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For-profit college operator Education Management Corp. has folded into chapter 7 bankruptcy about three years after agreeing to $200 million in settlements of allegations it misled students and the government, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The bankruptcy filing by Education Management and 58 affiliates is the culmination of a long wind-down for the company, which once ran one of the U.S.’s largest chains of for-profit schools. A 2015 shake-up that was partially a response to allegations of deceptive marketing practices put new management in charge. Swamped with litigation, the company began shutting down or selling the for-profit schools. Many of Education Management’s schools were sold to a faith-based nonprofit organization in Los Angeles, Dream Center Foundation, in a two-stage deal completed in January. Court papers don’t say how much Dream Center paid for the schools, including a string of Art Institutes. Filings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., are short on detail, but Education Management estimates it has more than $500 million in debt and assets that are worth less than $10 million.

The legal problems facing Navient, one of the nation’s largest student loan debt collectors, mounted yesterday as California’s attorney general said that he would file a lawsuit accusing the company of widespread deceptions and mistakes that cost borrowers millions of dollars, the New York Times reported. The accusations echo those in a major enforcement case against Navient that was started by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last year, in the final days of President Obama’s administration. The bureau is still pursuing the case, but consumer advocates fear it will be dropped or settled by Mick Mulvaney, the bureau’s acting director, who has sharply reduced the agency’s powers and scrapped many of its lawsuits and investigations. The actions of Mulvaney, who is also President Trump’s budget director, have prompted states to more aggressively flex their own consumer protection authority. California would be the fourth and largest state to sue Navient, joining Illinois, Pennsylvania and Washington. States have sued over Navient’s handling of both private and federal student loans. The case in California focuses on the federal loans, which are made or backed by the government. Navient is among the largest of eight servicers hired by the government to collect $1.4 trillion owed by nearly 43 million people. The company services loans for 12 million borrowers, including an estimated 1.5 million in California, according to the attorney general’s office.

As educational debt continues to mushroom, younger workers often have to choose between paying off their student loans and saving for retirement. Companies are starting to offer student loan payment benefits, in part to attract and keep workers in a strong economy, the New York Times reported. Abbott, the pharmaceutical and medical products company, today announced a new benefit to help its employees pay off their student debt while still building their retirement nest eggs. About 4 percent of employers offer some sort of student loan repayment benefit, up from 3 percent in 2015, according to the latest survey from the Society for Human Resource Management. Companies that help employers provide workplace benefits, like Fidelity Investments, are adding student loan assistance programs to their menus. Typically, employers make a lump-sum, after-tax payment, monthly or annually, toward an employee’s student loans.