Tag: Personal Finance

House passes bill to block Biden’s student loan forgiveness program | CNN Politics

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Washington
CNN
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The Biden administration’s one-time student loan forgiveness program is facing a fresh threat from House Republicans while it awaits a ruling from the Supreme Court about whether the proposal can take effect.

The House voted Wednesday to pass a resolution seeking to block the forgiveness program as well as end the pandemic-related pause on federal student loan payments.

Two Democrats, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, joined Republicans in voting for the bill.

The proposed forgiveness program, which promises up to $20,000 in federal student debt relief to millions of low- and middle-income borrowers, was halted by lower courts late last year before any student debt was canceled. The pause on payments, which has been in place since March 2020, is set to end later this year.

President Joe Biden has pledged to veto the Republican-led resolution if it passes in both the House and Senate. The administration said that the resolution would “weaken America’s middle class.”

“The president’s plan is a good one. It’s a popular one. And it will help prevent borrowers from default when loan payments restart this summer,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre earlier Wednesday.

But Republicans argue that the student loan forgiveness program is unlawful and shifts the cost of the debt to taxpayers who chose not to go to college or already paid off their student loans. Blocking the program could reduce the deficit by nearly $320 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

“President Biden’s so-called student loan forgiveness programs do not make the debt go away, but merely transfer the costs from student loan borrowers onto taxpayers to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars,” said Rep. Bob Good, a Republican from Virginia, in a statement released when he introduced the resolution in March.

Even though Biden has pledged to veto the bill, votes in the House and Senate could force more moderate members of the Democratic Party to take a public stance regarding the student loan forgiveness program. Some lawmakers have been critical of the proposal in the past.

The Senate has yet to schedule a vote on the resolution, but nearly all of the 49 Republican senators have signed on as sponsors.

Republican lawmakers introduced their joint resolution in late March, using the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to roll back regulations from the executive branch without needing to clear the 60-vote threshold in the Senate that is necessary for most legislation.

If the student loan forgiveness program is allowed to move forward, individual borrowers who made less than $125,000 in either 2020 or 2021 and married couples or heads of households who made less than $250,000 a year could see up to $10,000 of their federal student loan debt forgiven.

If a qualifying borrower also received a federal Pell grant while enrolled in college, the individual is eligible for up to $20,000 of debt forgiveness.

While the debt relief would help borrowers with student loans now, the program wouldn’t change the cost of college in the future – and some critics argue that it could even lead to an increase in tuition.

In February, the Supreme Court heard two legal challenges to Biden’s student loan forgiveness program. One was filed by six Republican-led states, and the other was brought by two student loan borrowers who did not qualify for the full benefits of the program. The individuals are backed by the Job Creators Network Foundation, a conservative organization.

The lawsuits argue that the Biden administration is abusing its power and using the Covid-19 pandemic as a pretext for fulfilling the president’s campaign pledge to cancel student debt.

The White House has said that it received 26 million applications before a lower court in Texas put a nationwide block on the program in November, and that 16 million of those applications have been approved for relief.

No debt has been canceled yet. But if the Supreme Court allows the program to take effect, it’s possible the government moves quickly to forgive those debts.

If the justices strike down Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, it could be possible for the administration to make some modifications to the policy and try again – though that process could take months.

The Supreme Court is expected to issue its ruling in late June or early July.

Biden has extended the pause on federal student loan payments several times. Accounts have been frozen and most federal borrowers have not been required to make a payment for more than three years.

But the pause is set to end later this year. The Biden administration has tied the restart date to the litigation over the separate student loan forgiveness program. Payments are set to resume 60 days after the Supreme Court issues its ruling or 60 days after June 30, whichever comes first.

But the Biden administration has also made some lesser-known but potentially longer-lasting changes to the federal student loan system.

New rules set to take effect in July could broaden eligibility for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which is aimed at helping government and nonprofit workers. And a new income-driven repayment plan proposal is meant to lower eligible borrowers’ monthly payments and reduce the amount they pay back over time. Parts of that new repayment plan are expected to go into effect later this year.

The Department of Education has also made it easier for borrowers who were misled by their for-profit college to apply for student loan forgiveness under a program known as borrower defense to repayment, as well as for those who are permanently disabled.

Altogether, the Biden administration has approved more than $66 billion in targeted loan relief to nearly 2.2 million borrowers.

This headline and story have been updated with additional information.

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April 12, 2021
Here’s what’s left for the Supreme Court’s final week of the term | CNN Politics

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Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story ran in early June.

CNN
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All eyes are on the Supreme Court for its final week, as the justices will release cases on issues such as affirmative action, student loan payments, election law and LGBTQ rights.

Of the 10 cases remaining, several that most capture the public’s attention are likely to lead to fiery opinions and dissents read from the bench.

In addition, they will come down as the court finds itself in the center of a spotlight usually reserved for members of the political branches due to allegations that the justices are not transparent enough when it comes to their ethics disclosures, most recently with Justice Samuel Alito last week.

Here are some of the remaining cases to be decided:

The court is considering whether colleges and universities can continue to take race into consideration as a factor in admissions, a decision that could overturn long standing precedent that has benefited Black and Latino students.

At issue are programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina that the schools say help them to achieve diversity on campus.

During oral arguments, the right side of the bench appeared ready to rule against the schools. Such an opinion would deliver a long-sought victory for opponents of affirmative action in higher education who have argued for decades that taking race into consideration – even in a limited manner – thwarts the goal of achieving a color-blind society.

