Do I Have To Pay Back This Loan?

/in /by

Joe Patrice, senior editor at “Above The Law“, offers a helpful guide for anyone wondering how borrowing works for different people.

Earlier this week, Jonathan Turley’s thirst for attention led him to go on TV to describe “car loan payments” as corruption that “none of us have seen the likes of.” Turley is, of course, an idiot. But it did get us thinking: what are the rules for paying back money you’ve borrowed? So we’ve created this helpful annotated guide!

To find out more, follow this link.

Update to the Google Personalised ads policy

/in /by

In February 2024, Google will update its Personalised ads policy to introduce new limitations on personalised ads relating to consumer financial products and services. Specifically, Google’s ‘Credit in personalised ads’ policy will be expanded to cover ‘Consumer finance in personalised ads’. The updated policy will read as follows:

‘In the United States and Canada, the following sensitive interest categories cannot be targeted to audiences based on gender, age, parental status, marital status or postcode.

Find out more by following this link.

Goldman Alums Set Up Matchmaking Platform for Private Credit

/in /by

Two former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bankers want to take the $1.6 trillion private credit revolution from Wall Street to Main Street.

George van Dorp and Koen van Vlijmen, who both worked in the American bank’s London office, have built a product that matches small businesses with alternative lenders.

Take a look at this excellent article by Irene García Pérez and Silas Brown on Bloomburg News.

New complete Margill Loan Manager User Guide available

/in /by

After many years of updates and new features, we are happy to release the new MLM User Guide for software versions. 5.5 / 5.6.  The PDF file, which contains a total of 1241 pages, is mostly a document you can consult for specific matters.  We do not expect you to read it entirely, unless you really need to fall asleep!

The Guide is the result of countless hours of labor by our Margill team in order to give you easy access to all the features offered in the software. It is complete with tons of images and examples to make things easier to understand.

You can consult or download the User Guide here.

A 47-year mortgage? They’re out there — and even longer ones could be coming

/in /by

Banking regulator says about $250B worth of home loans are either currently or soon to be negatively amortized.

Canada’s top banking regulator will soon implement new guidelines for the mortgage market, aimed at reducing the risks posed by negative amortization mortgages — home loans where the payment terms have ballooned by years and sometimes decades because payments are no longer enough to pay down the loan on the original terms.

Take a minute to read Pete Evans’ article on CBC news about the consequences on mortgages since the Bank of Canada has hiked interest rates multiple times within a year and a half.

Seamless Legal/Litigation Fees Finance Management and Interest Calculation for Law Firms

/in , , /by

Seamless Legal/Litigation Fees Finance Management and Interest Calculation for Law Firms with Margill Loan Manager

Many law firms, particularly, personal injury lawyers (accidents, injuries, claims, liability) will finance their client costs and fees until the settlement occurs, at which time they will deduct these fees, costs and now interest, from the settlement amount. With rising interest rates, it becomes increasingly difficult for law firms to finance their clients without charging interest. Money is longer practically free!

Managing this all the while calculating interest can become quite arduous without the proper system. For all the respect and admiration I have for spreadsheets and Excel, these just aren’t made for this (See Loan Servicing with Excel? Pitfalls and alternatives and 12,000 Reasons why to use Loan Servicing Software as opposed to Spreadsheets!).

Margill Loan Manager (MLM) can, using data from with your other systems, create the actual Case (more or less a loan), import case costs and fees (transactions) in bulk, and calculate the interest throughout the lifecycle of the Case. In some situations, a line of credit is afforded to the client where costs and fees (invoices) are added and payments made occasionally by the client to reduce the balance owed. This latter situation does not factor in success/non-success, so is simply client finance.

For litigation finance based on success, if a case is successful, interest will be charged to the client and fees reimbursed. If the case is not successful, no interest or fees will usually need to be paid back by the client, but the law firm will know its cost of capital, case by case. Most often, the cost of capital to the law firm (so the interest rate its bank charges) will be the same rate as the rate charged to the client, but it could also be higher (margin) to generate a little extra revenue. The interest rate could also be fixed or tied to the bank rate (variable interest rate loans) and could include a spread (so Prime + x%). Simple or compound interest can be used as the calculation method.

Main window where all cases are shown:

Some interesting aspects:
  • A graphic Dashboard can show portfolio trends;
  • Balances (principal and interest) are calculated every single day, case by case;
  • Client names need not appear (they could be identified simply by a Unique Identifier for added confidentiality);
  • Extra data can be added such as Case Type, Court Case Number, Region, etc., for data analysis.
Steps in Margill Loan Manager:
1) Line status setup
We recommend using “Additional Principal” type Lines statuses since we will consider the Fees or Costs to be principal (since this is kind of a loan) as opposed to fees as Margill would see them. So change one or many “Add. Princ (X)” Line statuses to the desired names (Tools > Settings > Line Payment Statuses):

You could create only one “Fee” or multiple fees (up to 9 different names if needed).


