Student loan debt is confusing.
And oftentimes it can be difficult to know what your best next course of action should be. Should you pay off your loans as quickly as possible, giving up enjoyment from your life now in the hopes of a more secure financial future? Or should you just make your standard 10 years of payments in an attempt to make steady progress?
The answer is that it just depends. On your career, your income, and other factors.
Look no further – Student Loan Planner's consultants are here to guide you through the maze of student loans and help you find the most effective solution tailored to your needs.
This post is a review of Student Loan Planner.
What is Student Loan Planner?
Student Loan Planner (SLP) is a student debt consulting company, based in Durham, North Carolina, that helps borrowers nationwide to pay down and eliminate their outstanding loans.
Founded and owned by Travis Hornsby, SLP offers a wide variety of resources to help borrowers, including:
A podcast
Quizzes and calculators
A comprehensive blog
What is a student loan consultant/advisor?
A student loan consultant Is a financial professional that specializes in providing student loan guidance and repayment assistance to individuals burdened by student debt. Independent from any college or university, consultants oftentimes have expertise in specific areas of the student loan world, including:
Repayment strategies
Refinancing
Forgiveness
SLP's consultants are industry experts that will help you decide what your best course of action is. For instance, many borrowers grapple with whether to pay their debt off as quickly as possible, or to pay as little as possible and strive for forgiveness or repayment assistance.
Student Loan Planner's consultants
Student Loan Planner has over a dozen consultants, advisors, and experts ready to help you now. Each of them holds a CFP, CFA, or CSLP designation. Furthermore, they've helped over 15,000 clients thus far, consulting on nearly $3.5 billion in student loan debt. With over 3,000 online reviews, SLP scores a:
5/5 on Google (446 reviews)
4.8/5 from the College Investor
5/5 on Shopper Approved (2,617 reviews)
Consultants are offered to both new and existing clients. New clients can schedule a one hour consultation with an advisor for $595, while existing clients can schedule follow-ups for $495.
While a hefty fee for an hour of time, it becomes easier to handle when you consider that the average SLP consultation leads to over $53,000 in projected savings over the life of the loan repayment period for 90% of their clients.
What separates Student Loan Planner from its competition?
Student Loan Planner's consultations are very unique in the industry, for three main reasons:
Demonstrated expertise
Free resources
Other services and products
1. Demonstrated expertise
Travis and his team are student loan experts. Each consultant has a CLSP, CFA, or CFP designation. They know their stuff. Travis originally started the company while working in financial services as a bond trader. His wife, a physician, was frustrated by her student loan debt, and as Travis familiarized himself with the industry and its rules, he found tons of savings!
Over the years, he has hired equally intuitive and bright consultants to bring these skills to thousands of borrowers nationwide each year.
In 2023, with a designated track record of success, their services are even more appealing.
2. Free resources
To SLP's credit, they're not only in it for the money. They're truly in the business to help Americans being taken advantage of by loan servicers and unclear policies.
As they aim to bring transparency to the forefront, they offer a ton of free resources for borrowers to use, including calculators, worksheets, and other quizzes.
For reference, Travis and his team now offer:
Student loan forgiveness calculators: PSLF, SAVE Plan, Parent PLUS, IDR, discretionary income, interest
Repayment calculators: Payoff, interest, refinancing
Mortgage: Doctors (physician loan)
Quiz: What should you do with your student loans?
Their forgiveness calculator is something that all borrowers should download, regardless of whether they plan to book a consultation or not.
Rather than just summarizing your monthly payments based off your interest rate, term, and balance, SLP's calculator will take more data points (like your income, household size, and more) to show your future projected payments under a whole bunch of repayment/forgiveness plans, like:
IBR
PAYE
REPAYE
PAYE
Refinancing
Consolidation
In fact, it's been downloaded over 81,000 times to date!
3. Other services and products
SLP is far from a one-trick pony, and they understand that the financial services business is all about building relationships.
So, if you book a consult and you're really happy with the service and suggestions you receive, you may opt to use Travis and team for any future disability insurance or wealth management needs.
And while out of scope for this blog post, these offers operate with the same service and focus on getting you quality results at affordable prices.
Is it worth paying for student loan help?
Many websites, even the Department of Education, suggest that student loan borrowers don't need to pay for help. And this can be true, to a certain extent. But what these sites don't mention is the cost of both your time and money, particularly if you make a mistake.
Student loan mistakes can be unforgiving and may cost you tens of thousands of dollars in future forgiveness. So, to determine whether or not paying student loan planner for a consultation is right for you, you should consider:
The cost of your time: We're all busy enough as it is. If it takes you 30 hours of research to come to a conclusion, would you have been happier paying the one-time fee to get your complex questions and situation analyzed on the spot?
Your mental energy: Student loans are frustrating enough to handle, and obscure legal jargon can have a huge impact on what your ultimate course of action should be. Are you confident that you can overcome these powerful forces on your own?
Also consider that you're not just paying for student loan answers. Student Loan Planner has evolved into a robust business that now offers wealth management services, disability insurance, and other financial help!
These considerations alone, coupled with the tens of thousands of dollars in potential savings, may make SLP the perfect solution for you!
Conclusion
Student Loan Planner's impeccable track record and history of finding student loan solutions for borrowers nationwide make it an appealing go-to if you're frustrated and don't know where to turn next.
Schedule your consultation with Student Loan Planner now!
Affiliate marketing disclosure
studentdebtdestroyer.com is a student loan research and education website provided by Grow Your Green LLC.
studentdebtdestroyer.com is not a student loan lender.
We're passionate about teaching and guiding people to a better personal finance situation. To do this, we create an enormous amount of content, which takes time, resources, and money.
In order to write about and offer these products and services for you, we utilize affiliate marketing and link to certain products and services. If you click on, subscribe, to purchase on these links then we may be paid a small commission. These are at no cost to you, but by earning small commissions, are able to help us keep our website active.
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