Best Leadership Teams of Small and Midsize Companies in 2022

Comparably’s annual Best Leadership Teams is derived from millions of anonymous employee ratings on executive leadership teams and direct managers on Comparably.com over a 12-month period (June 24, 2021 through June 24, 2022).

The Top 100 ranked list is segmented by Large companies (more than 500 employees) and Small/Mid-size companies (fewer than 500 employees).

This article originally appeared on Comparably.com. See the full list of winners here. 

Hometap Appoints Fintech Industry Leader Eugene Wong as Chief Financial Officer

Brings Deep Startup and Banking Experience to Fast-Growing Boston-Based Fintech

BOSTON – July 25,  2022 – Hometap, a provider of a smart, new loan alternative for tapping into home equity without taking on debt, today announced that it has appointed Eugene Wong as its Chief Financial Officer. Wong, will lead Hometap’s finance team in developing strategies for acquisition and deployment of new financial products and services. He joins Hometap from Forward Financing, a Boston-based fintech that provides working capital to small businesses, where he served as Vice President of Strategy & Finance.

Before joining Forward Financing, Wong served as Vice President in the Sponsor Finance Group at Silicon Valley Bank, providing leveraged debt financing to private equity firms in support of their acquisitions of software companies. Prior, he was an investment banker with Goldman Sachs in its Financial Institutions Group, where he advised U.S. financial institutions on mergers, acquisitions, and financing.

“I’m thrilled to become part of the Hometap team, and look forward to applying my experience in the finance and startup spaces to positively impact homeowners across the country through smart and innovative solutions,” Wong said. “The opportunity to provide them with the ability to reach their financial goals in new ways is one that’s now more important than ever.”

Amidst rising interest rates and home values, the home equity investment industry has continued to mature as homeowners look to access the value accumulated in their homes without taking on new debt. In 2022 Hometap continued its rapid growth and expansion, deploying hundreds of millions of dollars in capital to help homeowners, doubling its employee headcount, and launching in three new states, bringing its total state count to 18. 

“We’re very excited to welcome Eugene to our executive team,” said Jeffrey Glass, CEO of Hometap. “His strong background in fintech, operations and banking will further accelerate our growth, build on our leadership position in the home equity investment category, and bolster our efforts to help make homeownership less stressful and more accessible.”

A native New Englander, Wong holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Mathematics from Wesleyan University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.

About Hometap:

Hometap is on a mission to make homeownership less stressful and more accessible. Our home equity investment product provides homeowners with a fast, simple, and straightforward way to access the equity in their home without taking out a loan or having to sell. By investing alongside homeowners, Hometap offers debt-free cash in exchange for a share of their home’s future value — all without any monthly payments or interest over the life of the investment. Through a combination of financial innovation and best-in-class customer service, Hometap enables people to get more from homeownership so they can get more from life. Learn more at hometap.com.

Press Contact:

Matthew Conroy
Stanton
(203) 610-1421
mconroy@stantonprm.com

Fund Your Child’s Tuition without Touching Your Retirement Savings

college campus

As the cost of higher education skyrockets, many parents are understandably concerned about how they may be able to cover tuition and fees without using retirement funds to pay for college. A recent report found that 68% of parents would consider pulling from their retirement savings to help pay for their children’s college education. At the same time, 41% of Americans don’t think they’ll have enough money saved to retire, creating a precarious situation for families who are trying to handle day-to-day costs on top of pursuing long-term financial goals.

A recent study found that many of those who do save don’t reach their goals – especially those who aimed to have $30,000 or more stashed away for higher education.

College tuition savings chart

If at all possible, you should avoid making a 401K withdrawal for education or using a 401k to pay for student loans. Not only will you pay extra taxes if you withdraw before age 59 ½, but you’ll also face a 10% penalty. Most importantly, it will chip away at the funds you’ve worked to save for your future.

Fortunately, there are solutions for paying for your child’s education that don’t involve drawing from your hard-earned retirement savings — or even taking out a loan. We explain some of the most common ones below, so you can determine the best way forward for your family.

529 Plans

A 529 plan is an investment account that’s specifically designated for education savings and provides tax benefits for those in certain states. There are two different 529 plans. Prepaid tuition plans let the account holder buy units or credits at select colleges or universities (usually in-state or public schools) for tuition only, though there are more than 250 private colleges which offer a plan through the Private College 529 Plan. The second kind of 529 plan is an education savings plan, which provides a bit more flexibility by allowing the borrower to put away money for tuition, fees, and room and board. Both of these plan types work very similarly to a Roth IRA, which we’ll discuss below.

