February 6, 2026 – The Higher Education Assistance Group, Inc. (HEAG), the nation’s leading financial aid compliance consulting firm, today announced the launch of ReggieAI, the industry’s first AI-powered Title IV compliance agent built by Title IV experts for Financial Aid Professionals.
“This is financial aid’s iPhone moment,” said Karyn Wright-Moore, Vice President of Compliance and Quality Assurance at HEAG and co-creator of ReggieAI. “Just as the iPhone transformed communication, we believe that ReggieAI will streamline compliance – from a reactive scramble to a proactive, continuous system.”
The Compliance Crisis Continues
Federal Title IV regulations span 1,000+ pages and change constantly. Financial aid offices must interpret, apply, and defend every decision perfectly while managing student inquiries, processing aid, and preparing for audits – often with insufficient staff and institutional knowledge at risk of walking out the door.
The cost is measurable and mounting:
- 10-15 hours per week per staff member lost to compliance research
- $50,000-$100,000+ annually in staff time, consultant fees, and preventable audit findings
- Over 40% of institutions receive audit findings each year – based on our experience
- Widespread burnout among financial aid professionals
“For 35 years, we’ve watched brilliant professionals drowning in handbooks, heroic directors covering understaffed teams, and dedicated counselors leaving the field they love,” Wright-Moore explained. “We kept asking: What if there was a better way?”
The Breakthrough: AI Meets Institutional Expertise
The answer emerged with recent advances in artificial intelligence.
“The accessibility and rise of powerful AI technology finally gave us the ability to leapfrog our capacity to better serve our financial aid clientele,” said HEAG President, Milton Kerstein. “For the first time in history, we could take HEAG’s 35+ years of Title IV expertise and make it instantly available to every financial aid professional, 24/7.”
But generic AI tools weren’t sufficient. ChatGPT and similar platforms hallucinate facts, fabricate citations, and deliver wrong answers with confidence – disqualifying them for regulated Title IV work.
HEAG spent two years building something different.
ReggieAI: Your Title IV Agent
Built exclusively for Title IV compliance, ReggieAI combines:
- HEAG’s 35+ years of Title IV regulatory expertise and consulting knowledge
- Purpose-trained AI (not generic Internet training)
- 95%+ accuracy validated by seasoned compliance and technology specialists
- Citation-backed answers with traceable sources
- Human-in-the-loop escalation to HEAG compliance experts
- Enterprise-grade security (FERPA compliant, SOC 2 ready)
“You’re not trusting AI with Title IV,” Wright-Moore emphasized. “You’re trusting HEAG with AI. That’s the HEAG difference.”
ReggieAI functions as an always-available Title IV compliance agent that:
- Delivers instant, citation-backed answers to Title IV questions in plain English
- Generates institution-specific audit readiness checklists tailored to academic program types and risk profiles
- Drafts compliant communications for students, parents, and staff
- Escalates complex scenarios to HEAG experts with full context preserved
- Documents every interaction for audit defensibility and staff training insights
The Transformation in Practice
Consider a typical scenario:
A front-line counselor receives a call: “What happens to my Financial Aid if I withdraw?”
Without ReggieAI: Put student on hold or call them back later → Search FSA Handbook → Call director → Hope answer is correct → No documentation trail → 15+ minutes of staff time consumed.
With ReggieAI: Type question → Receive citation-backed answer in seconds → Share with student confidently → Interaction with ReggieAI automatically documented.
ReggieAI Aims to Streamline Financial Aid Operations
The HEAG team built ReggieAI to help:
- Recover 25-40 hours per week office-wide
- Decrease audit preparation from 200+ hours
- Boost staff confidence by 50-85%
- Reduce burnout and improve staff retention
- And much, much more
“ReggieAI doesn’t replace human judgment,” Wright-Moore clarified. “It amplifies expertise. Just as Excel freed accountants from manual calculations to focus on analysis, ReggieAI frees financial aid professionals from handbook hunting to focus on students, strategy, and institutional sustainability.
A Transformation, Not Just a Tool
HEAG is positioning ReggieAI as a fundamental shift in how financial aid offices operate.
“For 35+ years, HEAG has helped institutions survive and even thrive under the challenges of Title IV compliance requirements,” Wright-Moore said. “Now, with ReggieAI, we’re helping them transcend it. The accessibility of powerful AI technology finally lets us deliver on our mission at scale.”
To support adoption, HEAG is hosting a free 5-day ReggieAI Challenge – date to be announced – where financial aid professionals can experience the platform and learn implementation strategies from HEAG compliance experts.
About HEAG
Founded by Milton Kerstein in 1989, The Higher Education Assistance Group (HEAG) is the nation’s leading financial aid compliance consulting firm, serving hundreds of institutions across public, private, and proprietary higher education. With over 70 compliance experts nationwide, HEAG provides comprehensive Title IV consulting, interim staffing, audit preparation, policy development, and training services.
ReggieAI represents HEAG’s evolution in their commitment to serve clients – scaling three and a half decades of expertise through AI technology to provide the financial aid community with unprecedented speed, accuracy, and accessibility.
For more information or to schedule an interview, contact HEAG today: https://heag.us/contact-us/
Media Contact:
Karyn Wright-Moore
Vice President of Compliance & Quality Assurance
Higher Education Assistance Group
kwrightmoore@heag.us | 201-481-4758