An income-share agreement (ISA) is an alternative to using student loans to finance higher education. Rather than a loan, a student agrees to pay a percentage of their future income for a set number of years back to the investor, which could be a university that funds its own ISA or a pool of investors that has launched an ISA.
For example, a student could sign an agreement for $10,000 and agree to pay 3 percent of their income back to the original investor over a 10-year period, which would fulfill the agreement. There is no set amount to pay back, like a loan, nor does interest accrue; repayment is over an agreed upon time period.
