7A
CI)arIotte ^osit
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1996
STRICTLY BUSINESS
Low-cost
loans for
college
CHARLES ROSS
Your
Personal
Finance
Golf course a labor of love for Powell family
By Ken Berger
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
EAST CANTON, Ohio - Bill
Powell sits in a golf cart on
the fringe of the 16th green,
comforted by the solitude that
a fine course can provide.
Dressed in his best golf duds
even though the years have
stolen his game, he peers
down the fairway, over green
hills and up into puffy clouds.
His lips tremble as he begins
to speak.
“I think the ordinary person
knows what our society is and
knows the roadblocks that
were put in my way," says
Powell, 79. “And I achieved in
spite of it. There were just
dirty things everywhere you
went, every step of the way.”
Look for a black person who
built and owns a golf course in
America and the search will
begin and end with Bill
Powell. He is an unknown
pioneer, someone who picked
up a club when he was 9 and
fell in love with the game.
“On a golf course, you can
kill a lot of time,” Powell said.
“To me, it’s just very relaxing.
I don’t think there’s one thing
you can put your finger on. It’s
just addictive.”
They call him “Mr. P” at
Clearview Golf Club in rural
East Canton. Powell built a
good deal of the course with
his own hands. He made it a
place where people of any
color skin could pass an after
noon on lush fairways and soft
greens.
On the side of the highway,
a modest sign amid tall grass
reads, “Clearview Golf Club.
Public Welcome.”
Powell grew up in Minerva,
a 10-mile drive from the
course. His was the only black
family in the small town. He
caddied for a local white doc
tor when he was a boy and
If your coUege-boimd child did
not receive need-based financial
aid, or if the school’s financial
aid package does not go far
enough, consider applying for
an unsubsidized Stafford Loan
from the federal student loan
program.
These loans are available to
any student carrying at least a
half time class load. Your child,
not you, is the borrower,
although you can always
assume the payments later.
Students can borrow up to
$5,500 a year. It’s wise to let the
student borrow as much as pos
sible before you begin to apply
for loans, since students get bet
ter rates than parents.
The interest rate on these
loans is capped at 8.25 percent,
and there is an origination fee.
Students can defer repayment
until six months after gradua
tion, and they have up to thirty
years to repay. If you need a
good low-cost loan option, con
sider an unsubsidized Stafford
loan.
PLUS loans
Parent Loans for
Undergraduate Students, called
PLUS loans, allow you to bor
row money for all of your child’s
education costs, minus any
other financial aid. For instance,
if your child has borrowed
$1,000 under the Stafford pro
gram toward total costs of
$8,000, then you would qualify
for a PLUS loan to cover the
remaining seven thousand dol
lars.
You can get PLUS loans
through a bank or other private
lender, or from the Federal
Direct Student Loan Program at
participating schools. The gov
ernment adjusts the rate each
year on July 1, with a cap of 9
percent.
Lenders can charge as much
as four percent of the loan
amount for origination and
insurance fees. You have five to
10 years to pay off the loan, and
unlike Stafford loans, parents
have to start repayment imme
diately.
Home equity/401K loans
If you’re looking for cheap
loans to help pay for your child’s
college education, look at a
home-equity line of credit or a
loan from your 40 IK account.
You can deduct the interest on a
home-equity loan of up to
See LOANS on page 8A
Banking on community
GRAPHICOMEQA PSI PHI FRATERNITY
Omega Psi Phi fraternity’s headquarters in Atianta is one of severai high-profiie transactions made possibie through
NationsBank.
NationsBank reaches out with program
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Back in 1993, Hugh McColl
made one of his infamous chal
lenge speeches keynoting the
National Urban League conven
tion.
Ed Dolby, senior vice presi
dent at McColl’s NationsBank,
spoke a year later to the same
group. They remembered
McColl and offered Dolby some
challenges of their own.
Soon after, when Dolby and
McColl crossed paths in the
executive dining room on the
59th floor of NationsBank’s
tower in uptown Charlotte, a
brief chat resulted in a targeted
effort by the nation’s third
largest bank to go after a larger
share of the $427 billion Afncan
American market.
“The three primary areas
where we can help African
American entrepreneurs are
wealth accumulation, wealth
management and wealth
preservation,” Dolby said.
“What we are beginning to see
is the African American as an
intrapreneur. 'The intrapreneur
has become an executive vice
president, president, general
partner or manager of signifi
cant pieces of Fortune 500 com
panies.