IRAs

You may not have known that you can use an IRA withdrawal for college funding, but it’s possible if you keep certain restrictions in mind.

When it comes to IRA distributions for education, whether you’re pulling from a Roth IRA or traditional IRA matters. Since a Roth IRA is funded by post-tax dollars and a traditional IRA is funded by pretax dollars, you can take out the full amount of contributions from your Roth IRA without any penalties or fees (but not earnings).

In order to bypass the standard 10% early withdrawal penalty that is attached to a traditional IRA, you must provide proof to the IRS that the student you’re paying for is currently attending an eligible institution; you can’t use the funds after graduation to pay off loans. It’s also important to note that the amount of the withdrawal cannot exceed the qualifying expenses you’re seeking. 

Student Loans

Of course, there are traditional student loans, including federal loans, private loans, and refinance loans. Federal loans, which are generally the easiest to qualify for and available to nearly every high school graduate, consist of direct subsidized loans, direct unsubsidized loans, PLUS loans (which we’ll explain a specific type of below), and direct consolidation loans. Private loans are typically more difficult to obtain due to credit requirements and come with more restrictions, so they’re often a second choice behind federal loans. Finally, a refinance loan can be used after a student graduates to replace an existing loan and secure a lower interest rate. 

Parent PLUS Loans

These loans are federal student loans issued directly to parents and they’re intended to supplement school, state, or federal financial aid. To be eligible for one of these loans, you must be the biological or adoptive parent of a dependent undergraduate student enrolled at least half of the year. The maximum amount you can borrow is dependent on the school, as you can typically qualify for coverage of the total cost of attendance provided that you meet some minimum credit criteria and the student meets financial aid requirements.

Home Equity Options

If you’re a homeowner, you might also have the ability to access your home equity to cover your child’s college expenses. There are traditional home equity student loans, which have the reliability of a fixed interest rate and predictable monthly payments. However, they involve taking out another loan on your home, which may be less than ideal depending on your specific situation.

You might also consider a home equity line of credit (HELOC), which provides flexibility in terms of access to cash and how frequently you can borrow. However, its variable interest rate means that your monthly payments will be unpredictable, and the lender can freeze the HELOC at any time in the case of a drop in home value or credit score.

Finally, a home equity investment can give you cash you need to partially or completely fund your child’s college tuition without the stress of debt. You receive cash in exchange for a share of your home’s future value and have 10 years to put it toward whatever you’d like — and there aren’t any monthly payments or interest to worry about. 

Take our five-minute quiz to find out if a Hometap Investment might be a good way for you to help fund your child’s college education without dipping into your retirement fund.

YOU SHOULD KNOW…

The above information is for general awareness and education purposes only, and does not pertain specifically to the homeowners insurance needs of those seeking a Hometap Investment. We do our best to make sure that the information in this post is as accurate as possible as of the date it is published, but things change quickly sometimes. Hometap does not endorse or monitor any linked websites. Individual situations differ, so consult your own finance, tax or legal professional to determine what makes sense for you. 

Best Companies for Career Growth in 2022

Comparably’s annual Best Companies for Career Growth is derived from millions of ratings from employees who anonymously rated their professional development opportunities on Comparably.com over a 12-month period (June 24, 2021 through June 24, 2022).

The Top 100 ranked list is segmented by Large companies (more than 500 employees) and Small/Mid-size companies (fewer than 500 employees).

This article originally appeared on Comparably.com. Read the full list here. 

 

Meet Melissa Johnson

Meet Melissa Johnson

Our Investment Managers are experts in helping you tap into your home equity, but you may have more in common with them than you think. Learn a little more about your Investment Manager, their life outside of Hometap, and why they love working with homeowners like you.

What’s the best part of your job? How does being an Investment Manager at Hometap differ from your past work experiences? 

Helping families and finding solutions for their needs.

Is there a particular homeowner story that really made an impact on you? What is it and why?

A homeowner wanted to renovate his kitchen, but discovered that a family member was a victim of one of the California wildfires where the whole community was devastated. They decided to have a bake sale to raise funds for them. Well, those baked goods became a hit, and even after donating all funds and donating a semi-truck full of supplies to the community. They decided to keep baking and turn it into a business. However, their kitchen was too small and they needed some space. We were able to get them funding and help them achieve their goals.

