Greenlight Mortage | North Carolina Mortgage Rules | lon mcintosh

Wed, Nov 12 07:31 AM

Washington, Nov 12 (DPA) The US Tuesday announced new measures to ease the mortgage market crisis that has threatened the wider US and global economy, offering a streamlined approach to help struggling homeowners refinance into affordable mortgages.

Mortgage holders in danger of foreclosure can take advantage of a government plan that will offer them lower interest rates, a longer term and even deferment of payments if needed.

‘Regrettably, there are many American families in this situation,’ said James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a new regulator created in July to help stem the record flood of mortgage defaults in the United States.

Foreclosures are up 150 percent and more than 3 million homeowners have faced foreclosure since 2006, sending shockwaves through the US financial system as banks were forced to write down billions of dollars worth of mortgage-backed securities.

The downturn in the US housing market provided the spark for the global credit crisis and severely curbed banks’ ability to offer new loans.

The US Congress last month adopted a $700-billion rescue package for the financial industry that some criticized as not offering enough help for struggling homeowners at the centre of the crisis.

‘Stabilizing our financial system will require not only strengthening our financial institutions so they are able to lend to our communities, but also helping homeowners avoid preventable foreclosures,’ said Neel Kashkari, the Treasury official charged with managing the $700-billion bail-out.

A financial planner is a professional who helps a person deal with his/her financial issues. A financial planner helps a person in areas such as personal financial planning, investment planning, risk management and insurance as also his/her cash flow management. What are the duties of a financial planner? Let us take a look.

Duties of a Financial Planner
A financial planner guides an individual to take his/her major financial decisions. He helps the individual understand the consequences of each of his/her financial decisions.

A financial planner helps an individual assess his/her financial assets, determine his/her financial goals and consider his/her economic resources to take investment decisions.

The duties of a financial planner include setting financial goals with the client, gathering the client’s financial information, analyzing it and designing a financial plan for the client. It is a financial planner’s duty to implement the planned financial strategies and monitor the client’s financial decisions.

A financial planner helps the client in risk management by assisting him/her in choosing suitable insurance schemes. He helps plan for future by providing well-suited investment options. A financial planner helps the client ensure financial independence on retirement, by helping him/her with choosing the proper retirement investment plan. A financial planner will advise the client on how to reduce his/her tax liabilities and enhance cash flows. A financial planner also deals with the conservation and distribution of the financial assets of his/her client.

Job description of a Financial Planner
A financial planner studies the different aspects of the financial picture of his/her client and provides a suitable financial solution. Some financial planners deal with the various facets of personal finance, while others specialize in fields like risk management or retirement planning.

The job of a financial planner can be described by means of a 6-step process given by the ISO. The first step is of setting financial goals with the client. The second step includes the gathering of relevant financial information from the client. The third step is of analyzing the gathered information, which is followed by the creation of a financial plan. The last two steps include tasks such as implementing the plan’s strategies and monitoring the implementation of the plan.

Financial planning is one of the most speedily growing industries as it deals with the management of the most important means of living, which is money !

Greenlight Capital Re has announced a drop in its preliminary financial results for the third quarter of 2008. The company’s investment return for the third quarter was -15.9%. The year to date investment return is -12.9%. However, the company does not have any material exposure to securities issued by American International Group, Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac, Lehman Brothers Holdings, Wachovia Corp or Washington Mutual.

Greenlight Re also announced that based on preliminary estimates of claims for hurricanes Gustav and Ike, the Company does not expect to experience any losses from these events.

“While our underwriting portfolio continues to perform well, this has been an extraordinarily difficult investment period,” said David Einhorn, chairman of the board of directors of Greenlight Re. “While we believe short term investment results could continue to be challenged, we expect the current dislocations will create good opportunities and remain optimistic about our current portfolio.”

“Due to the relatively soft reinsurance market conditions, we still have a significant amount of capacity,” said Len Goldberg, chief executive officer of Greenlight Re. “With hurricanes Ike, Gustav and the other events roiling the insurance industry, we feel we have the expertise and are well positioned to take advantage of the market dislocations that arise.”

