Equipment Financing and Leasing - How Do You Know Your Firm Is Getting The Best Deal?

Equipment financing and leasing is offered by a number of equipment lease companies in Canada. The only problem is knowing which company to work with, and moreover, how to ensure you receive the best rates, terms and structures available to your firm - based on your overall credit quality and the assets being financing.

Let's get right to the point - let's assume you have been approved for a lease financing, or that you have received what appears to be a competitive lease offer.

The information we share with clients focuses around how the lease company makes money - if you know that then clearly it becomes much easier to determine if you have a competitive structure - one that involves both rate, term of the lease, and conditions.

First of all, ensure you know what type of lease you are getting into - there are only two basic types in Canada, operating leases and capital leases. And we will keep it even simpler than that - if you wish to keep the equipment at end of the term of your desired lease get a capital lease, if you intend to use and return the asset negotiate an operating lease.

What Is a Finance Gap Insurance Policy?

This is a question I am asked on a daily basis. Firstly this is a very specialised gap insurance policy to cover vehicles that have been purchased using a financing arrangement. When buying any insurance policy the first thing to consider is does this policy meet all my needs adequately?

Standard gap policies generally require you to be the registered keeper or owner of the vehicle. Finance Gap Insurance is a more specific and states that you can either be the owner and registered keeper of the vehicle or the main driver for lease and contract hire purposes.

This is a very overlooked point but a very valuable one to consider as purchasing the wrong type of policy may invalidate any claim you need to make. General Return to Invoice and Vehicle Replacement Gap Insurance policies are for people who are purchasing a vehicle using cash, bank loan, traditional hire purchase or a PCP (Personal Contract Purchase). In all of the above cases you will become the owner of the vehicle and will be the registered keeper of the vehicle. All the above policies will require you to declare that you are the registered keeper of the vehicle in the small print.

How Does Premium Finance Life Insurance Work?

Premium Finance Life Insurance is not something that you hear about every day, mostly because so few people are eligible to apply for it. Those who can qualify for this type of life insurance policy funding stand to gain a great deal of money if all of the variables associated with the transaction remain in their favor. In fact as much as 15% of the face value can be seen in a return only two short years later-with no investment! With millions and millions of dollars involved in the transaction, you can calculate just how lucrative a 15% return would be.

This is how Premium Finance Life Insurance Works. You must first have an insurable net worth or asset value, called an insurable interest, of more than two million dollars. These policies have been written for up to $100 million. You apply through a premium finance broker for the life insurance policy and the financing at the same time. If the lender approves your Premium Finance Life Insurance loan, you will be given the premium money for the policy for two to five years or "life", depending on what your requirements are. Obviously the insurance policy will be quite substantial, as there are a great deal of assets being covered. Therefore the premium payments are also going to be quite significant. This is why a low interest loan to cover the cost of these premiums is so appealing. At the end of the two year period you will then have the legal option of selling this life insurance policy into a secondary market for 3% to 15% of the face value, less the paid-to-date premiums loan and interest charged by the lender, and settlement fees.

The New Banking, Finance and Insurance Award

Australian workplaces are preparing for a readjustment of employment conditions under the Federal Government's planned shake-up of workplace relations. The remainder of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) ('the Act') comes into force on 1 January 2010, bringing with it a myriad of Modern Awards and changes in workplace standards.

As a major part of the Government's "Forward with Fairness" Policy, the Act aims to create a unified national industrial relations system that will ensure balance and fairness for all Australian workers. The Federal Government will assume power over certain employment standards, previously administered by the states, to introduce consistency across all Australian workplaces.

Workplaces are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the new Act and relevant Modern Awards. Of particular significance is the new Banking, Finance and Insurance Award ('the Banking Award'), effective as of 1 January 2010. The Banking Award, prescribed by the Act, will prevail over state imposed awards unless expressly provided for by the Act. It works to regulate the terms and conditions of employment for all employees in the banking, finance and insurance industries, irrespective of their role. It will therefore be the applicable award for many clerical employees who were previously covered by the NSW Clerical & Administrative Employees Award.

