About College Financing Group

The financial aid process is more complicated and confusing than ever. The FAFSA form alone, for instance, has four full pages of instructions. And yet, according to the Department of Education, far too many applicants still make mistakes – an alarming fact considering that correctly completing the FAFSA form could mean more financial aid for you or your child.

That's where College Financing Group comes in.
Our job is to help you navigate the financial aid process with ease and precision.

We will work one-on-one with you to provide services from the most basic, such as accurately completing and submitting financial aid applications, to the more complex, including explaining your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). Our ultimate goal is to educate and prepare you, so that you can make informed choices and pay for college using all available federal, state, and institutional financial aid.

Our Team of Financial Aid Experts

Rick Ross
Rick Ross has over 25 years of financial aid and educational lending experience. Previously, Rick worked as the Educational Lending Director of Client Relations and Educational Lending Account Manager for two Fortune 500 banks. He also worked as the Assistant Financial Aid Director at Erie Community College. Along with many local college fairs, Rick has been a presenter at numerous national, regional, and state financial aid conferences.

Andy Leardini
Andy Leardini has over 11 years of educational lending and consumer lending banking experience.  Andy is well-known in the financial aid community for his high level of service and lending knowledge.  His experience includes working for a national student loan servicer at Nelnet and serving many years as a Financial Aid Client Relationship Manager for M&T Bank. While at both Nelnet and M&T Bank, Andy received multiple awards for his outstanding performance in working with financial aid clients.

Nancy Vanzetta
Former Finger Lakes Community College Financial Aid Director, Nancy brings over 30 years of financial aid expertise to assist College Financing Group. Also, Nancy has been consulting with families in WNY for over two decades and is well known for her many area High School Financial Aid presentations.

Mission Statement

Students and families
Our mission is to assist college bound students and parents with an objective understanding of the college financial aid process. We will educate families with the key fundamentals of how to pay for college and also provide quality customer service throughout the entire financial aid process. College Financing Group is dedicated to serving all college bound students and families while providing expert advice and valuable information needed to pay for the college of their choice.

Colleges
We will assist college bound students and families with an objective view of the complete financial aid process and all options at the respective colleges of their choice, thus increasing the number of potential applicants that can afford to pay for college. Our purpose is to assist college bound students and families in completing financial aid applications accurately and in a timely manner providing families with the opportunity to review all available grants, scholarship, work and loan options. College Financing Group strives for the college bound students and parents to have a complete, objective understanding of the financial aid process which will promote positive dialogue with the financial aid administrators at the college of their choice.

High School Counselors
College Financing Group strives to be a trusted resource and compliment your efforts in advising college bound students on how to make college affordable. Our group has over 60 years of financial aid expertise and continues to focus on the ever changing rules that govern federal and state financial aid. This enables your office to focus on the academic standards and college admissions process that many high school students need. College Financing Group can support you with in-class Financial Literacy seminars, Financial Aid seminars for College Bound families, Underclassmen Financial Aid Awareness seminars, and much more.

Employers
College Financing Group will tailor presentations for your employees with a focus on high quality expertise that delivers a full understanding on how to pay for college.  We strive to minimize the time, energy and stress associated with the financial aid process as one of your exclusive employee benefits offered to the college bound students and families.