I have a background that allows me to do financial consulting in more than one area including investment advisor / retirement planner, business valuations and business plans. Is it a bad idea to run these all as one consulting shop? Or should I have a seperate DBA for each? Should I not tell my customers I have more than one area of consulting. It makes good sense to offer a multitude of services since I have a masters in finance and undergrauate degree in business, banking experience and a certificate in personal financial planning. Much of the theory of finance is cross dimensional.
Thanks Retired bookworm. Yeah I guess I’m thinking that my concern is that my customers will think because I offer so many services it might not provide them with a focused expert they need?

Many customers want to go to a single individual for all their services, so not marketing all your skills together may cost you opportunities. It is sometimes harder to get as much for all your services individually when you market them together as customers will expect a bundled discount, but you’ll get more business to begin with and build stronger relationships.

Some lady just delivered a package to my house that says I’m being sued by a company called Arrow Financial Services, this was a credit card I obtained from Providian and what happened was that I went through a consumer credit counseling program a few years ago and they did not accept the reduced payments this credit counseling firm was sending them. I did not find out about this until 5-6 months later and more than $600 in extra fees added to the account, I tried to work out a settlement but Providian declined and I just blew them off, now I have this citation from a court dated July 07 and don’t know what to do!!! Should I try to settle out of court with the lawyer? should I go to court? what’s the best way to go about this? I’m in Texas so I don’t know if they can garnish wages or what not……thanks for the help!!!!

OC is correct except for requesting validation UNLESS the summons has some type of wording on it that states that if validation/verification is requested, the Plaintiff will cease all collection activities, including the suit, until validation/verification is provided.
If it does not contain those words or similar, requesting validation at this point would be moot and you might request a Discovery if you need the info to aid you in fighting them.

Though requesting a Discovery can be a double edged sword if you are still within the collecting SOL. If they dredge up the information – they can use that same info against you. Where they probably would not have that info if it is not requested by you.

Like OC said, the Texas collecting SOL is 4 years. It starts from the last payment or charge you made on the account BEFORE it was charged off by the original creditor.
Even though you attempted to pay but they refused payment, they cannot legally reset the collecting SOL. In Texas a "written contract" with a collector, signed by both you and the collector, MUST be made for the collecting SOL to be reset.

Order your credit reports ASAP.

If it has been 4 years or longer since your last payment / charge with the original creditor, include in your answer An Affirmative Defense Of SOL. Then file a counterclaim against Arrow for filing suit on a time barred debt – requesting $1000 for it.

Whether you are still within the collecting SOL or not, look over your credit reports for all violations Arrow is reporting (there probably is quite a few violations) Then include the violations in your counterclaims – requesting $1000 for EACH violation.
A few violations that Arrow likes to report are – Past Due, Past Due Dollar Amount, Factoring Company, Open Account, possible re-aging of the fall off date, some other creditor/collector listed as the original creditor rather than them reporting original creditors name, etc., etc., etc.
(a charged off account CANNOT be a factored account)

If you have plenty on them for counterclaims, they may try to get you to compromise in if you drop the counters, they will drop the suit, and then slink away. Or, if you have far more in counters on them than what they are suing for, they may offer "you" a small amount if you agree to drop the counters and they drop the suit.
If you have them on quite a few "concrete" violations, you may be able to find an attorney who will take your case on a contingency basis. If you win the suit and / or the counters, the atty would / should request that Arrow pay his / her fees. If you lose, you will have to pay your atty.

If you handle it yourself, you need to use the Texas RCP (rules of civil procedure) as a guideline in writing up your answer.
You also NEED to read the FDCPA, FCRA, Texas debtor / creditor and SOL statutes as you need to be able to cite the statutes in your answer.
It wouldn’t hurt to include case law either.

I’m including a couple links for Texas – statutes and RCP, terms of service (to see if they properly served you) etc. (all are free sites)

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/cvtoc.html

http://www.megalawserve.com/tx/tx.php

http://www.findlaw.com/10fedgov/judicial/district_courts.html

You might click on my profile and click on the links I have listed for the FDCPA and the FCRA.
You might also click on the last link I have listed in my profile.It is a free site where you can find more Tx. info, feedback and suggestions on writing up your answer, counters, etc.

It has been proposed a financial services industry super-regulator take charge for the ultimate responsibility
for oversight of the United States financial system. Discuss advantages and drawbacks to such an approach and
give your opinion as to which of the existing entities (Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation,
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) or a new entity should undertake this effort. Would a super-regulator of
the financial services industry be able to prevent future occurrences of financial malaise?

Honestly, I don’t think we need more regulation. I think those who have been tasked to oversee existing regulations dropped the ball BIG time!
Think about it….most Americans knew that 100% loan-to-value loans were being written to people who didn’t/couldn’t prove their source of income. You tell me, does that make sense? Of course it doesn’t. So while we are locking up the scoundrels who broke the law on the finance side, what about the "regulators"?

Frankin Raines? The Clinton budget director appointed as CEO of Fannie Mae who changed Fannie Mae from a boring business of — issuing debt to buy mortgages from lenders — into a far more risky one?

Timothy Howard? Former Fannie Mae CFO who overstated the company’s earnings by $10.6 billion from 1998 to 2004?

Barney Frank? House Financial Services Committee chairman has long been a proponent of both Fannie and Freddie, assuring the public that their mission to encourage home ownership outweighed the distortive risks they brought to the market?

Angelo Mozilo? Few, if any, extracted more personal profit from the credit bubble than the CEO and founder of Countrywide Financial. Mozilo’s talking points always borrowed heavily from the propaganda of the changed Fannie & Freddie, pretending that it was performing some kind of public service — "breaking down barriers" — by making homes more "affordable" to the sub average wage earner.

Alan Greenspan? who many blame for the housing bubble, and supposed to be providing the country with a financial voice of reason, who fell so far short, that it might be comical if it weren’t so tragic?

John McCain?, who saw the problems with Fannie and Freddie and and sponsored a bill that could have regulated them in 2005, but was politically unable to get it out of the demotratic controlled Senate Finance committee?

Dodd, Obama, and the other Senators who took huge sums of money from Fannie and Freddie? who vigorously defended them even after their accounting scandals in 2004?

The financial institutions? who purchased these incredibly complex financial products from Fannie and Freddie with out fully understanding the risks?

The people that that bought houses they clearly couldn’t afford? The ones who didn’t bother to take 3 minutes with a $3 calculator?

To be sure, there were many more complicit in this mess. Who do you blame?

A single person did not get us into this mess and a single person will not get us out …

Im looking to apply for a credit card in Australia but all the sites ive visited require you to be an aussie resident. Anyone know of a financial services provider in Australia that allow non-residents to obtain a card??

If you have an "American Express Card" you don’t need one specifically from Australia.
American Express is world wide.
Master Card & Visa will work in any forign country if you tell them about your plans to buy in that country ahead of time.