sense that people don't know what they don't know So you're going to find out real quickly and maybe not in the best way Right Well we were talking before about how the focus usually for the most part is just getting your child accepted into a good college And that's the big focus Get them in And then once they get that acceptance letter then everybody starts to look at the tuition Oh my gosh the tuition is 40 50 $70,000 a year How on earth are we going to pay for this And especially if you have more than one child you know you've got two or three kids who are headed to college How are you going to do this And so what's nice about federal student loans is that there is a way you can structure it so that the parents are getting federal parent plus loans.