John Roberts skewers Harvard attorney’s comparison of race and music skills as qualities in applicants

At the center of another case is a graphic designer, Lorie Smith, who seeks to expand her business and create custom websites to celebrate weddings – but does not want to work with gay couples out of religious objections to same-sex marriage.

Smith has not yet moved forward with her new business venture because of Colorado’s public accommodations law. Under the law, a business may not refuse to serve individuals because of their sexual orientation. Smith, whose company is called 303 Creative LLC, said that she is willing to work with all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, but she draws the line at creating websites that celebrate same-sex marriage because expressing such a message would be inconsistent with her beliefs.

The state and supporters of LGBTQ rights say that Smith is simply seeking a license to discriminate.

The conservatives on the court were sympathetic at oral arguments to those put forward by Smith’s lawyer. They viewed the case through the lens of free speech and suggested that an artist or someone creating a customized product could not be forced by the government to express a message that violates her religious beliefs.

Moore v. Harper has captured the nation’s attention because Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are asking the justices to adopt a long dormant legal theory and hold that state courts and other state entities have a limited role in reviewing election rules established by state legislatures when it comes to federal elections.

The doctrine – called the Independent State Legislature theory – was pushed by conservatives and supporters of Trump after the 2020 presidential election.

The North Carolina controversy arose after the state Supreme Court struck down the state’s 2022 congressional map as an illegal partisan gerrymander, replacing it with court-drawn maps that favored Democrats. GOP lawmakers appealed the decision to the US Supreme Court, arguing that the North Carolina Supreme Court had exceeded its authority.

They relied upon the Elections Clause of the Constitution that provides that rules governing the “manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives” must be prescribed in “each state by the legislature thereof.”

Under the independent state legislature theory, the lawmakers argued, state legislatures should be able to set rules with little to no interference from the state courts.

The justices heard oral arguments in the case last winter and some of them appeared to express some support for a version of the doctrine. The justices could, however, ultimately dismiss the dispute due to new partisan developments in North Carolina.

After the last election, the North Carolina Supreme Court flipped its majority to Republican. In April, the newly composed state Supreme Court reversed its earlier decision and held that the state constitution gives states no role to play in policing partisan gerrymandering. After that decision was issued, the justices signaled they may dismiss the case.

Anita Hill: America “has lost confidence in the Supreme Court”

The Supreme Court is also considering two challenges to President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, an initiative aimed at providing targeted debt relief to millions of student-loan borrowers that has so far been stalled by legal challenges.

Republican-led states and conservatives challenging the program say it amounts to an unlawful attempt to erase an estimated $430 billion of federal student loan debt under the guise of the pandemic.

At the heart of the case is the Department of Education’s authority to forgive the loans. Several of the conservative justices have signaled in recent years that agencies – with no direct accountability to the public – have become too powerful, upsetting the separation of powers.

They have moved to cut back on the so-called administrative state.

In court, Chief Justice John Roberts as well as some other conservatives seemed deeply skeptical of the Biden administration’s plan.

A former mail carrier, an evangelical Christian, seeks to sue the US Postal Service because it failed to accommodate his request not to work on Sundays.

A lower court had ruled against the worker, Gerald Groff, holding that his request would cause an “undue burden” on the USPS and lead to low morale at the workplace when other employees had to pick up his shifts.

There appeared to be consensus, after almost two hours of oral arguments, that the appeals court had been too quick to rule against Groff.

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April 12, 2021
Biden’s student loan forgiveness program faces a new threat from Senate Republicans | CNN Politics

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Washington
CNN
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President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program may face a new threat from Senate Republicans even before the US Supreme Court rules on whether it can be implemented.

Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Joni Ernst of Iowa and John Cornyn of Texas are planning to introduce a resolution to overturn Biden’s debt relief program, which promises up to $20,000 of debt relief for eligible borrowers, as soon as this week.

Biden would very likely veto the measure if it succeeds in both the Senate and House. But votes would force members of his own party, who have not all been in support of the student loan forgiveness program, to take a public stance.

The program is currently blocked. The Supreme Court is expected to issue its ruling in late June or early July.

“President Biden’s student loan scheme does not ‘forgive’ debt, it just transfers the burden from those who willingly took out loans to those who never went to college, or sacrificed to pay their loans off,” Cassidy said in a statement.

The Republican senators plan to introduce their resolution using the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to roll back regulations from the executive branch without needing to clear the 60-vote threshold in the Senate that is necessary for most legislation.

It was unclear whether the Congressional Review Act would apply to Biden’s student loan forgiveness program until the Government Accountability Office made a determination on the matter earlier this month.

Biden issued his first veto last week concerning a retirement investment resolution, which was also brought under the Congressional Review Act.

While many key Democratic lawmakers have urged Biden to cancel some federal student loan debt, not every member of the party has been supportive.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat from Nevada who won a competitive reelection race last year, has previously been critical of Biden’s forgiveness plan.

“I’ll review the full text of the CRA when it is released, but like I said before, I disagree with President Biden’s executive action on student loans because it doesn’t address the root problems that make college unaffordable,” she said in a statement sent to CNN.

Her statement was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has previously called Biden’s student loan forgiveness program “excessive.” His office did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Biden’s one-time student debt forgiveness program is estimated to cost $400 billion over time.

