During this period of continued economic uncertainty, higher-education institutions are facing a variety of challenges that by now are very familiar to governing boards and institutional leaders, including poor investment returns, reduced liquidity, limited choices in how they structure debt issues, and threats to flexibility in tuition pricing.…

The New York state attorney general's office is close to announcing a settlement with the 525,000-member New York State United Teachers over a relationship between the union and ING Group, a large financial-services company based in the Netherlands. In that arrangement, the union's Member Benefits division--a separate trust that provides…

This commentary recommends that financial counseling and planning research, education, and practice be framed as an interdisciplinary profession called personal finance. Authors summarize the history of the profession and key theories providing the conceptual foundation. In order for the emerging profession of personal finance to achieve…

The author devises a simple way of incorporating the financial sector into a growth model that is pedagogically useful. Financial innovation raises the efficiency of financial intermediation by increasing the variety of financial products and services, resulting in improved matching of the needs of individual savers with those of firms raising…

The article contributes to a better understanding of implications of scaling up on the social mission of microfinance programs. It proposes a methodology to measure the extent, if any, to which a microfinance program with a poverty alleviation mission drifts away from its mission during rapid scaling up and presents findings from a field research…

This article shows that, after decades of inequality, the 1990s saw sudden and dramatic increases in lending to low income and minority groups. Drawing in part on the work of Williams, Nesiba and McConnell (2005), we argue that government deregulation, industry restructuring and government-insured loans all fueled this growth by increasing the…

The investigations of student-loan programs around the country echo previous scandals in the financial world involving stock offerings and mutual funds. The relationships between lenders and financial-aid officers seem to raise the same questions about impropriety, conflict of interest, and possible fraud. Indeed, lessons from Wall Street can…

Personal financial planning is considered one of the major growth professions of the coming decade. Besides providing an opportunity for employment, a major in personal financial planning can open the door to a rewarding and challenging career. Career opportunities in the personal financial planning field include opening a private practice or…

Discusses how banks brave enough to go against conventional wisdom, which says that customers should pay for everything, could end up with greater profits and more customer satisfaction by exchanging free minimum services for minimum reasonable balances. (RM)

Provisions in the tax laws tailored for teachers are explained by a tax expert. (EJS)

Information about tax-sheltered annuity plans and a questionnaire to assist in the evaluation of companies that provide a fixed annuity. (Author/MLF)

In the deregulatory fervor of the 1980's, the distinction between banks, nonbank depositories, and nondepository firms is becoming less clear as each tries to expand its activities in the emerging financial services industry. (RM)

This publication describes innovative and powerful mechanisms for financing sustainability projects on campus including energy efficiency upgrades and renewable energy installations. The guide provides step-by-step guidance for establishing revolving loan funds for campus sustainability, based on the experiences of the authors in setting up such a…

Information Technology has brought significant benefits to organizations by allowing greater information sharing within and across firm boundaries leading to performance improvements. Emerging technologies such as Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Web2.0 have transformed the volume and process of information sharing. However, a comprehensive…