2) Client and Loan (Case) creation
A Loan / Line of credit or Case in legal jargon, can be created in Margill by entering these data (minimum information needed):
  • Start (Origination) Date and First Payment Date (in litigation loans, these are usually the same date)
  • Interest rate (or Interest Rate table)(could also be a default rate so could not be needed)
  • Unique Loan ID (from other system)(required only for auto import)

Any other data can be entered as required (court case, client names, email, address, mobile, case type, active or draft, and other special data…).

This information is entered in the Data window either:

  • manually;
  • in bulk manually via a simple Excel file;
  • in bulk automatically via an Excel or JSON file (what we call “hot folders” where, when a file is deposited in a specific folder, Margill will automatically grab the file and import the data).

Since law firms can use a wide variety of systems  – practice management solutions and accounting systems, a data conversion app may be required to convert third party data to a format accepted by Margill Loan Manager (JSON and Excel files). This can be developed by our programming team.

Typical Excel sheet for Case creation in Margill:

Principal amount is required but is usually 0.00 as case Costs and Fees will be added as line items (see 2) below)

The Case(s) will then appear in the Main MLM window with nothing really exciting so far – only the basic data. It gets fun when transactions are added!


3) Cost and Fees (transaction) import
Once a Case if created, Costs and Fees (and payments) can be imported at any date after the Start (Origination) Date. They can be entered:
  • manually Case by Case (for very low activity volume)
  • manually for multiple Cases at once
  • in bulk with an Excel sheet manually
  • in bulk with an Excel sheet automatically

For the bulk imports, the Excel sheet must follow this precise mapping:

For any auto imports, the ISO date format MUST be used: YYYYMMDD

3a) Cost and Fees (transaction) import from other systems

If your law firm must import data (transactions) from an accounting software (QuickBooks or other) or a practice management system and this system does not support the production of an Excel sheet as above, a special conversion application can be created by the Margill programming team that converts the file your system produces, to the Margill format which can then be imported manually or automatically. Such an app saves time and avoids errors.


4) Special situations

A host of special situations can be handled by MLM (the numbers correspond to the red numbers in the image below):

  • (1) One or many, up to nine (9) Fee types (Lawyer Fees and Expert Fees – could be named as you wish – Medical Expense, Expert Expense, Medical Expense no interest, etc.).
  • (2) Line 5 shows the $666.36 Lawyer Fees that do not bear interest (blue Line status and Pmt Type column).
  • (3) As of 1/29/2023, interest is no longer charged on all amounts since maximum 3 year Term (optional of course). Line color was changed to red to highlight the End of Term.
  • (4) An Invoice number was added for each invoice.
  • (5) A Comment may be added on any line.
  • (6) Final settlement of $21,250. All interest got paid first but we could have paid the $19,760.83 in Principal (the Fees) and there would have been an interest balance of $39.44 instead of Principal balance for this amount – you have the options with the Line statuses.
  • Interest can start 30 days after the invoice date so the Pmt Date entered would be the invoice date + 30 days. The actual invoice date could be in another column (not shown below).
  • The Case can also be lost in which case, instead of a Payment at the very end, there would be a Line status that could be called “Loss” or “Bad debt” to bring the balance to 0.00 and to isolate the fees and interest as unrecoverable for your accounting (not shown below).
  • Many other options are available…

5) Reporting
You can create your own reports for any time period using over 1000 fields. Typical reports would be daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly…:
  • Disbursed Costs and Fees
  • Interest generated (accrued)
  • Interest actually paid or collected (as opposed to simply accrued)
  • Fees by Case type
  • Cost and Fees paid back
  • Fees lost (Case was lost)
  • Balances
  • and many more, such as socioeconomic information for decision makers (statistical data).
Please contact Margill support ([email protected]) for more information.

Webinar: What’s new in Version 5.5

/in /by

The new version 5.5 was first released on November 4, 2022 and has been in constant evolution since.  See the new features in this webinar.

For more detailled information concerning this version, we invite you to visit the Release Notes page.


Webinar – What’s new in version 5.4

/in /by

See the cool new features in version 5.4 released from January 22 to September 15, 2022.

For more details on the new additions, please visit the Release Notes page.


Automated invoice numbering

/in , /by

Q: I created an invoice in Margill (via Document Merge) and would like to know if it can number the invoices automatically.

A: A few options are available in Margill

First method:

By using the Global Changes function import your invoice numbers directly into your Records.