Individual borrowers who made less than $125,000 in either 2020 or 2021 and married couples or heads of households who made less than $250,000 a year could see up to $10,000 of their federal student loan debt forgiven.

If a qualifying borrower also received a federal Pell grant while enrolled in college, the individual is eligible for up to $20,000 of debt forgiveness. Pell grants are awarded to students from very low-income families who are more likely to struggle paying back their student loans.

While the debt relief would help borrowers with student loans now, the program wouldn’t change the cost of college in the future – and some critics argue that it could even lead to an increase in tuition. A separate proposal from Biden, expected to take effect later this year, would create a new income-driven repayment plan that could lower monthly payments for both current and future borrowers.

The legal challengers to the student loan forgiveness program argue that the Biden administration is abusing its power and using the Covid-19 pandemic as a pretext for fulfilling the president’s campaign pledge to cancel student debt.

The White House has said that it received 26 million applications before a lower court in Texas put a nationwide block on the program in November, and that 16 million of those applications have been approved for relief – though no debt has been canceled yet. It’s possible the government moves quickly to forgive those debts if it gets the green light from the Supreme Court.

If the justices strike down Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, it could be possible for the administration to make some modifications to the policy and try again – though that process could take months.

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April 12, 2021
The Supreme Court just handed Joe Biden a series of setbacks. It may have also given Democrats new motivation to reelect him | CNN Politics

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CNN
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President Joe Biden wasn’t planning to take questions on Thursday. His helicopter was waiting outside on the White House’s South Lawn.

But after a 10-minute statement on the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling, a CNN reporter called out, “Is this a rogue court?” The president stopped in his tracks.

Pausing to think a moment, he looked over his shoulder. “This is not a normal court,” he said before leaving.

This week’s monumental rulings – striking down affirmative action in college admissions and unraveling Biden’s student debt relief plan among them – amount to serious setbacks for a president who promised as a candidate to advance racial equity and erase student debt.

They are also an urgent reminder to Democrats of the enduring consequences of elections at a moment Biden’s advisers are searching for ways to inject enthusiasm into his bid for another term.

What impact that will have on the coming election remains unknown. But Biden and his team have already begun assigning blame on Republicans for dismantling programs that have benefited young, college-educated and minority voters – all critical components of the Democratic coalition Biden will need to mobilize if he hopes to win reelection.

That three justices within the court’s conservative majority were appointed by President Donald Trump – both Biden’s predecessor and, according to polls, his most likely opponent next year – creates even more of an impetus for Biden to use the rulings as a political cudgel as his campaign heats up.

“The excesses of the Supreme Court are going to backfire,” said Rep. Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat. “You know, the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe versus Wade reduced what was supposed to be a red wave in the 2022 election cycle to nothing more than a red trickle. So not only is the Supreme Court’s decision bad law, it’s also bad politics and it’s going to come back to haunt the Republican Party.”

Speaking to a group of Democratic donors in New York City on Thursday evening, Biden sought to underscore the stakes of the court’s new supermajority, a preview of how he’ll frame the issue over the coming year.

“The Supreme Court is becoming not just conservative, but almost – it’s like a throwback. It’s like a throwback, some of the decisions they’re making,” Biden told donors in a private dining room inside the Seagram Building. “Did you ever think we’d be in a position, after 50 years of acknowledging the right of privacy in the Constitution, suggesting that there’s no such thing as the right to privacy?”

Despite his criticism of the court, Biden has rejected some liberal suggestions on reforming the panel. He opposes expanding the number of justices that sit on the court and hasn’t embraced term limits.

“If we start the process of trying to expand the court, we’re going to politicize it, maybe forever, in a way that is not healthy,” Biden said during a friendly interview on MSNBC shortly after Thursday’s decision on affirmative action.

Biden’s student loan plan, which came about last year after months of agonizing internal debate over its costs and eligibility criteria, was intended to free low- and middle-income Americans from crippling debt.

Throughout the process, Biden expressed concern at being seen as offering a handout to the wealthy. Eventually, pressure to fulfill one of his top campaign promises led to the plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student loan debt for certain borrowers.

For months the White House publicly said there was no alternative plan if the Supreme Court struck down the student debt relief program. But behind the scenes, top White House officials were working for several weeks to fulfill a simple directive from the president to “be ready in the event the Supreme Court did not do the right thing,” White House officials said.

The president’s charge to his team was described as this: “If the court ruled against the program, find other ways to deliver relief for as many working and middle-class borrowers as possible, accounting for all the legal issues.”

For the past few weeks, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients gathered his team for weekly meetings to map out all scenarios for the Supreme Court’s ruling and explore all legal avenues available to them after the president told his team to build a “fully developed response” to all possible rulings, officials said.

Zient’s office – led by deputy chief of staff Natalie Quillian, the Domestic Policy Council, National Economic Council and White House Counsel’s Office – worked with the Department of Education and the Department of Justice to come up with options the administration could take if the ruling was not in their favor.

“All of these meetings were structured around one question – how would we be able to deliver relief to as many borrowers as we could, as quickly as possible under any possible outcome of the Supreme Court,” official said.

The White House also stayed in touch with and fielded suggestions for next steps from debt relief advocate groups and congressional allies throughout the process. Lawyers from the White House, Justice Department and Education Department examined all of the recommendations, including administration action and the legal authorities available to the administration, and ultimately crafted responses for multiple scenarios.

