June 10, 2019

A California-based student loan business has a new Sioux Falls office and plans to add dozens of employees.

Launch is a wholly owned subsidiary of California-based Goal Structured Solutions, a consumer finance company that uses data analytics and technology to deliver strategic solutions for asset management, lending and investments. It was founded in 2001 and has more than $26 billion in assets under management.

“We’re start-to-finish life-of-loan servicers,” general manager Paul Dockry said. “Once a private student loan is originated on behalf of one of our clients, we do all the processing thereafter.”

That includes inbound and outbound customer service, billing statements and processing payments. Much of the interaction occurs with college students, so there’s a heavy mobile and digital emphasis.

“We have a mobile app … and our goal is really to (reach) students who are still in school and want to interact via mobile or text, so we’ve found efficiency through driving information on mobile and online,” Dockry said.

Launch recently moved into an office at 6009 S. Sharon Ave. that was occupied by Farmers Business Network before it moved into the larger former Globe University building.

There are 14 employees in Sioux Falls, and the office can accommodate about 75, Dockry said.

“This will give us a runway of three to five years in terms of where we’re growing,” he said. “We’re excited to have a place to call our own and grow into.”

Hiring is expected to ramp up in the coming months.

The business services about $500 million in student loans for more than two dozen clients.

“We don’t own the loans – it’s banks, credit unions, investment funds, fintechs that are making loans nationally, so it’s a national suite of clients, including some schools providing funding directly to students,” Dockry said.

“The Launch team is passionate about helping its community and servicing its clients with integrity and trust.”

Launch includes part of the former ReliaMax Lending Services, which had been owned by ReliaMax Holding Co. A different subsidiary, the private student loan insurance organization ReliaMax Surety Co., was declared insolvent by the South Dakota Division of Insurance in 2018.

Launch acquired the assets of ReliaMax Lending Services in mid-2018, and the business rebranded later that year after state and national licensure was completed and existing servicing contracts were reassigned, Dockry said.

“This was a strategic fit for their organization, and we sold all the assets, people and technology,” Dockry said. “We’ve been going continually and kept the clients, and now we’re back in growth mode.”

Goal Structured Solutions is a “thought partner,” he added, that’s led by an executive team with decades of experience in consumer lending and has invested more than $240 million of its own capital in more than 50 performing and nonperforming loan portfolios.

Launch will continue to grow its presence servicing consumer and student obligations and will add servicing capabilities in Sioux Falls, Dockry said.

“As we grow Launch, the servicing business, we’ll be growing a couple other lines of business here in the coming months.”