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Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged.
Thomas Edison Categories
Monthly Archives: July 2009
Reducing Your Retirement Needs—Retirement: 4 of 6
Part four approaches retirement planning from another angle. If maximizing assets is one way of ensuring the retirement of one’s dreams, another way might be to simply adjust those dreams slightly. Brigham Young University professor and financial adviser Scott Marsh offers some tips about reducing one’s retirement needs.
One of the first suggestions many financial planners offer as a way to trim needs is a reduction in housing. Downsizing the home reduces the mortgage payment and may even eliminate it. Read More
Zions Direct Completes 750th Online Auction
Zions Direct, the broker-dealer subsidiary of Zions First National Bank, today announced that it has completed 750 online auctions for a variety of investments, including FDIC-insured certificates of deposit (CDs), corporate and municipal bonds, and preferred stock, since February 2007. Zions Direct’s unique platform allows individual investors to earn the same yield as institutional investors by avoiding the broker mark-up typically associated with retail investments.
With increased transparency luring individual investors, Zions Direct has enjoyed marked growth during the current economic environment. In fact, auction bidding accounts have grown 71 percent over the past 12 months. As a result of this growth, Zions Direct has increased the number of auctions held each week. Read More
CB&T Acquires Assets and Deposits of Vineyard Bank
California Bank & Trust (CB&T) officials announced July 17, 2009 that the bank has acquired the banking operations of Vineyard Bank in a transaction facilitated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The transaction includes $1.4 billion in loans and $1.5 billion of deposits, which includes all current deposits, both insured and uninsured, except brokered deposits. Vineyard Bank, headquartered in Corona, operated 16 branches, mainly in eastern Los Angeles County and western San Bernardino County. Under the terms of this transaction, CB&T will enter into a loss sharing agreement with the FDIC on all loans and real estate owned. Read More
Twins No More
During the past 30 years or so, American economists talked about the “twin deficits,” i.e. those of the budget and of global trade. The budget deficit was viewed as the more critical by many, while others wrung their collective hands about the deficit in trade with other nations.
At times, both deficits grew. At other times, both deficits declined. Earlier in this decade, the budget deficit was in decline, while the trade imbalance with the world was rising rapidly. These deficits are now moving in opposite directions. Read More
Zions Honored as “Model Bank” for Online Innovations
Zions Bank has won the 2009 Model Bank Award in the category of online account opening from the research and consulting firm Celent. The award was presented at Celent Innovation and Insight Day on June 3 in New York City.
In early 2008, Celent launched its annual Model Bank 2009 award nomination process aimed at answering the question: “What would it look like for a bank to do everything right with today’s technology?” In winning this award, Zions Bank is among 18 financial institutions from across the globe recognized as industry leaders for their best online and technology practices. Read More
U.S. Small Business Administration Honors Zions Bank
Zions Bank has been honored by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) as First Mortgage Lender of the Year for its excellence in making first mortgage loans in conjunction with SBA 504 projects for commercial owner-occupied real estate. The award was presented May 18 by the SBA at a reception in Washington, D.C. as part of National Small Business Week.
“In the early 1990s, Zions Bank’s National Real Estate Department became a pioneer in originating loans through local banks nationwide. Today, we’re honored to receive this recognition from the SBA, and we’re proud to be the leading nationwide secondary market SBA 504 first mortgage lender for small business commercial real estate loans,” said Zions Bank President and CEO Scott Anderson. Read More
Long-term Interest Rates and Oil Prices
Long-term interest rates and oil prices have been embroiled in frantic tugs of war in recent weeks, as rising expectations of economic stabilization and an impending return to modest U.S. economic growth have pushed such rates and prices higher. Even higher long-term interest rates and higher oil prices could slow the economy and make the expected economic rebound even less dynamic than currently expected. Read More
Making the Worst of a Bad Situation
Investors living on bond income are getting squeezed badly.
Yields today on government bonds are so low that these investors, many of them retirees, simply cannot maintain their standard of living by relying on their current portfolios, especially when stock dividends are also falling. The temptation, with no improvement in sight for at least the next year or two, is to seek higher-yielding investments. However, this is often a big mistake, exposing retirees to unreasonable amounts of risk — with potentially catastrophic consequences. Read More
Avoiding Travel Scams
You might be yearning for a sandy shore or island-hopping cruise this year. With so many vacation destinations deeply discounted, consumers have more options than ever. So how can you spot a good deal versus a gimmick?
“Do your homework while comparing vacation deals so you don’t get taken for a ride you didn’t pay for,” says Francine A. Giani, executive director of the Utah Department of Commerce. Read More