The Reserve Bank on Monday reduced its key short-term lending rate (REPO) by 100 basis points with immediate effect, a move that will help lo
wer interest rates and spur consumption to keep the economy ticking.

The repurchase rate will stand reduced at 8% now. “In order to alleviate the pressure and, in particular, to maintain financial stability, the RBI has decided to reduce the repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility by 100 basis points to 8% with immediate effect”, it said in a statement.

RBI had earlier in the month slashed the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) by 250 basis points unlocking Rs 100,000 crore into the financial system.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi that the move would be “beneficial” to borrowers and investors, boost confidence in the economy. He described the RBI decision as part of a series of measures to moderate inflation and ensure economic growth.

“This is our hope, (it) will enthuse investors to continue to take forward their investment proposals,” he said.

Big stopgap measure
Small business owners seem to have a new friend in Senator Charles Schumer.  The New York-based politician wants to compensate for our nation’s credit freeze by creating an emergency loan program aimed at little companies.

Expect Schumer’s efforts to either pay off really quickly or not at all, since Reid J. Epstein reports that the program is intended “to serve as a bridge until funds kick in from the $700-billion federal bailout for Wall Street banks.”  That window is expected to be two to three months in length.

As for the amount of money that would be involved, look for sums of at least $20 billion to get discussed.  And the loans would go through the Small Business Administration, in case you’re wondering what agency would have its named attached.

Think this is a case of too little, too late?  Or too much, too early?  Schumer claims, “If you did nothing, you’d lose permanently thousands of small businesses.”

With that possibility looming, he may receive all sorts of support.  On the other hand, people are paying a great deal of attention to how the government spends their money, so don’t be surprised if some opposition rises, too.

Fees up, restrictions tighter
It’s a common, if unfortunate, type of scenario.  The Red Cross runs low on blood after a disaster.  Grocery stores have less food before big storms.  And it seems that UK banks are making things harder on small businesses even as these businesses need more help than usual.

It may not be fair to point fingers, considering that banks have, like the rest of the global economy, been experiencing a lot of problems.  Faced with the possibility of going bankrupt or getting acquired, every company is going to try to stem its cash outflow first.

Still, the Forum of Private Business has some discouraging things to say.  In a statement, the group indicated that it’s “concerned at reports that high street banks are beginning to reduce credit facilities and increase overdraft charges at a time when small businesses are most in need of funding.”

Also, “Following the merger of HBOS and Lloyds TSB, the FPB is warning that less choice between banks could mean that, as the credit crunch continues, the services offered to small firms are diminished.”

This seems to be meant as more of a heads up than anything, since there’s not much most people can do about the situation.   Here’s hoping our friends in the UK just managed to make all their necessary bank trips before the mess started to snowball.

Because improvements can solve financial problems

Good credit is like a financial superpower.  It allows businesses and individuals to get higher limits, lower interest rates, and loans, among other things.  So even as you’re juggling a dozen other priorities, don’t forget about building your business credit.

Tyson Elliott names three key tips in a Small Business Television article.  Perhaps the most basic step is making sure that what you’ve got is indeed a business credit card; he writes, “[I]f the application asks for your personal information such as your social security number . . . . this is a dead give-away that it’s a personal credit card in disguise as a business credit card.”

Then there’s the matter of having all your paperwork in order.  “That means having your articles of corporation filed properly with the secretary of state in the state you do business in, as well as filing with the IRS for a Tax ID number (sometimes called an EIN number),” according to Elliott.  And you’ll make want to ensure business credit reporting agencies are aware of your company, too.

Step four, if we can extend the list by a little, is to simply charge everything.  Why pay with cash or a check when you can hold onto the money for a month and improve your credit score at the same time?  Taking care of your credit card bills is an important part of this step, of course.

Improving your business credit should save you money in a very tangible way.  Good luck achieving this goal.