File Review and Verification

HEAG’s financial aid consultants are compliance experts. We have more than 25 years of experience assisting public and private colleges and universities and proprietary schools with file review and processing. Learn more about our financial aid consulting services.

We frequently report on news and trends important to financial aid administrators. You can follow our blog and join us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Here are some recent posts related to file review and verification.

August 23, 2019

Can you believe it?  For many of you, the fall start is just beginning and before you realize the census date passed you by, the 2020-21 FAFSA year will be open for business. The new award year will bring some major changes to the line items of locating tax in …

June 26, 2018

The HEAG Spring/Summer Newsletter is now available. In this issue: Meet HEAG’s New Executive Director – Joanne Dashiell Good News Regarding Student Loans for Those Attending Community College The Life of a Financial Aid Consultant Consumer Financial Protection …

April 17, 2018

Nationwide, institutions are gearing up for the upcoming 2018-2019 awarding season amidst the uncertainty of potentially major changes to the federal government’s student aid programs. As enrollment pressures mount, so does the pressure that Financial Aid Offi …

April 6, 2018

The Federal Register notice released on March 28th, 2018, begins to outline the 2019-20 verification guidelines for higher education financial aid administrators with very few surprises or changes.  Prior-prior income is here to stay and will be requested from …

January 25, 2018

The Promoting Real Opportunity, Success, and Prosperity through Education Reform Act (PROSPER Act) It could be a very big year for the higher education sector, as Congress sets to act on a complete overhaul of the Higher Education Act (HEA) and has already put …

January 19, 2018

In case you missed it, here are some of our most popular blog posts from 2017 for college and university financial aid offices. HEAG’s financial aid consultants often write on issues related to Title IV compliance, verification, file review and processing supp …

October 12, 2017

Year-round Pell is back for 2017-18. This is good news for Pell-eligible students who want to attend in the summer to accelerate their progress toward graduation. According to Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, “this decision is about empowering students and …

September 26, 2017

August 7, 2017 Authors:  Craig Munier, Assistant Director, Policy Liaison and Implementation, Federal Student Aid ~ Lisa DiCarlo, Director, Student Experience Group, Federal Student Aid Subject:  Changes to the IRS Data Retrieval Tool Process for the 2018-19 F …

September 21, 2017

In the last few years, it seems data breaches have been become common place in our country. Back in 2013, giant retailer Target was hacked, affecting an estimated 70 million consumers. This caused many Americans to have their banks/credit card companies issue …

August 23, 2017

HEAG’s Summer Newsletter is now online. It includes articles for financial aid professionals on: Summer Reading and the Dream Act New Year-Round Pell: How It’s Different This Time Around Student Loan Servicers, And Then There Was One Are You Using Social Media …

July 20, 2017

The Higher Education Assistance Group’s blog includes more than 200 articles on financial aid topics prepared by the Group’s expert financial aid consultants and systems analysts. Search by topic: Compliance Federal Student Aid Programs Technology File Review …

May 22, 2017

We share industry news and stories on Twitter throughout the week at @HEAG_INC. Here is a recap of our most recent tweets, focusing on topics of Title IV financial aid and higher education. 4/19/17 – HEAG’s Spring 2017 Newsletter for financial aid professional …

May 2, 2017

On Tuesday, January 31st, 2017, the Higher Education Assistance Group held their annual training session for consultants and directors. It was an informative day with topics ranging from changes to the 2017-18 verification process to quality assurance and clie …

April 20, 2017

IRS Data Retrieval Tool Nationwide, college financial aid offices and their students are being impacted by the current outage of the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. The outage, now expected to continue until the start of next FAFSA season, was in response to security …

April 19, 2017

HEAG’s Spring 2017 Newsletter for financial aid professionals is here! This issue includes: HEAG’s Consultants Share Their Favorite Commencement Memories HEAG ~ Growing to Serve You HEAG’s Annual Staff Training 7 Principles of Great Service Gainful Employment …

December 9, 2016

The time has come and gone, with the new 2017-18 already launched on October 1st, 2016 and students completing a FAFSA that won’t go into effect for another nine months. So it’s time to start strategizing for the upcoming verification season. These are new tim …

October 31, 2016

HEAG’s Fall 2016 Newsletter is here. This issue includes: HEAG ~ Growing to Serve You Tech Talk Corner – 2017/2018 Has Begun! Gainful Employment Debt-to-Earnings – An In-Depth Look HEAG ~ Recent and Upcoming events Upcoming Changes to 2017-18 Verification Proc …

