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Western Solutions Inc. is pleased to announce the arrival of our newest member, Ava Winter. Born at a healthy 9 pounds ll ounces! Thank you to all of our clients and working group team members for all of the good wishes for this special baby!

June was a busy month for Western Solutions! In the midst of many of our school clients ending the school year, they also closed new financings; locking in historically low fixed interest rates. Speaking of interest rates, in the last few weeks, rates have increased slowing but significantly due to the feds comments on the outlook of the economy and the decreasing unemployment rate. Although rates are rising, they are still at historical lows. Any non-profits considering refinancing or future financing should take these slowly rising rates as a sign that it might be time to lock rates now.  Many experts predicted that rates would stay relatively low until 2015, however with the looks of things today, rates are increasing faster than expected. Time is still on your side, but waiting too long could be costly. In June, Western Solutions was proud to sponsor TED x Livermore. It was not only a privilege to be a sponsor, but also to attend. The TED x Livermore conference was incredibly inspirational offering wonderful insight on new education initiatives and entrepreneurial pursuits. It was a great pleasure to be apart of the conference and we encourage everyone to attend TED x conferences which are located all around the world. Here’s too a safe and happy summer!

Every year, employees from Western Solutions Inc. volunteer to teach veterans and active duty members wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan to snowboard. For four days this past week, two of our employees instructed an army veteran and an active duty Navy officer at three different resorts in Lake Tahoe. This years event was particularly exciting for our employees not only because the wounded warriors that were taught were exceptionally athletic and rather easy to teach, but also because our employees made life long friendships and riding partners with the military service members.  We are so grateful for the sacrifice our military service members make for us and we couldn’t be happier that snowboarding has inspired our new friendships. Thank you so much Chris, Robert, Rebecca and Karen! You made our whole year! 

What does the loan market hold for non-profits in 2013? In previous years, using a swap as a hedging product has put many non-profits in a bad position due to the high exit fees and the term of the swap versus the term of the loan. In today’s market, many analysts believe that swaps may be more beneficial to clients in comparison to other fixed rate loans, given that swaps match specific loan terms. In the past, non-profits’ have set up 10 year loan terms and 30 year swap terms. When their 10 year loan is up, they are left with 20 years on their swap. Exiting a 20 year swap can cost millions of dollars. The problem has been that clients were not given the proper information on the risks associated with setting up a swap for a longer term than their loan. Swaps ultimately have a very bad name and have consequently cost non-profits millions. Swaps, however, are not the enemy. I have yet to come in contact with a non-profit trying to exit a swap that was set out for the exact term of their loan. Thus, it seems the enemy is lack of information on swap risk. Swaps can actually be an excellent hedging product, offering non-profit clients extremely low interest rates while providing the security of a fixed rate loan. The most important thing to remember is to only set a swap out for the exact term of the loan. 2013 actually has a pretty good outlook for non-profits to use swaps to fix variable rate debt. Quite a turn round from the last few years! Since it’s the winter season, we are continuing to volunteer at Disabled Sports on […]