Inside the White House, some officials had held out hope the court would uphold Biden’s student debt program, pointing to some surprising decisions over the past weeks that saw some conservative justices joining liberals on issues of voting rights and congressional redistricting.

But even Biden acknowledged after the court’s oral arguments in February he wasn’t certain the ruling would go his way.

“I’m confident we’re on the right side of the law,” Biden told CNN in March when asked if he was confident the administration would prevail in the case. “I’m not confident of the outcome of the decision yet.”

His instinct was correct. The president was in the Oval Office on Friday morning when he was informed of the Supreme Court’s decision by his senior aides and then engaged in meetings stretching into the afternoon to fine-tune their response after the ruling was not in their favor.

Ultimately, the president directed his team to move forward with a new plan, which includes pursuing a new path for debt relief through the authorities in the Higher Education Act of 1965, which was promoted by some debt relief advocate groups and progressive lawmakers, as well as creating a temporary 12-month “on-ramp repayment” program for federal student loan borrowers when payments resume in October.

A day earlier, Biden was watching the news on television when the affirmative action decision was handed down by the court, according to an official. A team from the White House counsel’s office came to brief him on the ruling.

“In our conversations with the White House about why student debt cancelation was needed, it’s about reducing the racial wealth gap,” said Wisdom Cole, national director of the Youth & College division at the NAACP. “If the administration is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, they must use every tool in their toolkit. Every legal authority to ensure that we see relief happen.”

Demonstrating urgency in responding to the court’s actions was a key objective as the White House prepared for both rulings, according to people familiar with the matter.

Looming over the preparations was the impression left after last year’s Supreme Court term that the Biden administration was unprepared for the decision striking down the nationwide right to abortion, despite a leaked court opinion months ahead of time indicating the justices were prepared to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The White House has strongly denied it was caught flat-footed on abortion and has pointed to actions taken in the months after the decision to expand access, including to medication abortion.

The issue proved galvanizing to Democratic voters in November’s midterm elections and has propelled Democratic victories even in traditionally Republican districts.

Whether the court’s ruling on student debt relief and affirmative action can have a similar effect will prove critical over the coming year, as Biden works to convince voters he is still fighting to fulfill his promises. Initial reaction from progressive Democrats was positive.

“It was not a foregone conclusion that the President would act so swiftly today. But he announced an alternative path to student debt cancellation by using his Higher Education Act authority given by Congress – and that deserves praise,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Institute.

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April 12, 2021
Biden has already canceled $66 billion in student loans. Here’s how 3 people received debt relief | CNN Politics

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Washington
CNN
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Even though the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, more debt will be canceled during his time in office than under any other president.

The Biden administration has already canceled a record $66 billion in student loan debt for nearly 2.2 million borrowers.

While his one-time student loan forgiveness program would have been far reaching, promising up to $20,000 of debt cancellation for eligible borrowers and wiping out roughly $400 billion overall, the Department of Education has made some lesser-known changes to existing student loan forgiveness programs.

The administration has made it easier for people to qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which grants relief for public sector workers after they’ve made 10 years of qualifying payments.

It has also made more people eligible for the borrower defense to repayment program that cancels student loan debt for borrowers who attended a school that may have misled them or violated certain state laws, as well as made loan discharges automatic for more borrowers who are permanently disabled.

Here’s how three people received student loan forgiveness due to the changes the Biden administration has made to existing federal programs.

Margo Myles, 52, got a letter from the Department of Education in late March saying that nearly $25,000 of her federal student loan debt had been canceled.

Myles had borrowed the money in the early 2000s to earn an associate degree in paralegal studies, but the education didn’t pay off. She found work in the legal field a few years after finishing school but was earning just $9 an hour – not enough to pay her bills and her student loans.

“I was trying to reorganize my life. For me, and for so many other students, this should have been a door,” Myles said of her degree program.

Instead, she defaulted on her student loans. The default dinged her credit and resulted in the garnishment of her federal tax refunds. Myles said she wasn’t allowed to request her academic transcript while her loans were in default, preventing her from enrolling elsewhere.

The Department of Education later found that schools owned by the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges – which include Myles’ alma mater, known at the time as Florida Metropolitan University – engaged in “widespread and pervasive misrepresentations” about students’ employment prospects, including guarantees they would find a job as well as the ability to transfer credits.

Under the borrower defense program, borrowers can apply for debt relief if they were misled by their college. Last June, the Department of Education announced that any student who attended a Corinthian-owned college would automatically qualify for the benefit. The move made 560,000 more borrowers eligible.

About nine months later, Myles learned that she was one of the qualifying borrowers and her debt was discharged. The Department of Education said it would request credit reporting agencies to repair her credit within 45 days, according to the letter she received.

Myles, who now lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and works in insurance, plans to continue her education by pursuing a bachelor’s degree and then a law degree.

“I’ve always wanted to go back to school. I don’t care if I’m 60 when I finish,” she said.

Applying for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program was a yearslong, frustrating process for Paige Vass, a special education teacher in Virginia.

The PSLF program cancels remaining federal student loan debt for eligible government and nonprofit workers after they have made 120 qualifying monthly payments, which takes at least 10 years.

But the program has been riddled with problems. Many people reached 10 years of repayment believing they qualified for cancellation of their remaining debt, but instead found out that they had the wrong kind of loan or were making payments in the wrong kind of repayment plan.

