Considering the broad sweep of the FTC staff report, “Buckle Up – Navigating Auto Sales and Financing,” the devil must be in the details. Hopefully the information needed to address buyer complaints is in the raw data. The study was based on interviews with 38 car...

The FTC announced in May that “New York City car dealer Bronx Honda and its general manager, Carlo Fittanto, will pay $1.5 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges they discriminated against African-American and Hispanic car buyers and engaged in numerous...

It’s hard to understand how a universal business practice that  engages the full array of vehicle finance resources — captive  and independent lenders, banks and credit unions — could  be so misconstrued. Especially when consumers don’t pay  anything extra for credit...

Early prognostications about what the “new normal” would look like in the retail automobile industry often used phrases such as “post-COVID-19,” as if the pandemic would be gone — or at least under control — after a few months. But the opposite has happened. As health...

For the foreseeable future, organizations will continue to modify their processes to operate safely in a pandemic-sculpted environment. In order to capitalize on new methods and protocols, the first order of business is to identify what will change for franchised...

Regardless of one’s station in life, no one escapes unscathed from a worldwide pandemic. For those plying the F&I trade, the personal and occupational restrictions imposed by the coronavirus quarantine present both a test of mettle and an opportunity.

The first F&I practitioner training session I conducted was in a twin-bed Holiday Inn room. I sat on one bed with my training material and my student sat on the other bed taking notes on a legal pad. It was 1976. As primitive as the process may have been, it...

The good news is that GAP and credit insurance can be sold as they were before the Department of Defense published its 2017 amended interpretive rule. As of February 28, 2020, the Department withdrew that rule because it was concerned that creditors were unable to...

New Reynolds Document Solutions Contract Covenant Tutorial …will be required for AFIP certification In any 30-day period, dealership financial services managers disclose and consummate hundreds of thousands of binding legal contracts between car buyers, vehicle...

Katie DeMarse photo credit -- Wilbur StokesAFIP awarded Katie DeMarse, a Northwood University senior majoring in automotive marketing and management, the Jakob Murray Lange Memorial scholarship for her exemplary work as an intern during the summer of 2019. Shannon...

by Dave Robertson, MBAAs AFIP Certified Professionals know, F&I practices fall under the jurisdiction of both federal and state regulators. The question of whether it’s permissible to make a vehicle sale contingent on the purchase of a vehicle service contract...

In the 40-plus years I’ve been at this, F&I practitioners seem to fall into three categories. The first group consists of those who spend the bulk of their career in one store or within the same organization. These folks find déjà vu-comfort — and a meaningful career...

It’s that time of year when choosing the perfect gift for those who are most deserving becomes a top priority. We typically end up with three lists. The first is an obligatory laundry list of business-related clients and vendors, household service providers /...

In a society dependent on personal transportation, the buy here/pay here dealers and subprime finance sources provide essential services for a significant number of Americans. Unfortunately, these classes of car buyers rank among the lower quadrants on the consumer...

COLLEYVILLE, TEXAS – March 31, 2019 – The Association of Dealership Compliance Officers (ADCO) hosted its first training seminar and certification March 24-27 in Dallas, Texas. The response to the event underscored the need for a single-point resource for dealership...

AFIP awarded Kyle Van Boemel, a Northwood University junior majoring in automotive marketing and management, the Jakob Murray Lange Memorial scholarship for his exemplary work as a dealership intern during the summer of 2018. Shannon Robertson, AFIP’s executive vice...

MIDLAND, Mich. – The Richard DeVos Graduate School of Management at Northwood University, in collaboration with Association of Finance and Insurance Professionals’ Executive Director David Robertson, has announced it will be accepting students for a specialized Master...

In deference to one of my oldest friends in the car business, Jim Ziegler, payment packing is illegal. And not just in California, where it’s prohibited by statute. The practice qualifies as an “unfair or deceptive act or practice” at the state level and an “unfair,...

  The Department of Defense’s interpretation of the Military Lending Act (MLA) in late 2017 set up seemingly insurmountable barriers to selling GAP to military personnel. The most obvious road block was the 36% MAPR ceiling and the requirement to include the...

Five years ago, AFIP executive director Dave Robertson set a goal of having Pat Ryan inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame. Earlier this year, a post-NADA convention Automotive News article on Robertson’s quest prompted an invitation from the Hall for a...

White Plains, New York – August 29, 2018 – The Association of Finance & Insurance Professionals (AFIP) announced that Pepe Auto Group is the first New York state recipient of its new Culture of Compliance award. The award recognizes Pepe Auto Group’s...

For practical reasons, GAP cannot be financed in a retail installment sale contract (RISC) involving a buyer or co-buyer eligible for protection under the Military Lending Act (MLA), even if the creditor is willing to comply with MAPR disclosures and...

DEALER ALERT! Scam FTC emails carry malware! Nefarious hackers never miss a beat. They seized on the FTC’s recent emphasis on establishing a formal mechanism for addressing customer complaints as a way to get past small business cybersecurity measures. The...

A recent amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act implements changes to the Initial Fraud Alert, extending its duration from 90 days to 1 year. Also, consumers now have the ability to freeze their credit at no cost. The changes were initiated by the new...

Current economic conditions and today’s litigious environment make paying close attention to regulatory compliance and best practices a must for dealers across the U.S. The following errors and bad practices are the seven most common reasons...

In certain applications classroom instruction yields better results than online training If a working knowledge of the laws and working with the laws are fundamentally different, then the most effective means by which we teach about the laws,...

Please note the following as it relates to the IRS 8300 procedures if the Suspicious Activity Box is checked – the form is being filed voluntarily. (The dollar amount received in cash and / or by a qualifying instrument(s) does not exceed...

The Jakob Murray Lange 2017 Northwood Scholarship recipient is Alec Bond. Alec, who hails from Linden, MI, is majoring in Automotive Marketing and Management. He completed an internship at Great Lakes Companies and Graff Chevrolet Okemos last...

By Dave Robertson  If there is a maddening aspect to regulation education, it’s the need to keep our curriculum current with a never-ending flow of newly promulgated or updated regulations. We keep pace with relative changes by adding...