Things To Do In SW Florida

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN, AP Business Writer

Some banks and banking trade groups are suing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over a finalized rule that limits overdraft fees banks can charge.

The rule is part of President Joe Biden administration’s campaign to reduce junk fees that hit consumers on everyday purchases, including banking services.

But banks argue that without overdraft protection, desperate consumers will instead lean on worse, unregulated services to ease their crunch.

Under the finalized rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that was announced on Thursday, banks will be able to choose from three options: they may charge a flat overdraft fee of $5, they may charge a fee that covers their costs and losses, or they may charge any fee so long as they disclose the terms of the overdraft loan the way they would for any other loan, typically expressed as an annual percentage rate, or APR.

While banks have cut back on overdraft fees in the past decade, the nation’s biggest banks still take in roughly $8 billion in the charges every year, according to data from the CFPB and bank public records. Currently, there is no cap on the overdraft fees that banks can legally charge. read more

By Kimberly Palmer, NerdWallet

The festivity of December is replaced all too quickly by the due dates of January, when the bills from holiday spending and travel arrive. This kind of financial hangover can make the start of the year a little less joyful, but there are ways to prevent it.

“People often go into the holiday season without a plan. They might know who they want to give gifts to, but may not put numbers to it or think of what they want to spend overall, and that’s where people get into trouble,” says Rob Wurzburg, a Chicago, Illinois-based financial advisor at Forum Financial Management, a registered investment adviser.

To counteract the tendency to overspend, financial experts recommend the following six strategies:

1. Plan early and often

Wurzburg urges people to start planning for holiday spending as soon as possible.

Boards of directors

Lynne P. Brown, recently retired from New York University, was appointed to the board of directors at Beacon College, Leesburg.

Jim Hundrieser, senior advisor to the president of the National Association of College and University Business Officers, was appointed to the board of directors at Beacon College, Leesburg.

Health care

Elliott Lovett was appointed chief financial officer at Oviedo Medical Center, part of HCA Florida Healthcare.

Law

Attorney Blake Konkol has joined the Orlando office of Ball Janik LLP and will focus on construction defect matters.

Attorney Leah Golbuff has joined the Orlando office of Ball Janik LLP and will focus on insurance recovery matters.

Real estate

Sandi Harrison has joined NAI Realvest, Orlando, as a director.

Submit professional appointments, management-level promotions and significant awards for individuals, along with photos as .jpg attachments, to peopleonmove@orlandosentinel.com.

Billionaire and nominee to become the next head of NASA Jared Isaacman is certainly a fan of SpaceX having relied on Elon Musk’s company for his two trips to space. But he shared the love across SpaceX competitors during a commencement speech for the fall graduation class at Daytona Beach’s Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University on Thursday.

The ERAU alumnus earned a fortune as founder and CEO of credit-card processing company Shift4 Payments, which allowed him to pursue his love of aircraft and eventually spaceflight. He received a bachelor’s degree in aeronautics in 2011, and was given an honorary doctorate at the ceremony while also encouraging the graduating class to “a journey into one of the most interesting and really opportune times that aerospace has ever seen.”

It’s the second time he’s spoken to ERAU graduates. The first time was soon after his return from his first spaceflight on the Inspiration4 mission in 2021, the first orbital spaceflight with a completely commercial crew. His most recent spaceflight this past September on the Polaris Dawn mission allowed Isaacman to become the first person to perform a commercial spacewalk. read more

By CORA LEWIS

NEW YORK (AP) — The Biden administration has finalized a rule limiting overdraft fees banks can charge, as part of the White House’s campaign to reduce junk fees that hit consumers on everyday purchases, including banking services. President Joe Biden had called the fees, which can be as high as $35, “exploitative,” while the banking industry has lobbied extensively to keep the existing fee structures in place.