Vass applied after teaching for more than 10 years, but her paperwork was returned several times, for things like having an incorrect date or a signature in the wrong place.

She decided to try applying one more time last year after the Biden administration temporarily expanded eligibility for the program with a one-year waiver.

“My fingers were crossed, but I also thought I might be chasing a unicorn,” Vass, 47, said.

“But I was like, I’ve got to try. This is a huge debt and a huge weight on our family,” she added. She and her husband, who is also an educator, have two children.

This spring, not only did Vass find out that she qualified for more than $30,000 in debt relief, but she is also set to receive a refund of about $5,000 because she had overpaid. Under the rules of the temporary waiver, she had made more payments than the 120 required for debt forgiveness.

The debt relief means she may be able to spend more time with her kids. In the past, when she’s owed hundreds of dollars for her student debt each month, she’s worked summer school, taught skiing and worked for the on-demand delivery company DoorDash for some extra cash.

“There’s been so many changes and so many hardships for teachers over the last three years. To me (the loan forgiveness) felt like a statement on behalf of our country’s administration that says, ‘You are valuable and we appreciate what you do, and you do make a difference,’” Vass said.

Last year, Charles Goldenberg, a radiologist in New York City, got an email notifying him that his more than $340,000 in federal student loan debt had been canceled because he qualified for the PSLF program.

While in training, and making little money, Goldenberg was paying off his loans through an income-driven repayment plan, which lowered his monthly payments. But those payments hardly covered the interest accumulation, and his balance ballooned before the pandemic pause went into effect in 2020.

Now, at 42, Goldenberg said the student debt cancellation gives him the opportunity to move on with his life.

“And I think that’s the whole point of the PSLF program. You spend years of training and schooling above and beyond college, making less money than you would when you’re out of training. It’s not without sacrifice. It’s because you work for eligible employers … where you’re not going to be making the kind of money that I make now,” he added.

Goldenberg had been paying off some his loans for 19 years, but not every payment had counted toward the PSLF program until he consolidated his loans about two years ago.

Thanks to the one-year waiver put in place by the Biden administration, some payments he made earlier became eligible.

Applying for the relief had also been a long process for Goldenberg. His loan servicer had difficulty verifying that one of his employers, a nonprofit hospital in Miami, qualified for the program. He eventually found proof on the Department of Education’s website that the hospital did qualify.

Now that Goldenberg is done with training and is earning more money, his student loan payments would be much higher when the pandemic-related pause ends later this year than they were three years ago. He expects they would be $2,500 or more a month if not for the debt relief.

“Now I can use the money that I make for myself, for a mortgage, for family, for other expenses, for retirement. So it really opened up my financial future in a big way,” he said.

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April 12, 2021
NCA Financial Planners and CEO Kevin Myeroff Named #3 Best-in-State Independent Wealth Advisor by Forbes

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NCA is an independent financial planning firm based in Cleveland, OH, that oversees $1.3 billion in client assets.

Press Release
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updated: Feb 23, 2021

CLEVELAND, February 23, 2021 (Newswire.com)
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NCA Financial Planners is proud to announce the firm and CEO Kevin Myeroff have been named to the 2021 Forbes Best-in-State Wealth Advisors list for the fourth consecutive year. NCA is an independent financial planning firm based in Cleveland, OH, that oversees $1.3 billion in client assets.

Forbes evaluated over 32,000 advisors across the nation on industry experience, assets under management, compliance records, and advisors that demonstrate “best practices.” This year’s list spotlights more than 5,224 top advisors across the country, which included 161 for the state of Ohio. Forbes states their research has found: the very best advisors are laser-focused on having a positive impact on their clients’ lives, they want to add meaning, help them live better lives.

“We are truly humbled to fit this description. We’re proud to be there for our clients and their families. We have the ability to alter our client’s lives, and we value the trust they have in our process and investment philosophy,” says Kevin Myeroff, CPA, CFP® CEO & President of NCA Financial Planners.

For more information: https://bit.ly/2NuoHYe

Or contact:

Laurie Jackson
Client Services, Marketing Manager
E: ljackson@ncafinancial.com
P: (440) 473-1115
NCA Financial Planners
6095 Parkland Blvd. Suite 210
Mayfield Heights, OH 44124
www.ncafinancial.com | F: (440) 473-0186

Securities offered through Royal Alliance Associates, Inc. (RAA), Member FINRA/SIPC. RAA is separately owned and other entities and/or marketing names, products or services referenced here are independent of RAA. RAA does not provide tax or legal advice. Investment advisory services offered through NCA Financial Planners. P: (440) 473-1115 6095 Parkland Blvd, Suite 210 Mayfield Heights, OH 44124 F: (440) 473-0186. For more information, please visit www.ncafinancial.com

Source: NCA Financial Planners

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February 23, 2021
This startup raised $3.7M to let anyone donate stocks and ETFs with a free personal charitable foundation

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Y Combinator-backed Charityvest is expanding access to a special category of charitable giving accounts known as donor-advised funds, offering free accounts for individuals and powering easy to use workplace giving charitable match programs for employers. On Giving Tuesday, the company will launch zero-fee stock contributions, allowing anyone to donate stocks and ETFs to their personal charitable foundation, from any brokerage, for free. The venture recently raised $2.3M of Seed investment, bringing its total capital raised in 2020 to $3.7M.

