Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corp

“The following trellis company employees, as officers/directors of trellis holdings, have a business relationship: - debra j. Chromy - greg dickenson”

“Trellis' accounting department works with its cpa firm to prepare the 990. Once a final draft is available, it is submitted to executive management for review. Once all questions have been resolved, the return, in its final form, is provided to the trellis board of directors for their review.”

“Trellis' code of business conduct is a policy which all employees, officers, and directors must agree to. Within the code of business conduct, managers, key employees, and officers and directors are required to disclose any business interests outside of trellis. Trellis' legal counsel proactively reviews and acts on potential conflicts. Actual conflicts, should they occur, may result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination and possible criminal prosecution. Trellis employees are required to complete periodic training for trellis' code of business conduct.”

“Trellis contracts with a third-party consultant to provide benchmark data for trellis employees and officers, including annual compensation studies which are presented to the trellis board of directors for their review. In 2024, trellis also engaged a third-party consultant to perform a compensation analysis for all employees and board positions and the board adopted the consultant's recommendations. The third-party consultants use compensation data for similarly qualified persons in comparable positions for both officers and key employees in similar organizations. Documentation to support benchmark decisions regarding compensation arrangements for all employees is retained. The benchmarking process used to determine compensation for officer and employee positions occurs periodically. The board of directors specifically reviews executive management compensation benchmarks and approves annual adjustments and/or merit increases as recommended by the president/ceo. Annually, the board makes specific decisions of the president/ceo's salary. Decisions regarding compensation are documented.”

“Trellis' code of business conduct is available to all employees and the public via trellis' website: www.trelliscompany.org. Trellis' audited financial statements are available upon request.”

“Trellis' guarantor operation encompasses the administration of the federal family education loan program (ffelp) on behalf of the u.s. Department of education (ed). As of fiscal year end, trellis' outstanding loan portfolio balance totaled $4.2 billion and defaulted loans collection portfolio of $1.2 billion. Program service accomplishments: promoting student borrower success is a long-term endeavor, starting before a student borrower enrolls in college and lasting through repayment. Trellis has a set of specialized teams - customer assistance, default prevention, claims and default recovery - that serve borrowers throughout the student loan lifecycle. These teams educate student borrowers about loans and their repayment options and help them return to repayment in the event of delinquency or default. Default prevention - trellis works with student loan borrowers, lenders, servicers, and the department of education (ed) to help prevent default on student loans. Loan counselors work with borrowers who have entered delinquency, educating them on student loan repayment options, including deferments, forbearances, and income-based repayment plans in order for borrowers to successfully repay their federal student loans and avoid default. In fy22, the team received 69,839 default aversion assistance requests from lenders and successfully averted approximately $1.2 billion from default. As a result, more borrowers return to and make progress in repayment, which allows the borrowers to avoid the negative consequences of default, including damaged credit and the loss of eligibility for federal student aid. Claims - trellis processes default claims submitted by lenders that have been unsuccessful in transitioning borrowers with delinquent loans back into repayment. When lenders submit claims on trellis guaranteed loans, trellis verifies the lender's compliance with federal family education loan program (ffelp) requirements, and, if valid, purchases the loan from the lender and begins the collection counseling process. Collections - upon default claim payment, trellis is statutorily required to pursue collection efforts on behalf of the federal government on all trellis guaranteed student loans. While the collection team's core responsibility is to recover taxpayer assets, trellis works with borrowers to obtain the best option for them to resolve their default. The goal is to help the borrower return to repayment and successfully manage their loan. In march 2021, in response to the pandemic, guarantors like trellis were asked to place collections for student loan borrowers on hold and return payments to borrowers received since march 20, 2020. The pandemic payment pause for borrowers ended august 28, 2023. Ed reimbursed trellis for those refunds from the federal fund and provided a lost revenue payment to guarantors for forgone collections during the pandemic which was also paid from the federal fund until september 30, 2024. The lost revenue payments were replaced with a special account maintenace fee pursuant to a voluntary flexible agreement entered in with ed on october 1, 2024.”

“Trellis' non-guarantor operations include high-quality research to help institutions, policy makers, and other stakeholders understand the state of post-secondary education. This work leads to opportunities to support institutions of higher education in making strategic pivots to better serve students. Additionally, trellis provides a variety of services targeted at enhancing the higher education community and creating positive student outcomes, including: research and public policy services: trellis provides extensive research services that are targeted at understanding consumer experience related to financing, participating, and persisting in higher education. These services are utilized to better understand the challenges associated with post-secondary financing and participation and are used to inform campus administrators, student service providers and policy makers. Trellis administers a wide variety of qualitative and quantitative research throughout the year to support these goals. Student support services- trellis provides various support services aligned toward assisting students in navigating the college access and completion journey. These services include: * financial coaching services (which provides in depth one on one consultations regarding student finances), * support services for filling out the free application for federal student aid (fafsa), * student financial literacy resources, * communication services to help students start and stay in college, and * a free, public-access website mosaiec (mosaiec.org) to provide resources about how and why to pay for college, * default prevention services to students prior to default, * support to assist students who have stopped-out to return to complete the degree. Institutional support services: trellis provides support resources for colleges and universities to assist in developing capacity on campus. These services support the development of policies, procedures and programs that assist in helping more students obtain a postsecondary degree or credential.”