Do you remember when you incorporated or created your limited liability company (LLC)? You did a filing with your state’s Secretary of State (some states use other agencies for this filing). If you expanded your territory to include other states, you needed to file for a Certificate of Authority to Transact Business as a foreign corporation or LLC (or a similar name for this document).
Most states have a requirement that you file an annual report with the Secretary of State’s Office or maybe the Franchise Tax Board. The filing times vary by state. The annual reports are designed to let the state know that you are still in existence, that you haven’t changed your registered agent, that you haven’t moved your offices, and that your officers, directors and/or members are still the same. Usually, there is a small fee to be paid. If there are changes, you are supposed to notify the state of those changes. Franchise board filings tend to be just a requirement to send a franchise fee to that state.
The consequences of not filing the annual report can be that you may eventually lose the right to legally transact business in that state and that the fees that are owed will continue to be owed and may incur interest and penalties. This is true even if you have stopped transacting business. it can also jeopardize your ability to renew your licenses.
You must file your annual reports on a timely basis. If you are not sure when you need to file, contact the Secretary of State (or whichever agency is in charge of corporate and LLC filings) or hire an outside company to do the filings for you (either a law firm or company that provides this service). If you have stopped doing business in that state, make sure the proper withdrawal documents are filed with that agency and pay the required fee. If you fail to do this, it could get quite expensive for your company.
Showing posts with label Arizona mortgage broker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arizona mortgage broker. Show all posts
Monday, March 28, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Getting Annual Report Correspondence to The Right Person
I’ve been writing a lot recently about the annual reports that are due at the beginning of the year. A whole bunch are due at the end of March. This is in addition to or instead of the Mortgage Call Report that will start becoming required at the end of April.
Some states send letters in January or February with log-in information for their online reports. These letters typically go to one of the owners in the mortgage company. Unless the owner is the one who will be preparing the Annual Report or inputting the Annual Report, my experience is that this letter will likely get mislaid. If you are receiving a letter from a banking department about the Annual Report, and you have either appointed someone in your company to prepare and input the Report or are using an outside company or law firm for Annual Report submissions, please forward these letters immediately to that person. If you are now scrambling to find that letter, have your outside company or law firm call the banking department to get them to re-send the letter. Then, send a letter to the banking department, on company letterhead and signed by an owner of the company, requesting that the banking department send all correspondence in the future to your outside company or law firm. It will save you a lot of aggravation and time that you won’t need to spend looking for a letter that you may not understand that you need.
Some states send letters in January or February with log-in information for their online reports. These letters typically go to one of the owners in the mortgage company. Unless the owner is the one who will be preparing the Annual Report or inputting the Annual Report, my experience is that this letter will likely get mislaid. If you are receiving a letter from a banking department about the Annual Report, and you have either appointed someone in your company to prepare and input the Report or are using an outside company or law firm for Annual Report submissions, please forward these letters immediately to that person. If you are now scrambling to find that letter, have your outside company or law firm call the banking department to get them to re-send the letter. Then, send a letter to the banking department, on company letterhead and signed by an owner of the company, requesting that the banking department send all correspondence in the future to your outside company or law firm. It will save you a lot of aggravation and time that you won’t need to spend looking for a letter that you may not understand that you need.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Why Don't You Have a Lawyer on Retainer
This is just a quick post directed to mortgage broker/lender company owners. Do you have a lawyer on retainer for your company so that you can shoot questions about licensing, compliance, or general corporate/LLC issues as you think of them? If you do, how often do you call or email your lawyer? If you do not, why not? Please send me your responses or comments at Robin@mortgagelicensesolutions.com. Thank you.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Do You Publicize Why Mortgage Brokers are Better Than Banks?
Mortgage brokers took the brunt of the criticism for the subprime mess and the collapse of the housing market that followed. In the eyes of the average consumer, mortgage brokers seemed to be the ones pushing homebuyers into products that were unsuitable for them. Because the housing market collapsed, many mortgage brokers could no longer make a living and thousands left the industry. As one of the survivors, you need to educate the public on how you can better help them with their mortgage needs and how you can get them a better deal than they would get by going to a bank.