What are your favorite things to do when you’re not working?

I like to spend time with family, watch football and basketball, and shoot darts.

Describe your dream home.

One with lots of windows in the mountains somewhere.

What’s one thing you wish people knew about Hometap? 

That we genuinely care for our homeowners and want to help. We get emotionally attached to our homeowners and their needs. We love being able to help and love to hear follow up stories. 

Trends poised to disrupt the real estate landscape

Companies like Point, Cityfunds (a sister company to Nada), Hometap and more are pushing the home equity sharing concept into the national conversation. These groups have focused on current homeowners with equity, but several are working on pilot programs to assist with purchase transactions.

Imagine a buyer has 10 percent to put down, the HEI company puts 10 percent down (no additional monthly payments), and the buyer secures the additional 80 percent of funds with a conventional loan. This new conventional loan has no PMI, which keeps payments lower with better terms.

This model helps the homeowner qualify, the investor diversifies, and the lender has less risk to take on. This program is on the horizon, and it’s only a matter of time before we see this making a positive impact on the purchase business we see.

This article originally appeared on inman. Read the article here. 

Best CEOs at small and midsize companies, rated by women

There are different CEO rankings that get published each year. One of Comparably’s annual publications includes its list of the best CEOs using ratings from women.

This iteration of the annual “Best CEOs for Women” was based on women employee ratings on the workplace site from June 24, 2021 through June 24, 2022. Comparably defined small and midsize companies as those with no more than 500 employees working there. For the small and midsize list, there had to be at least 25 participants at a business.

Hometap’s CEO, Jeff Glass, appeared on this list as women employees described him to be “supportive and flexible when it comes to work/life balance.”.

This article originally appeared on Business Insider. Read the article here. 

Small business owners turning to home equity investments for funding

In recent years, companies that provide home-equity investments have increasingly found favor on Wall Street, where investors were eager to increase their bets on the US housing market. The main players in the space — companies like EquiFi, Hometap, Point, and Unison — are backed by household names among institutional investors, including Bain Capital, Citigroup, Prudential Financial, and Redwood Trust.

Home-equity investments are also becoming more popular among entrepreneurs who have seen their home values surge amid the pandemic.

Last year, Americans launched 4.4 million businesses, up 24% from the prior year, according to the think tank Peterson Institute for International Economics. That spike in entrepreneurship meant more capital requirements for small-business owners, some of whom turned to home-equity investments. One provider, Hometap, deployed roughly $8.5 million in home-equity investments to small-business owners in the first quarter of this year, more than triple that of the same period in 2021, according to the company.

This article originally appeared on Business Insider. Read the article here.

Meet Jimmy Hudson

Meet Jimmy Hudson

Our Investment Managers are experts in helping you tap into your home equity, but you may have more in common with them than you think. Learn a little more about your Investment Manager, their life outside of Hometap, and why they love working with homeowners like you.

What’s the best part of your job? How does being an Investment Manager at Hometap differ from your past work experiences? 

The best part of working at Hometap is the ability to genuinely help people in some of their most desperate times. Anyone who has ever had the unfortunate experience of having a bill you can’t pay — or just needing a fresh start without debt hanging over your head — can understand the agony and weight that comes with it. To be able to talk to someone and help be a solution when maybe the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t as bright as it could be, is truly rewarding.

Is there a particular homeowner story that really made an impact on you? What is it and why?

I worked with a homeowner whose dream was for his son to go to a specific college and unfortunately the amount of aid and loans available wasn’t going to cover the tuition needed for his son to attend. With a Hometap investment, his son can now go to his dream school and be the first person in his family to graduate from college.

What are your favorite things to do when you’re not working?

Anything sports related, chasing my 1.5-year-old daughter around, cooking, trying new restaurants with my wife, hunting/fishing, binge-watching TV shows

Describe your dream home.

Every wall and ceiling is covered with TVs, it’s always a crisp 60 degrees, and my fridge and freezer are permanently stocked. I also would love to have one of the Coca-Cola Freestyle machines where you can make practically any drink in the world.

What’s one thing you wish people knew about Hometap? 

The collaboration and work ethic of the people and how everything is centered around putting the homeowners first. “Company culture” has turned into such a cliche these days, but I haven’t ever