September 14, 2016

Just the thought of compliance and accreditation can cause stress and anxiety for many of us. It’s okay. Take a deep breath and let’s look at how we can change our view on compliance. Accreditation and compliance should not …

August 24, 2016

It wasn’t the numbers in the blog post, “FAFSA Non-Filers: What the Research Says,” by Paula Acevedeo on the National College Access Network¹ that caught
 our attention, it was the experiments conducted by ideas42. With at least 2 million students failing to c …

August 9, 2016

HEAG was proud to be a part of the Eastern Association of College and University Business Officers (EACUBO) recent Spring 2016 Workshop held at the New School in New York City on June 15th, 2016.  The workshop topics included fund accounting, tax update, risk …

August 3, 2016

This quarter’s employee spotlight is Dr. Erica Holmes…. Name: Dr. Erica Holmes Current Position: Financial Aid Consultant What do you enjoy most about your current position at HEAG? I enjoy the diversity of working with different institutions. Working in cul …

July 27, 2016

Accreditation and Compliance Standards At the forefront of education is the notion of accountability. Whether post-secondary or secondary, at times we all wonder why so much oversight and what really is the role of regulatory bodies, accreditation agencies, an …

July 21, 2016

HEAG’s quarterly Newsletter reports on developments in the financial aid industry. Topics include administering Title IV aid efficiently and effectively, maintaining compliance, file review and verification, staffing solutions and technology tools. The Summer …

May 31, 2016

We share industry news and stories on Twitter throughout the week at @HEAG_INC. Here is a recap of our most recent tweets, focusing on topics of Title IV financial aid and higher education. 5/16/16 – Discount rates rise yet again at private colleges and univer …

May 24, 2016

  Typically, we wouldn’t even be thinking about a future award year when the upcoming one hasn’t even begun yet.  But with the major changes surrounding the release of the 17-18 FAFSA in October of this year along with prior-prior year income being utiliz …

May 19, 2016

HEAG Can Help With Interim Staffing. Many financial aid offices are experiencing the pressure to increase productivity, meet deadlines and improve customer service. You don’t have to do it alone! Our team of consultants are COMPLIANCE EXPERTS, experienced with …

May 9, 2016

Has someone in your office ever misfiled a W-2 in another student’s file? It can have a snowball effect. Starting as an innocent mistake, it consumes fruitless hours of searching through files, then requires an apologetic phone call to an unhappy parent and de …

April 21, 2016

Picture this. It’s right before the first week of fall classes and you have prepped staff as much as possible for the incoming deluge of students to the campus. During their visit, they will be doing everything from registering for classes, moving into dorms a …

August 11, 2015

Posted:  August 11, 2015 By: Jane Domenico, HEAG Consultant In March of this year, the Department of Education released a partial list of the nearly 560 institutions that, as of March 1, were subject to the financial restrictions known as Heightened Cash Monit …

November 1, 2013

Posted:  November 1, 2013 Tax season isn’t exactly what most people look forward to, unless you’re expecting a refund or you’re a financial aid administrator. Unfortunately, the most recent news is bad for both. Because 90% of the IRS was furloughed during the …

March 12, 2013

Please see the attachment for a general guidance on when tax filers can expect that their 2012 tax return information will be available for the FAFSA on the Web IRS Data Retrieval Tool (IRS DRT) and for requesting IRS Tax Return Transcr …

February 1, 2013

The Department of Education just announced the availability of the 2013 Blue Book and Application and Verification Guide of the 2013-2014 Federal Student Aid Handbook. The Blue Book consists of numbered volumes and appendices. Each volume and appendix is poste …

December 3, 2012

Click here to access the full FSA presentation. Below are the highlights of Verification changes: – The CPS will continue to set a Verification Flag on the applicant’s ISIR to indicate that the FAFSA was selected for verfication. – Two additional verification …

November 10, 2012

Written by Brittany Barker, HEAG consultant, Email: bbarker@heag.us Collecting verification documentation from student’s and their parents has never been an easy task for financial aid administrators.  However, with th …

August 1, 2012

The  Department of Education recently sent out a notice (DCL ID: GEN-12-08) offering guidance to schools that contract with a third party servicer.  This announcement reminds institutions of their responsibilities when they enter into contracts. A “third party …