Although mortgage brokers held about 70% of the mortgage origination business at one time, that percentage has dropped significantly. Your customer base has shrunk for a variety of reasons. Fewer people are buying homes. Even when buyers fill out a 1003, it may be questionable whether they qualify for a loan. Or the property may not appraise high enough to get a loan commitment. With the lowest interest rates in years, refinancing is not as big a part of your business as it should be because so many homeowners are underwater or there is not enough equity in the property or their credit history is not clean enough. So you have to fight for every customer you can find. You need to give them a reason to come to you rather than the big banks that everyone has heard of. Can you make a list of those reasons that a customer should come to you rather than where they keep their checking account?
It is a smart exercise to make that list even if you never give out that list to your customers. It helps you focus on why your business is better than your competitors. Thinking through your competitive advantages will help you get new customers. Can you help borrowers with less than clean credit history? Do you have investors for borrowers who are self-employed? Are your fees better than a bank’s? Can you offer a better rate than the banks? Did you spend time answering their questions when a bank loan originator didn’t have the time or inclination? Did the bank loan officer know about different types of loan products? If a customer is shopping for a new loan, why specifically should they choose you? If you are stuck on the answers, survey your current customers and your past customers. Find out what they liked about working with you.
Once you have figured out why you are the better choice for a consumer, you need to educate the public. Most consumers don’t know enough about your world to even ask the right questions. You need to ask the questions that they should be asking and then answer them in a way that shows your advantages over the banks (and your mortgage broker competitors).
Whenever you are creating materials that may be categorized as advertising, don’t forget to include all required disclosures that your state law requires for advertising materials (and that kind of disclosure may be a competitive advantage itself).
Contact Robin Gronsky at Robin@Mortgagelicensesolutions.com if you need help with licensing (company or MLO) or compliance issues. I’ll keep what you tell me confidential but I cannot give you any specific legal advice until you become a client of the firm. This is done by written agreement only.
Although mortgage brokers held about 70% of the mortgage origination business at one time, that percentage has dropped significantly. Your customer base has shrunk for a variety of reasons. Fewer people are buying homes. Even when buyers fill out a 1003, it may be questionable whether they qualify for a loan. Or the property may not appraise high enough to get a loan commitment. With the lowest interest rates in years, refinancing is not as big a part of your business as it should be because so many homeowners are underwater or there is not enough equity in the property or their credit history is not clean enough. So you have to fight for every customer you can find. You need to give them a reason to come to you rather than the big banks that everyone has heard of. Can you make a list of those reasons that a customer should come to you rather than where they keep their checking account?
It is a smart exercise to make that list even if you never give out that list to your customers. It helps you focus on why your business is better than your competitors. Thinking through your competitive advantages will help you get new customers. Can you help borrowers with less than clean credit history? Do you have investors for borrowers who are self-employed? Are your fees better than a bank’s? Can you offer a better rate than the banks? Did you spend time answering their questions when a bank loan originator didn’t have the time or inclination? Did the bank loan officer know about different types of loan products? If a customer is shopping for a new loan, why specifically should they choose you? If you are stuck on the answers, survey your current customers and your past customers. Find out what they liked about working with you.
Once you have figured out why you are the better choice for a consumer, you need to educate the public. Most consumers don’t know enough about your world to even ask the right questions. You need to ask the questions that they should be asking and then answer them in a way that shows your advantages over the banks (and your mortgage broker competitors).
Whenever you are creating materials that may be categorized as advertising, don’t forget to include all required disclosures that your state law requires for advertising materials (and that kind of disclosure may be a competitive advantage itself).
Contact Robin Gronsky at Robin@Mortgagelicensesolutions.com if you need help with licensing (company or MLO) or compliance issues. I’ll keep what you tell me confidential but I cannot give you any specific legal advice until you become a client of the firm. This is done by written agreement only.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Why You Should Tell Your Potential Customers About Your Licensing Requirements
Many of the mortgage brokers and lenders that I have been talking to in the past few months have been complaining about the need to get licensed. Most of the griping stems from the costs involved. A few mortgage brokers have pointed why licensing is better for the industry. You should be telling your potential and past customers why the licensing of loan originators is beneficial to them and how it differentiates the mortgage loan originators from bank loan officers.
You should be pointing out in all of your marketing materials that licensing means that your loan originators are more educated about federal and state laws because of the pre-licensing requirements. You should also emphasize how the testing requirement weeds out those loan originators who don’t take the courses very seriously. And don’t forget to tell everyone how your loan originators needed to go through criminal background checks to ensure that you and the state regulators evaluate whether any criminal convictions could impact their ability to act as honest loan originators.
