Company Information | Article Index |
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| Strongtower History |
| Primary Services |
| Key Business Developments |
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A Force for Growth for Over 40 Years
As a national leader in church financing and non-profit lending, Strongtower Financial has helped thousands of churches and other religious organizations expand their ministries. But that’s just the beginning.
Birthed as a ministry of the California Baptist Foundation in the 1960's as California Plan of Church Finance, their mission was to finance the growing needs of America’s churches and Christian ministries. They accomplished this first through traditional lending and then were among the pioneers in originating church bonds. Over the years as their expertise grew, they were among the first church bond companies to register to sell bonds to the public, making bond financing a better option, and they built relationships with thousands of
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This investor focus in church bonds led them to become a registered broker-dealer in 1994 and to expand into offering investment advisory services and a wide range of products from mutual funds and retirement planning to equities and, most recently, insurance. They followed this with a strategic alliance in 2003 with a national brokerage firm, RBC Correspondent Services to provide a robust, real-time trading and account management platform to support their registered representatives and clients alike.
Over the years, they also grew beyond their Southern Baptist roots and West Coast geography to serve Christian Churches and individual customers across more than 30 denominations and in all 50 states. In 2006, they changed their name from the California Plan of Church Finance to Strongtower Financial to reflect their broad reach and diversified financial services. Today, they have a staff of professionals committed to being the leader in church financing, faith-based non-profit lending and financial services for Christian individuals, organizations and churches.
Based in Fresno, California with regional offices and clients across the nation, Strongtower Financial has served thousands of churches and investors. They are a leading financial services provider, with experienced financial advisors and lending professionals in the industry with a heart for what matters most.
Strongtower’s primary services include Financing and Investing, which span direct lending and bond offerings for churches and other faith-based organizations, as well as investment advisory and wealth
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Strongtower Financial supports both individuals and churches corporately. For the individual, they assist in the area of stewardship (financial planning, giving, and investments). For churches, they help in the financing of buildings or expansions. Strongtower’s growth plans call for serving other types of non-profit organizations like assisted living, hospitals, camps, etc. Currently, other types of assistance is provided regarding construction management services, capital stewardship campaigns and short-term financing (providing loans when building, relocating, purchasing land, remodeling, or refinancing).
Strongtower Financial is processing almost $300 million per year in church finance, bonds and loans. Out of
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Today, Strongtower has 83 employees* and expects to add 25 more during 2008. Currently, roughly half of the churches served are Southern Baptist. 40% are churches in California and the balance is spread across the U.S. Roughly 80% of the bonds are presently sold in California.
While several other entities offer church financing, mostly shorter term financing, Strongtower Financial offers long-term financing, is flexible, efficient, and prompt in handling the many quirks that can arise with issues involving title, purchase of land, zonings, construction, fund raising, architectural and design, refinancing/new financing, etc.
Almost $1.5 billion in church financing has been issued over the life of Strongtower Financial and the average bond issue last year was $5 million. The atmosphere and team can best be described as fast moving, dynamic, caring for people, continually improving, and highly professional. This is not a bureaucratic organization. There is significant staff stability, yet each person must bring excellence to their work. The values of the organization include caring about each individual and in return, the people give far more back than "just doing their job." While the senior leaders in the organization, and most of the staff, are Southern Baptists, there are people from numerous denominations or churches working there.
KEY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTS
The company credits its success to several key developments:
Bond Collateralized Loans
In 1999, responding to a need for immediate funding in a market traditionally dominated by best efforts underwriters, the company initiated an innovative bond-collateralized escrow loan program. This program allows STF, Inc. to fund escrow on issue date by arranging a loan taken out by the issuer and collateralized by the issuer’s bonds. STF’s retail brokers then distribute those bonds to investors, liquidating the loan. The inception of this program has given STF the ability to underwrite larger bond issues and more total volume than a best efforts process would typically support.
Product/Process Upgrades
In 2001 the company initiated a series of product and process upgrades designed to widen distribution channels and modernize investment services.
The first change involved upgrading the product. Previously, bonds had been underwritten on a when-issued basis and were not DTC eligible. Purchases were executed by direct subscription with the trustee/paying agent. In 2001, the company changed all that. Bonds are now underwritten and accrue interest from the dated date. In addition, the bonds are now DTC eligible and deposited at DTC by the trustee, making them tradable on standard brokerage platforms in book entry form.
At the same time, STF contracted with one of the nation’s largest clearing brokers to begin providing transaction clearing and account custody. All transactions are now executed through the clearing firm and bonds are held in brokerage accounts.