“When a General Electric or
Westinghouse decides to sell off
a division, guess who is running
the business? Often they are
looking for financing to pur
chase that unit.”
Many intrepreneurs have
healthy retirement and 401K
packages as collateral, for exam
ple, but need
large financ
ing to com
plete purchas
es.
“That’s the
upside of what
we think of as
the downside
of retooling,
downsizing...,”
Dolby said.
“We have financed one or two of
those.”
The targeting effort is called
the Professional African
American Market Development
unit, Dolby’s brainchild.
He shared a glimpse inside
the command decision which led
to creation of PAAMD over
lunch in the five-star 59th floor
restaurant. 'The meal was full
course, complete with pate,
soup, salad and dessert.
Simply put, Dolby said, after
talking about the needs to boost
African American business
development, McCoU said, “We
Dolby
don’t do that well enough.”
Dolby, the highest ranking
African American at
NationsBank and responsible
now for nearly 300 branches in
North and South Carolina, had
some ideas.
And, in McColl’s aggressive
manner, he told Dolby to submit
them before the end of the day.
With his boss’ initial approval
and unqualified support, Dolby
drew up a plan to begin target
ing banking services to affluent
African Americans, a group
often overlooked in efforts to
boost housing and small entre
preneur-ship.
The efforts has already result
ed in nearly $150 million in
loans, including $33 million to
Black Enterprise publisher Earl
Graves for a Pepsi franchise and
$2.8 million for the national
Omega Psi Phi fraternity head
quarters building in Atlanta.
“We have a flexible invest
ment program,” said Dolby, a
Raleigh native who attended
Shaw University. “We knew we
had to work with small intre
preneurs and the business
banking unit specializes in
small intrepreneurs. They have
a unique set of problems.
“But we also need to work in
the next level, commercial
areas. These businesses are
larger, over $1 million. A differ
ent set of goals and services are
required. 'They need a special
ized line of credit...funds man
agements.
“NationsBank’s approach to
the African American communi
ty is two-tiered,” Dolby said.
“We have already put $13 mil
lion into a planned $10 billion
pool for the non-affluent part of
the community...low income
housing, small business loans.
We have done this well. The sec
ond approach is we needed to
pay more attention to the afflu
ent Afncan Americans. We had
no structure to support that.”
Enter PAAMB, which works
with African American banks
who don’t have the capitaliza
tion to handle large deals, like
Graves’ Pepsi fimichise.
PAAMB, headed by Shedrick
Barber, has been operating
about one year and has already
helped out in several deals,
Dolby said.
“It was a two-year process,” he
said. “It took one year to concep
tualize and do the strategic
planning and the tactical plan
ning. There was a lot of strate
gic research.”
The effort is not just assigned
See PAAMD on page 8A
BUSINESS TO BUSINESS
wanted to continue playing
the game.
But the men who ran golf
reminded him of his color, he
said.
“I don't like the word ‘forbid
den,’"Powell said. “We weren’t
accepted in the society.”
So Powell decided he would
build his own course. Turned
down for a loan, he borrowed
money from his brother, and
See GOLF on page 8A
Money
Management
Mid-year
tax tips
By Amanda Danchi
SPECIAL TO THE POST
Oct. 15 undoubtedly rings no
bells of recognition. But, if you
stop to think that it means it’s
only six months until April 15,
it should sound an alarm.
According to the North
Carolina Association of CPAs,
you might think of this mid
point as your tax-planning
watershed for the year.
Although you have until Dec.
31 to take advantage of many
year-end tax moves, quite
often, well-meaning taxpayers
find that they have neither
the time nor the money to
devote to tax-cutting strate
gies, particularly as the holi
day season unfolds. Shifting
income, bunching deductions,
and contributing to retirement
plans are some common ways
to cut taxes, but there are
many opportunities that go
beyond these tried and true
strategies. Here are some you
may want to consider using
before the year is out.
Offset capital gains
It’s never a good idea to let
taxes drive your investment
decisions, but if you have a
large capital gain, now might
be a good time to take a loss
on an investment that’s been
performing badly. Capital
losses are fully deductible
against capital gains - dollar
for dollar. But, if you end the
year with a net capital loss (or
have a carry-over loss from a
previous year), you can write
off no more than $3,000 in
capital losses against ordinary
income, such as your salary.
Net capital losses that exceed
the $3,000 limit may be car
ried over to future years.
Make tax-free gifts
If you’re thinking about tak
ing advantage of the gift-tax
See TAX on page 8A
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