You should call attention to the fact that borrowers have no idea who their bank loan officer is, yet they can find out pertinent information about your loan originators on the NMLS Consumer Access database. All of your marketing channels should be stressing these reasons why they should be using you, a licensed mortgage loan originator, rather than the unknown quantity that is a bank loan officer. Start shouting it from the rooftops right now.
Please feel free to forward this blog post to your colleagues, listserv members or favorite bloggers. Or if you would like to run it (in whole or in part) in any publication or quote from it, simply include my name and URL: http://www.mortgagelicensesolutions.com. No prior permission needed. To inquire about joining my list to receive my blog posts or my availability to speak to your group or write an article for your publication, please email me at Robin@Mortgagelicensesolutions.com. Thank you!
You should be pointing out in all of your marketing materials that licensing means that your loan originators are more educated about federal and state laws because of the pre-licensing requirements. You should also emphasize how the testing requirement weeds out those loan originators who don’t take the courses very seriously. And don’t forget to tell everyone how your loan originators needed to go through criminal background checks to ensure that you and the state regulators evaluate whether any criminal convictions could impact their ability to act as honest loan originators.
You should call attention to the fact that borrowers have no idea who their bank loan officer is, yet they can find out pertinent information about your loan originators on the NMLS Consumer Access database. All of your marketing channels should be stressing these reasons why they should be using you, a licensed mortgage loan originator, rather than the unknown quantity that is a bank loan officer. Start shouting it from the rooftops right now.
Please feel free to forward this blog post to your colleagues, listserv members or favorite bloggers. Or if you would like to run it (in whole or in part) in any publication or quote from it, simply include my name and URL: http://www.mortgagelicensesolutions.com. No prior permission needed. To inquire about joining my list to receive my blog posts or my availability to speak to your group or write an article for your publication, please email me at Robin@Mortgagelicensesolutions.com. Thank you!
Monday, June 1, 2009
Arizona Transitions to the NMLS
You have until June 30, 2009 to transition your company or sole proprietor mortgage broker license to the NMLS if you are currently licensed in Arizona. Mortgage bankers needed to transition to the NMLS by March 31, 2009.
Remember that transitioning your licenses does not mean amending your license information. If there are any changes to your information (e.g., you’ve moved your office or changed branch managers), you can submit the changes only after your current filings are approved.
The most basic filing is an MU1 for the company and the MU2 for each control person and the Responsible Individual. If you have branch licenses already approved, then you need to complete an MU3 for each branch and the branch managers must complete their own MU2 filings.
New applications for a company or branch license must be submitted through the NMLS. There are no more paper applications.
All loan originators must be licensed by December 31, 2009. The Arizona Department of Financial Institutions (the “DFI”) is still working on the conditions it will require for licensing loan originators since they are still deciding how to fully comply with the federal SAFE Act. However, loan originators can currently input an MU4 on the NMLS to get licensed under the existing Arizona licensing law. Loan originators must wait to input their MU4s until their employer has completed their NMLS filings. The DFI is intending to propose legislation that would postpone the deadline for licensing loan originators until July 1, 2010. But, such legislation has not become law yet so the deadline stays at December 31, 2009.
Remember that transitioning your licenses does not mean amending your license information. If there are any changes to your information (e.g., you’ve moved your office or changed branch managers), you can submit the changes only after your current filings are approved.
The most basic filing is an MU1 for the company and the MU2 for each control person and the Responsible Individual. If you have branch licenses already approved, then you need to complete an MU3 for each branch and the branch managers must complete their own MU2 filings.
New applications for a company or branch license must be submitted through the NMLS. There are no more paper applications.
All loan originators must be licensed by December 31, 2009. The Arizona Department of Financial Institutions (the “DFI”) is still working on the conditions it will require for licensing loan originators since they are still deciding how to fully comply with the federal SAFE Act. However, loan originators can currently input an MU4 on the NMLS to get licensed under the existing Arizona licensing law. Loan originators must wait to input their MU4s until their employer has completed their NMLS filings. The DFI is intending to propose legislation that would postpone the deadline for licensing loan originators until July 1, 2010. But, such legislation has not become law yet so the deadline stays at December 31, 2009.
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