Monthly Columnists

Small business is big business in the Lowcountry. You’re facing important financial issues every day. Your bank wants quarterly financial statements in order to maintain your line of credit; tax returns are due; you do not have time to pay bills.

Managing your money has become a chore and is precluding your ability to run your business If the daily financial demands of running your business are becoming a burden, then team up with a financial service company. Let an expert manage the financial details of your business so that you can concentrate on the success of your business.

A financial alternative for investors.

If you have a portfolio that may be used as collateral for a loan, you may be able to access liquidity without immediately liquidating securities and still maintain your portfolio’s current exposure to the market. This is known as securities-based lending.

WHAT IS SECURITIES-BASED LENDING?
Securities-based lending is generally a revolving line of credit that uses your eligible investment portfolio as collateral. This strategy allows you to access funds without immediately liquidating your portfolio.

Employer-sponsored qualified retirement plans such as 401(k)s are some of the most powerful retirement savings tools available. If your employer offers such a plan and you’re not participating in it, you should be. Once you’re participating in a plan, try to take full advantage of it.

Before you can take advantage of your employer’s plan, you need to understand how these plans work. Read everything you can about the plan and talk to your employer’s benefits officer. You can also talk to a financial planner, a tax advisor and other professionals. Recognize the key features that many employer-sponsored plans share:

If you believe to the news media, you would think that the financial crisis banks and investment houses have been experiencing, there is no money left to lend for mortgages. This simply is not true.

In the past several years, guidelines were loosened to the point that if an applicant was breathing, they could get a loan. These loans were bundled into mortgage securities and sold and resold into the secondary market. With real estate values increasing at a rapid pace, investors worldwide purchased these securities and believed that there was very little risk, as the properties were gaining value. Loans were made to unqualified buyers and to speculative purchasers who believed they could flip the property in a short amount of time and make a quick profit.

How is your relationship with your banker? Do you have a true rapport? Or do you only call your banker when you need something?

Business experts agree it is important to build and maintain a close, long-term relationship with your banker especially if you own your own business or are an entrepreneur. The more comfortable you are sitting across the table from your local banker, the more support you will find when creative solutions are needed to help you meet your financial goals.

When choosing a bank for your business, look for a banker who has decision-making authority. This enables the banker to personally assist you with the loan, and provide a quicker response time for your loan approval. The better your relationship with the decision-makers at the bank, the greater the chances your loan will be approved.

Take control of your finances one step at a time.

The inflatable snowman  has been packed away, the last of the fruitcake gobbled. Now all that’s left are the incoming bills that financed your very happy holidays.

Discouraged by your financial state of affairs, you make a resolution to do better with your money. But the best of intentions aren’t going to get you where you want to be. What you need is a sensible plan with realistic goals that fits your current budget.

Generation to generation, in the financial world, there’s a time to reap and a time to sow.

Our financial activities, and the sphere within which we conduct them, are a potent way we touch and interact with the rest of the world. While a chronological survey can be simplistic, there are issues and strategies that persist throughout a lifetime, sharpening and fading from focus in different decades, as well as some financial concerns that are very specific to a particular period in life.

Good news on taxation of owner-occupied homes.

House Bill 4449, passed by the South Carolina State Legislature contains two bits of good news for those who have owner-occupied homes. Part I of Section III provides exemption from School Operating Millage. It states that 100% of the Fair Market Value for the 4% assessment ratio is exempt from paying for schools. The loss of revenue suffered by the school districts will be made up by a 1% increase in the sales tax.

This will encourage home ownership, and move much of the burden of funding schools to renters and tourists. This will mildly hurt industries which are sales tax sensitive, such as convention businesses, and places which thrive on tourism dollars, but it will reward those who own homes and actually live in them. It will also encourage renters to buy homes. Ideally, this would be a boon to the middle class and to residential builders.