Press Release
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updated: Nov 19, 2020

ATLANTA, November 19, 2020 (Newswire.com)
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Vennfi, the financial technology company for tax-exempt payments, announced its close of a $2.3M Series Seed fundraise. The round was led by seasoned fintech investor Tom Blaisdell, formerly of DCM Ventures. Teamworthy Ventures, Duro.vc, Sovereign’s Capital, and Promus Ventures participated in the round, alongside several return backers and new mission-aligned funds and individual investors. In total, the venture will have raised $3.7M over the last 9 months.

The company’s flagship platform, Charityvest, lets anyone instantly create a tax-deductible charitable giving account, known as a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF), which acts like a personal charitable foundation. Users can make tax deductible contributions of cash, stock, or cryptocurrency to their fund, direct donations at any time to over 1.4M nonprofits in the US from their fund balance, send gifts of charitable money to friends and family, and keep track of all of their giving activity with a single consolidated tax receipt.

Additionally, the platform helps companies automatically match their employees’ charitable giving with smart budgets and compliance tools. The corporate matching offering, called Charityvest for Workplaces, has been adopted by dozens of organizations and thousands of employees since it was publicly announced at Y Combinator’s Summer 2020 demo day in August. Employers can launch a charitable matching program in minutes and employees appreciate the easy to use, flexible interface.

On Giving Tuesday (December 1, 2020), Charityvest will launch zero-fee stock contributions, allowing users to make donations of appreciated publicly-traded stocks and ETFs, directly to their fund, from any brokerage. Donating appreciated stock has substantial tax advantages – mostly through the avoidance of capital gains taxes, and the consequential larger charitable income tax deduction – that result in more funds being available for giving to charities.

“Charityvest’s zero-fee stock giving feature is the first of its kind, enabling both individual donors and employees of companies that use Charityvest to make a tax-deductible gift of securities to their fund, and use the cash proceeds to support one or more charities with just a few clicks,” said the company’s CEO Stephen Kump. “With financial markets at all-time highs, we see stock giving as a highly efficient way to intentionally set aside financial resources for generosity.”

Charityvest uses donor-advised funds (DAFs), which have traditionally been marketed to wealthy donors. The platform has dramatically reduced the complexity and cost of DAFs, and offers its funds with zero fees and low contribution and grant minimums – only $20 to get started. Since Charityvest’s launch, two major incumbent DAFs – Fidelity Charitable and Schwab Charitable – have also lowered their minimums.

“Being generous makes people happier, and Charityvest makes being generous easier,” said lead investor Tom Blaisdell. “This is yet another example of taking a financial vehicle – donor-advised funds, in this case – widely used by wealthy families and individuals to simplify and amplify their charitable giving, and applying technology to make it simple and inexpensive enough for everyone to take advantage of it. I’m excited to be involved in helping Charityvest make the world more generous.”

Contact:
Ashby Foltz
media@charityvest.org

Source: Vennfi

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November 19, 2020
New Book Shows How to Live Well While Saving Up to Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars, Based on Research

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Friedland Marketing announces new book ‘YOU CAN PROSPER: How to Do More With Less’ It shows how to live well while saving up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, based on research. Author shares success secrets she discovered when recovering from car crashes.

Press Release
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Sep 27, 2016

Rio Rancho, New Mexico, September 27, 2016 (Newswire.com)
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You can live well while saving up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to a new book YOU CAN PROSPER: How To Do More With Less. Many ways of enjoying life and living longer are included in this book. It explains how to do so in a way that can save you money, save time, be more organized, prepare and follow a budget, plus live spiritually. In it, author Lucille Friedland, M.S., who is a marketing consultant and coach, shares success secrets that she tried or used while recovering from car crashes since 2007.

“My car was totaled in the second crash,” said Friedland. “I was bedridden and only able to be up two to three hours per day. Therefore, to survive I had to figure out how to do things extremely quickly and affordably. Still, I wanted to enjoy life. Thankfully, I have since mostly recovered. I wrote YOU CAN PROSPER because I want to share what I have learned.”

My car was totaled in the second crash. I was bedridden and only able to be up two to three hours per day. Therefore, to survive I had to figure out how to do things extremely quickly and affordably. Still, I wanted to enjoy life. Thankfully, I have since mostly recovered. I wrote YOU CAN PROSPER because I want to share what I have learned. This book is great for anyone interested in self-help, life skills, personal finance, spirituality, fun, joy, eco-friendly/ green, or just an excellent read in general.

Lucille Friedland, M.S., Author of YOU CAN PROSPER; Marketing Trouble-Shooter, Consultant, Business/ Personal Coach with Friedland Marketing

What is the need for YOU CAN PROSPER? “Live long and prosper,” alien Spock famously said on Star Trek as he held up his famous hand sign. Yet, with the average American household debt estimated to be $90K (AOL on May 13, 2016), many people here on earth want to live better with what they have. Friedland shares new and classic ideas, often supported by research.

At 61 pages long, this book is a quick read and easy-to-understand. Links allow readers to go to mentioned online apps or videos. References at the end of the book with links permit readers to explore the full article describing the research study in more detail. Published by RainbowExchange.NET Books, this paperback and eBook respond to needs of the public.

“This book is great for anyone interested in self-help, life skills, personal finance, spirituality, fun, joy, eco-friendly/ green, or just an excellent read in general,” said Friedland.

