Articles for Legal & Accounting Experts
Friday, June 19, 2009
Thomas B. Hudson - The bailout mentality seems to be everywhere. Here’s an example. Customers borrow money from a bank to finance their car purchases. They default on their loans, and the bank undertakes court actions to recover the vehicles. The consumers discover that the loan officer they dealt with had pled guilty to defrauding the bank. The consumers decided that was reason enough to let them keep their cars ...
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Dave Keller -Chrysler and GM have yet to prove how eliminating dealers is going to save them to a profit. They should let the economics of business weed out the dealers who are not profitable. Sooner or later, the non-profitable and under-capitalized dealers won’t be able to ...
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Ron Smith - If, for whatever reason, you have decided that the time has come for you to exit the industry as a franchised new car dealer, the following is a very brief synopsis of things to consider. The following is a checklist I have given to some clients considering exiting...
Friday, June 12, 2009
Dave Keller - ... dealers use many third-party vendors which have DMS access for downloading information to their software to furnish dealers with add-on products and/or reports. Maybe it is time to inventory all these programs to find out if you are still utilizing them and if ...
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Thomas B. Hudson - So, your dealership’s employee dummies-up a credit application with bogus income information in order to get the bank to buy the deal, enabling the employee to earn his commission. No one else at the dealership is aware of the fraud. Then, the employee’s acts are discovered ...
Thursday, April 30, 2009
David Keller - I have talked to many banks in the past few months, and guess what? They don’t seem to be in the business of loaning money anymore. Seems strange, as they should have a hard time making a profit if they pay depositors and...
Friday, April 03, 2009
David Keller - You may not be able to control the new car market, the economy in general or the finance companies, however, what you can do is take another hard look at your business and figure out what is working for you. Meet with your managers weekly to...
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Thomas B. Hudson, Esq. - Lawyers who make their livings suing car dealers have latched onto yet another way to get their hands into dealers’ wallets. A slew of class action lawsuits around the country allege claims against dealers when...
Monday, March 16, 2009
Thomas B. Hudson, Esq. - In several jurisdictions around the country, dealers have been hit with class action lawsuits alleging that the dealers’ actions in completing legal forms such as buyer’s orders and retail installment contracts constitute...
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Dave Keller - If you did not have a good year, your lender’s collateral has probably decreased and their risk has likely increased. When risk increases, banks become nervous. Most bank loan agreements have loan covenants that customers (you) must ...
Monday, February 23, 2009
Thomas B. Hudson, Esq. - We are urging dealers to move with urgency to get their Red Flags programs in place quickly—long before the end of this 6-month enforcement grace period granted by the FTC. Why? Three reasons, and they may apply to...
Monday, February 09, 2009
David Keller - Take a look at your expenses. Compare your expenses against other 20 group members. Compare them to industry averages. If some are high compared to the industry guides, review the detail of the expense accounts to see if you can reduce...
Friday, December 05, 2008
Thomas B. Hudson, Esq. - One surefire way to make sure a court won’t enforce your arbitration agreement is to ask it to do more than get you in front of an arbitrator. I can’t tell you the number of arbitration agreements I’ve seen that indicate...
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
David Keller - One of the things you should do before signing the buy-sell is consider what floorplan source you will use for financing the vehicle inventories...
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Thomas B. Hudson, Esq. - The mortgage mess has spilled over into the car arena. The credit markets appear to be temporarily shell shocked and reluctant to assume any risk. Finance companies that lived on the securitization model can’t...
Sunday, November 09, 2008
David Keller - There are a lot of prior customers we don't think about until they walk through the door again to see us. We have to contact them first. We have to make an effort to be in front of them...
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Thomas B. Hudson, Esq. - Sometimes it seems like there’s just no end to the ways a dealer can get into a legal jam. That’s really not surprising ... Here’s an example of a dealer’s problems arising from the sale, or non-sale, of credit insurance...
Saturday, October 04, 2008
David Keller - Well, it is 2008. Yes, you probably know that by now. But are you really living in the year 2008? Is your business? The only way to know is to ask a few simple questions...
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Dave Keller - If you are a typical dealer, you probably check your cash balance daily. Some dealers run their business by their checkbook balance, while others use the actual bank account balance and release checks accordingly. Which is better?...
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Thomas B. Hudson, Esq - If you are a dealer, you may take some comfort from the fact that your customers seldom get upset enough to haul you into court. That comfort disappears, though, when you find out that your customers are being encouraged to sue you...