Written by Josh Lantz, CRPC®/ Chief Investment Officer, Financial Advisor

In mid-April 2024, the Biden administration announced some potential relief for student loan borrowers.

It’s important to note this is potential relief. Nothing is finalized yet. Just like the previous announcement of forgiving $10,000 student loan balances, the latest relief may also get jammed up in the courts.

Here is the short version of the potential relief announced that may impact doctors:

New Benefit: Accrued interest forgiveness of up to $20,000 dollars accrued after starting repayment for all loan types.

Comments: This is regardless of income. This could be a doctor in PSLF or a doctor paying outside of PSLF. It’s very common, especially for younger doctors, to still have some accrued interest.

New Benefit: Or Accrued interest forgiveness of any amount accrued after entering Income Driven Repayment (IDR) for borrowers making under $120K (single) or $240K (married joint). This is for any IDR plan.

Comments: A lot of doctors these days are enrolled in IDR. However, due to the income limit this change will mostly impact doctors in their training or those just going into practice.

Updated Benefit: Forgiveness of student debt for undergradundergrade loans who entered repayment 20 years ago.

Comments: This is already possible for those enrolled in IDR plans. The big change here is you won’t have had to be enrolled in the IDR the entire period to be eligible for forgiveness.

Updated Benefit: Forgiveness of student debt for graduate loans who entered repayment 25 years ago.

Comments: This is already possible for those enrolled in IDR plans. The big change here is you won’t have had to be enrolled in the IDR the entire period to be eligible for forgiveness.

New Benefit: PSLF for those eligible even if they don’t fill out the applications to apply

Comments: PSLF is already a strategy used by many doctors. It would be rare for doctors to not know if they’re eligible so this likely isn’t a huge benefit for doctors. Nonetheless, this benefit could help in the case of those who didn’t fill out or turn in the correct forms.

The bottom line is these changes are tentative. They are not final yet. We will keep you posted as things evolve. There are some benefits above that would have a meaningful impact on doctors---especially those with accrued interest.

You can read the announcement in more detail here. As always if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out. We’re here to help!

Josh Lantz, CRPC®/ Chief Investment Officer, Financial Advisor With over a decade of financial planning experience, Josh has worked on more than 450 doctors’ financial plans. “It’s very hard to find a doctor’s situation I haven’t seen before,” says Josh. This is only a snapshot of the expertise Josh brings to MD Financial. He is a four time Five Star Wealth Manager Award winner. In 2022, Josh was recognized as a Five Star Wealth Manager Under age 40. He can be reached at Josh@mdfinancialadvisors.com.