Author Lucille Friedland, M.S. is available to speak about YOU CAN PROSPER at conferences in the U.S.A. and in English-speaking parts of Canada.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lucille Friedland, M.S., Marketing Trouble-Shooter, Consultant, and Business/Personal Coach with Friedland Marketing (www.FriedlandMarketing.com)

Friedland brings over 25 years of successful marketing and strategic planning expertise. She has won over a dozen awards and honors in her field. In 1996, she established Friedland Marketing. While serving other types of clients as well, she specializes in cases where people are having problems making their marketing work or they want to grow their business from a cocoon to a butterfly. Her former clients have grown up to 30 fold in revenues and valuation. She earned a Master’s of Science degree from San Jose State University (SJSU), Bachelor’s of Arts from Brandeis University, and Bookkeeping Certificate from Central New Mexico Community College (CNM).

WHERE TO BUY & HOW OFFERED FOR SALE:

• Paperback with color photos inside — ISBN 978-0-692-77066-5

• eBook with color photos — ISBN 978-0-692-77067-2

• Retail $14.99 Paperback or eBook

• Customers can check the publisher’s web site at www.RainbowExchange.NET for locations that are stocking the book online or in stores. The eBook is available at select online stores and will be at more ones shortly; the paperback version will be available soon.

• Retailers and librarians can order books and eBooks through your Ingram Distributor or at www.ingramcontent.com

• Wholesale 55% discount, with barcodes on back cover of printed book, returnable by retailers in U.S.A.

• Book sold in currencies of U.S.A., Canada, United Kingdom, European Union, and Australia

• For more information and updates, visit the book publisher’s web site at www.RainbowExchange.NET

MEDIA INFORMATION:

Author Lucille Friedland, M.S. is available for media interviews in person and/or on Skype, depending on the location. Contact her at 1-(505) 504-3404 and on the “Contact Me” page of www.FriedlandMarketing.com.

Source: Friedland Marketing

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September 27, 2016
‘We Got A Bit Feral’: 7 Guests Recount Staying For Free On An Island Working On Ideas

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As I wrote about earlier this week, Ideas Island is an island run by Swedish creativity speaker Fredrik Haren where he invites people working on ideas to come stay for free. Guests come from all over the world, work in a diverse set of professions and pursue a variety of projects. As happened to me, many of them arrive with one intention but then find the island takes over. Here is a smattering of their experiences.

Sam Jenkins, 29, and James Springall, 37, London

Professions: freelance advertising creatives, No to Normal

Stayed: Vifarnaholme, June 2015

Project: A children’s book

Sam: It was very much a stab-in-the-dark, crazy thing to do. It seems kind of unbelievable, too good to be true that someone would let you go to this island, theoretically for free but giving the money to charity. Because the info they provided was very sparse — we got a PDF with some pictures and a map and a photo of what the boat looks like and the pin for the padlock — it aroused feelings of adventure, of being a child again and going off into the unknown. We made good friends with the neighbors living across the water and had a lot of drunken dinners and then we would have to row the boat back over at 1 or 2am.

James: For us it was less important that we produce an enormous amount of work and more important that we had time to envisage future projects. I’m a collage artist, but I didn’t bring all the materials I would need to make collages — magazines, scissors and glue — but I did come back with an abundance of ideas as to how I may take certain ideas forward.

Sam, on how ideas came up: It was the stillness, the emptiness of there being no other stimulus or shroud of crap you have to do day to day hanging over creativity. You don’t have all the mod-cons that you gathered growing into adulthood, whether physical, mental, or things you worry about like email, bills.

It’s a bit like being given a blank canvas at first. It can be a bit daunting. All of a sudden, we had all this time. You’re always like, I wish I had time to do this, or I wish I had time do that, but when you’re given the time, you’re a little stunted almost by the vastness of it.

Frances Brown, 31, Cambridge, England, with three friends

Profession: Mentoring and course director, the Queen’s Young Leaders Programme

Stayed: Vifarnaholme, August 2015

Project: write her PhD dissertation

We explored, we hunted, fished, [chopped logs], and ate almost everything cooked on the fire on the beach and swam every day and played like children. I was there with two police officers, one of whom was really very quite high up. By day two, we had reverted to kids. We had long conversations about work and about how we should be more playful and say, ‘I’m not going to work today. I’m going to sit here and enjoy the view or spend time with my friends.’ Just being away from all those things that take your attention away made us realize what was important — spending time with your friends and actually listening what they’re saying, not checking your phone or having to rush off anywhere. When I first went to the island, I thought I should be doing work 10 hours a day, and then I quite quickly chose not to and to enjoy the island for what it could be. I worked for four hours, but it still felt good enough to stop. Afterwards, it became quite clear from past guests and from Sofia that that’s Frederick’s plan: you go there to work and the island takes over.

Two of the girls live in Scotland, in Dundee, and I’ve been living in cities for the past 10 years, so we got a bit feral. We were chopping down trees and fishing and at one point, accidentally, one of the girls was fishing, and the duck swallowed the hook. We tried to rescue it, but we couldn’t. We said we can’t just cut this duck loose and leave it to die, so we killed and cooked it. But we were traumatized we accidentally hooked the duck and felt really guilty. I ran away. The other two quickly hammered it, plucked it, hung it upside down and properly butchered it, and one of the girls had hunted with her dad so she knew how to prepare it and we cooked it on a griddle over the campfire. I remember the other girls that were not part of killing it at first were like, oh no, we don’t want it, but then we realized that was ridiculous. If we can’t eat something that we know exactly where comes from … and yeah, it was the best duck we’d ever eaten.