Let’s start by creating a Custom field to import your invoice numbers.

Go to Tools > Settings > Custom Fields > Record > Unlimited Fields (Table format)

Please note that if you wish to keep historical invoice numbers, you will have to create a new field for each invoicing cycle (ex. Invoice number 2023) (this is less practical if the invoices are sent every month).

Once this field has been created, you can import your invoice numbers. To do this, you will need a list of your Record unique identifiers. You can create this list in Reports > Record List and export in Excel format.

Once in Excel, adding your invoice numbers to the document will be easy.

Now let’s update your invoice numbers with the Global Changes tool. To do this, right-click in the Main Margill window and select the Global Changes option.

When the window opens, click on the Excel icon at the top right of the window.

In the new window, simply select the Invoice number field and the file to import.

Now, you can add this field to your invoices and account statements.

Before the next billing cycle, you must import the new invoice numbers in a new field (with year and/or month) or in the existing field (the invoice number will thus be updated at every new billing cycle).

Second method:

You will find that this method is faster and requires fewer manipulations. On the other hand, you will not have the same flexibility as the previous method.

This method consists of creating a unique invoice number using the MLM ID and, for example, the number of documents attached to the Record. Several other options would be possible such as adding a date or other.

To do this, add the following fields to your invoice:

1- MLM Record Identification

2- Total number of files attached to the Record

When you produce your invoices, it will be important to check “Attach each file produced to the Record”, so that the numbering continues correctly.

It is up to you to see which technique is preferred to obtain the desired results. Note that it is possible to combine the two techniques. Do not hesitate to contact our team if you have any questions regarding the Document Merge function at [email protected].

Numérotation automatique de factures

/in /by

Q : J’ai créé une facture (par la Fusion de documents) dans Margill pour faire la facturation des frais de gestion annuels et j’aimerais savoir s’il est possible de faire la numérotation des factures automatiquement?

A : Quelques possibilités vous sont offertes dans le Gestionnaire de Prêts Margill

Première méthode :

En utilisant les Changements globaux afin d’importer vos numéros de factures directement dans les Dossiers de vos clients.

Débutons par créer un Champs sur mesure afin d’importer vos numéros de factures.

Dirigez-vous dans Outils > Paramètres > Champs sur mesure > Dossier > Champs illimités (format tableau)

À noter que si vous désirez conserver en mémoire les numéros de factures historiques, vous devrez créer un nouveau champ lors de chaque cycle de facturation (ex. Numéro de facture 2023)(ceci est moins pratique si les factures sont envoyées à chaque mois).

Une fois ce Champ créé, vous pourrez importer vos numéros de factures. Pour ce faire, il vous faudra une liste de vos numéros de Dossiers. Vous pouvez créer cette liste dans Rapports / Listes des dossiers et l’exporter en format Excel.

Une fois dans Excel, il sera facile d’ajouter vos numéros de factures dans le document.

Maintenant mettons à jour vos numéros de factures avec l’outils de Changements globaux. Pour ce faire, cliquez avec le bouton de droit de la souris dans la fenêtre Principale de Margill et sélectionnez l’option de Changements globaux.

Lorsque la fenêtre s’ouvrira, cliquez sur l’icône Excel dans le haut de l’écran.

Par la suite, simplement sélectionner le champ Numéro de facture et le fichier à importer.

Maintenant, il vous sera possible d’ajouter ce champ à vos factures et états de compte.

 

Lors des prochaines facturations, vous n’aurez qu’à importer les nouveaux numéros de factures dans un nouveau champ (avec année et/ou mois) ou dans le champ existant (le numéro de facture sera modifié à chaque envoi).

Seconde méthode :

Vous trouverez que cette méthode est plus rapide et nécessite moins de manipulation. En revanche, le désavantage sera que vous n’aurez pas la même flexibilité que la méthode précédente.

Cette méthode consiste à créer un numéro unique de facture à l’aide de l’identifiant unique de Dossier et, par exemple, le nombre de documents joints à chacun des Dossiers. Plusieurs autres options seraient disponibles tels l’ajout d’une date ou autre.

Pour ce faire, ajoutez les champs suivants à votre facture :

  • Identification GPM du Dossier
  • Nombre de fichiers joints au Dossier

Maintenant, lorsque vous produisez vos factures, il sera important de cocher «Joindre chaque fichier produit au dossier», afin que la numérotation se poursuive correctement.

À vous de voir la technique que vous préférez afin d’obtenir les résultats escomptés. À noter qu’il est totalement possible de combiner les deux techniques. N’hésitez pas à contacter notre équipe si vous avez des questions concernant la Fusion de documents au [email protected].