Month: October 2015
The Classification of Construction Claims
Claims in the construction industry have been increasing in popularity due to the complexity of building projects. It’s more or less become common in the working environment, unfortunately. Construction claims consultants have become invaluable due to the upward trend of drafting claims for the many inevitable faults in a contract.
There are various ways to classify a construction claim, each one specifically targeting a certain area of the project. This categorization helps the construction claims management aspect by maintaining a well-organized plan.
Contractual claims primarily deal with terms within the contract. Such things as: delays, valuation, and variation. Extra-contractual claims deal with a breach of contract. You can expect to see this type of claim filed if a project required more work because of the client providing defective products. Lastly, ex-gratia claims are drafted when the contractor believes that there is a justified call for action based on moral grounds. For example, if material prices were to suddenly increase; causing the contractor to go over the allotted budget, he could seek out a construction claims expert to have them draft a claim requesting the funds needed to resume the project.
Consulting and hiring a construction claims consultant is recommended to help speed up the claim process. Also, by ensuring the claim is accurate and well-managed, there will be a noticeable difference in how effective it will be in the long run.
The scale of projects has become larger – with that brings a larger pricing structure to work with. Legal approaches, by both owners and contractors, have become more policy-stricken and reliant on claims and claim management.
3 Things to Consider Before Getting A Short-Term Small Business Loan
It might be easy to get a short-term small business loan but there’s no doubt that it can turn out to be far more expensive than traditional loans.
The application for such a loan is usually done through a broker and the money is deposited into your account within a few days. You pay the loan back in a year either by daily or monthly payments.
Here are 3 things to remember before signing on the dotted line for this type of loan:
1: Check for fees
It’s vital that you know what additional fees you have to pay when you obtain the loan. In some cases, money lenders charge fees for a loan upfronts. Others will charge if you set up an automatic payments or miss a payment in the future. Check for these fees and how much it will cost too.
2: Know the APR
It must be pointed out that many money-lenders do not inform their clients about annual percentage rates for the loan products that they offer. For your benefit, if you do know the APR, this can help you to compare the cost of the loan to others. Also, if you want to know how much you can borrow based on the monthly payments that you can afford, there are a number of online calculators available online.
3: Check if they report to credit bureaus
It’s been known in the past that a number of money lenders do no report loan information to credit bureaus. This is despite the small business paying the loan off in full. Of course, without this option, a small business cannot build up credit in order to qualify for a traditional loan. Don’t get caught off-guard – check whether they report information before you do anything else.
The History of the US Mint
The United States Mint is responsible for the creation and circulation of currency in the country. Congress created the Mint when it passed the Coinage Act of 1792. Prior to, currency was different from state to state, so it was difficult to assess value. Congress opened the first Mint in Philadelphia in 1792 in a building that became known as “Ye Olde Mint”.
Of course, legitimate currency needed some kind of mark that would identify it as such. Early coins were marked with the name of the facility in which they were produced, so one could quickly identify the origin of the coin and verify it as authentic.
The mintmark was ditched in favor of metal coins during the 60s, but silver was the preferred metal for a long time. Nickels were originally made of nickel, but a shortage during World War II made it more feasible to mix the recipe with some silver. The result was a blending of the old and the new. One can tell whether a nickel falls into this category by observing the back of the coin. Above the picture of Monticello, a “P” designates the origin as Philadelphia. If the date corresponds with World War II, the coin may be authentic.
The main purpose of the mint was to convert gold deposits into coinage, occasionally in the form of gold coins.
Margaret Kelly became the first female director of the mint in 1911, which also made her the highest paid woman on government payroll at that point.
About the Author: Samuel Phineas Upham is an investor at a family office/ hedgefund, where he focuses on special situation illiquid investing. Before this position, Phin Upham was working at Morgan Stanley in the Media and Telecom group. You may contact Phin on his Samuel Phineas Upham website or LinkedIn.