Major Changes

The New Award introduces an extra employee grade to aid in the distinction between employee roles, updating to a grading scale of one through six. While the grading of an employee will continue to increase in accordance with the skill and knowledge required in the proper execution of their employment tasks, the terms of reference for each grade have been significantly altered to better correspond with the duties and responsibilities particular to the banking, finance and insurance industries. It is anticipated that the new guidelines will enable a fairer assessment of employee roles and changing skill requirements within identified industries. All workplaces will need to re-evaluate their employee duties and responsibilities accordingly.

Getting RV Finance and Insurance

Owning a recreational vehicle is not as expensive or complicated as one might think. With various options for RV financing available today may allow you to buy more RV for your budget than paying cash.

The most vital point that needs to be considered while financing an RV is your credit score. Despite the fact that RVs are in demand and an increasing number of people are making it their primary residence, it is still regarded as a luxury item, making it hard to obtain credit lines for it. Basically you should have a decent credit history, fill out all the paper work honestly and accurately and you will be able to obtain the finance you want.

Interest may sometimes tend to be high while financing an RV, so don't tear your hair apart looking for low rates. Getting a payment that is affordable and reasonable to your budget will be important to getting a recreational vehicle of your dreams. It will hardly benefit you to have lower rate with a sky-high payment every month.

It is advisable that you shop around and conduct some research before you finance your RV as it will help you keep within your budget. Look closely at all the amenities and the actual value of the coach you are planning to buy. Buying a motorhome is a huge deal, almost like a home and an automobile combined into one and thus should be handled even more carefully when it comes down to numbers.

Finding Finance and Insurance Careers in the Automotive Industry

Interested in finance and insurance (F&I)? Love cars? Looking for a way to merge the two into a long-lasting and fulfilling career in the automotive industry? It's time to consider a career in auto sales and F&I management. Now is a great time to invest in F&I training, which can provide everything you need to succeed in this career. That means you will acquire excellent leadership and communication skills and have the expertise required to handle the financial and legal aspects of a sales transaction.

Automotive Business Manager programs are designed to teach the skills required to oversee the financial and legal aspects of the automotive industry. Students in these automotive training programs are trained in finance and lease options, sale of after-market products and the use of specialized software.

Becoming an F&I manager means you will be in the center of the action. It also means you will have a direct impact on profitability and be rewarded accordingly. Need another reason to invest in F&I manager? Job Futures 2000 predicts that more than one-third of all jobs created in Canada will require a skilled trade designation or a college diploma.

Finance and Insurance - The Profit Center

I would like to make myself clear on a few items of interest before I get too deep into the sales processes at any dealership, including: automobile, recreational vehicles, boats, motorcycle, and even furniture or other big ticket items. A business has to turn a fair profit in order to stay in business. I believe that they should make this profit and use it to pay better quality employees a premium wage in order to serve you better. The financial strengths or weaknesses of any business can definitely have a dramatic effect on your customer service and satisfaction. I do not, in any shape or form, wish to hurt a dealerships profitability, as it is essential for his survival. I merely want to advise people how to negotiate a little better in order to make the profit center more balanced.

Let's get right down to this! Every dealership has a finance and insurance department. This department is a huge profit center in any dealership. In some cases, it earns more money than the sale of the automobile itself. Profits are made from many things that most buyers do not understand.

You as a consumer should understand the "flow" of the sales process to understand the profit centers that are ahead of you. Most negotiating from the consumer seems to stop after the original price is negotiated and agreed upon. Let's examine just a small portion of what leads up to that point.

The first thing that every consumer should understand is that when you go to a dealership several things come into play. One of the most important things that I could point out to you is that you are dealing with a business that has been trained to get the most amount of money from you as they can. They are trained and they practice these tactics everyday, day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year. Let me point out a couple of important facts that I have said in this paragraph. First, you'll notice that I said a dealership and not a salesman and secondly, I emphasized times of day after day, week after week, etc. etc. This was done to let you know that the salesman is working very closely with the sales managers in order to make as much money as he can. Your interests are really not their objective in most cases.