A cutting-edge program to help team members pay down their student loan debt
At McIlveen, we’re always seeking unique ways to improve the standard of living for of our team. From the start of your career to retirement, we are seeing ways to keep you financially healthy. To help you get your career off to the right start, McIlveen is offering a new employee benefit to help reduce your student loan debt. McIlveen is one of the first in the industry to offer this type of benefit.
How it works:
As a participating full-time employee of the Firm, the benefit will pay the following towards your student loan debt repayment:
- $1,000 at the end of your first year of employment,
- $3,000 at the end of your third year of employment,
- $5,000 at the end of your fifth year of employment, and
- $10,000 at the end of your tenth year of employment with the Firm.
Over time, this may help reduce your student loan principal and interest obligation and shorten your loan payoff period by several years.
How much will you pay? How will McIlveen’s benefit impact you?
Use this student loan impact calculator to help you see the impact a higher monthly payment can have on shortening the length of your loan and reducing the interest you will pay. See how the McIlveen’s additional payment towards your student loan debt will impact your student loan during the ten-year period (if enrolled in the maximum allowed time for the benefit). See how making additional payments each month will affect your loan’s payoff date.
Here is an example of how a new Associate Attorney with a $60,000 student loan, interest rate of 5%, and a term of 10 years may benefit from the Student Loan Repayment Program. Assume a benefit of $160 per month payment (($19,000/10)/12mths)). The example assumes the individual is enrolled for the maximum ten-year benefit with McIlveen and pays the additional $160.00 a month throughout the loan rather than as a lump sum.
Result: Over the 10-year period, this individual will save a total of $18,766. Interest saved is $4,206 and the time of the loan is reduced by two years, five months.
https://www.gradifi.com/resource/calculator
*Please note that McIlveen has provided the link to Gradifi’s calculator solely for informational purposes. You will leave the McIlveen Insider website when you click on the link. Gradifi is a third party, and McIlveen is not responsible for the content, functioning or availability of the linked site, and you use it at your own risk. You should review the terms and conditions and privacy policy, if any, of the site.
How will the program be implemented?
You must submit proof of your student loan debt as well as proof that the student loan is in repayment status. The loan must be from a bank and specifically state that it is a student loan. The loan can be either a federal or private student loan.
Employees who wish to participate must complete an application, attach proof of student loan debt, and supply a payment slip for the student loan 90 days prior to the completion of their 1st, 3rd, 5th, or 10th year of service. An employee who does not submit their request 90 days prior to completion of the requested year will not be eligible for repayment for that year.
If you complete your first year of employment you will receive $1,000 which will be paid directly to your student loan. If you complete your third year of employment you will receive $3,000 which will be paid directly to your student loan or if you complete your fifth year of employment you will receive $5,000 that will be paid directly to your student loan. An employee who completes 5 years of service in 2017 will not receive payment for the first or third year of service as the program will not go into effect until 2017. Employees do not receive back payments for prior years.
You must be employed by the Firm at the time the payment is made.
Why is McIlveen offering this benefit?
We see student loan debt as a major issue impacting all Americans. The current state of student loans is troubling—$1.3 trillion of outstanding student loans, a $35,000 average loan balance for the class of 2015, and 40 million Americans with student debt—we need to start somewhere to help alleviate the burden.
Tax Consequences
It’s important to keep in mind that while having your employer help you pay down your student loans can be a valuable perk, this benefit is not tax-free. According to the IRS, if you receive educational assistance benefits from your employer — reimbursement of tuition expenses, for example — you can exclude up to $5,250 of those benefits each year, meaning that you don’t have to claim them as income on your tax return. However, student loan reimbursements are considered taxable income