I teach this course for online leadership for 120 young people. While I was there I decided to write a module which boiled down everything I was learning on the island such as the science behind having your best ideas when you let your brain relax — like how you have your best ideas in the shower. When you stop thinking about what you’re supposed to think, your neurons meet up and get great ideas, and that’s what I found on the island. I wasn’t pushing myself. I was so distracted doing all these other things I really liked, that by the time I got up the next day, all these ideas were pouring out.

When I put the module out, I was worried about what kind of response this would get, because my students come from all over the world — 70 different cultures and backgrounds and opinions about things — and I thought either they’re going to really gonna love this or they’re going to think, ‘She’s crack. She went to the island and has come back a massive hippie.’ But it has turned out to be the most popular module we’ve done in the whole course this year with the most assignment hand-ins. We called the module The Island.

When are you ever in situations where no one’s looking at you? We noticed that really quickly that we lost constructs that we live in — like, that we are professional women — and we found as the week went on, they just fell away. One girl said, I’m going to go topless a little bit so I don’t get sunbathing straps, and we said, okay, all of us. Then she said, I’m just going to bathe in this thong, and we were like, yup, us too. And by the end, we were basically naked the whole time.

Angel Trinidad, 30, Amsterdam, with boyfriend

Profession: editor and writer

Stayed: Vifarnaholme, July 2014

Project: writing a book on Swedish coffee and cake culture

When you’re there, you’re more calm. Time is super slow and you have all the time in the world to flesh it out. It’s more productive because there are no distractions. You can’t go to the mall or anything. We didn’t leave the island for seven days. We got food for the whole stay and just stayed there.

It was a peaceful and worry-free time, which is really important when you’re trying to create something or trying to think of new ideas just to have the time and space to just be. The first few days, I was like, I should come up with something now — that kind of pressure — but after a few days, you feel more at ease with it and then I realized I could just sit here and let it come to me.

I thought seven days sounded like a long time. I thought I would be bored or have a lot of idle time. … But it’s the perfect time for becoming, for taking the time to develop.

Idriz Zogaj, 40, Gothenburg, Sweden, with one friend

Profession: memory coach and entrepreneur

Stayed: Philippines, 2012

Project: children’s book, educational materials for schoolteachers and a board game

We didn’t have generated electricity, we had solar panels, so you [wake] up when the sun goes up and you go to sleep when the sun goes down. Even when you wake at 6am, you feel completely rested. It makes you calmer. So you work in a completely different rhythm. I could focus on work and then relax and do something I really love, like snorkeling. After a couple days, you completely lose track of time. You’re there to finish this task and you work when you want to work.

You don’t have to go to Ideas Island to experience the feeling. You have to make time in your calendar and have no obligations to anyone else.

Diego Signoretto, 30, Montagnana, Italy, with girlfriend

Profession: musician and guitar teacher

Stayed: Vifarnaholme and Svanholmen, August 2015

Project: to record music

It was like food for the mind. There are no distractions. The first days, I was really tired from my job. I just relaxed and started to enjoy the place. I read a lot, enjoyed the island, swam, played some guitar and took a lot of photos. To record, I needed to use the computer and I didn’t want to come back to technology immediately. On the third day. I was more relaxed. I connected the cable and started to record without thinking about it, so I was ready.

Ninety percent of the work was the island because it’s impossible to do something well if you must do it, if you can’t take your time. I wasn’t worried about [anything]. I forgot where I was, where I came from.

Mark Philpott, 50, Gold Coast, Australia

Profession: writer, speaker, full-time caretaker, philanthropist, and administrator for men’s online support groups

Stayed: Vifarnaholme, 2013

Project: after selling most of his possessions, he traveled the world for 18 months and spend his time on the island reflecting on his life and the journey he was just beginning

The island’s tranquility and peace came at the right time for me to reflect on all the things I was trying to get out of my trip. It gave me time for reflection — I was trying to connect with nature, so I built a small pathway that led down from the bottom end of the island to the bay. I spent days there in the trees, working on that and getting in touch with nature and working with Mother Earth, which was really quite spiritual in a sense. There were days I paddled the boat out to the middle of the lake and sat there watched the sunrise and sunsets and had those experiences alone that a lot of people dream about but never get to have.

Peter Sandberg, 48, Stockholm

Profession: Internet entrepreneur

Stayed: Vifarnaholme, 2012

Project: Writing

I applied to work on my startup and writing, but when I finally got there, I mostly did drawing. It’s easy to go there with the mindset that now I’m really going to get stuff done but it’s also really easy to procrastinate. But I was happy that in my procrastination, I did something that was also creative and productive, which was drawing. When I was a kid, I loved drawing and I thought that I would become a cartoonist, but that never happened.

You almost never get that kind of seclusion, and you feel a kind of calm that you don’t experience if you are still at your home or office or studio, because you’re completely left alone and undisturbed. Some friends came by with their boat and one evening, some people living nearby had caught so much fish and they asked if I wanted some spare fish for dinner. That was very nice, but other than that, it was a rare opportunity to be left alone, not be alone, but left alone — and not have other trivial stuff from your everyday life sneak up and bother you.

Gallery: 10 Tips For Creating Your Own Ideas Island Experience

11 images

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Laura Shin, Senior Contributor

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October 28, 2015