Community Association Banks

Written By Diane Freaney

Community Association Banks are THE BEST BANKS for the 21st Century. Today there are more than 351,000 community associations ten times more than 36,000 in the 1980s, according to the Foundation for Community Association Research.

My Corporate banking career went on hiatus in 1990 after I was fired as VP Treasurer of Safeguard Business Systems by Mike Milken, Drexel Burnham, the junk bond king. I quickly transitioned to the non-profit world, including Community and Educational Foundations.

Interestingly enough Corporations that borrow the most money are often the most highly valued, while “Non-Profit Organizations and Foundations” are most highly valued when they hoard cash, often to the point of compromising their mission, a story for another day.

I met Jane Bracken PCAM, Popular Association Banking, at a Community Association in-person event, as I was writing POLITICS OF PLACE | Surfside Condo Tragedy. Jane gave me two forms - Community Association Data Sheet and Community Association Premium Finance Program – Loan Form. Brilliant Marketing!

Popular Association Banking’s website has fill-ins forms making it easy to collect required information before a Community Association Board of Directors meets with a relationship officer. Zoom meetings are acceptable today, saving gas and travel time.

Community Association Bank relationship officers are busy beavers today, as COA, HOA and Cooperative Boards of Directors noodle on how to comply with Senate Bill 4D - Building Safety Act for Condominium and Cooperative Associations and Senate Bill 2D - Property Insurance signed into law by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on May 26, 2022.

Contact one of these women to learn more about Association Banking:

Jane E. Bracken, PCAM, Popular Association Banking, JBracken@popular.com

Lisa Elkan, EBP, VP Alliance Association Banking, lelkan@allianceassociationbank.com

Jayme Gelfand, SVP, TRUIST, jayme.gelfand@truist.com

Jennifer Olson, LCAM, VP, Centennial Bank jolson@my100bank.com

Diane Freaney

I have been seated at the table – rather, more accurately, been seated behind the white men seated at the table and told to hold my tongue – at the launch of some of the most radical new business models of the last century.

I have had a front row seat for every new finance and/or economic theory that came down the pike.

This is a dubious honor. I have watched these same new business models crash and burn, take jobs, destroy families, make ghost towns of cities, compromise our health and well-being, and rob us of our happiness. With the economic meltdown of 2008, I watched as my retirement fund plummeted 42% from the top of the market in 2007 to the bottom in 2009.

My life has been magical. I have over 70 years life/work experience and an excellent educational background.

Syracuse University (1965) – In my accounting courses, I learned to fill in forms and play games with numbers. In anthropology and public speaking, I learned storytelling and gained an appreciation of other cultures.

Harvard Business School – Corporate Finance Executive Education (1982) – I learned about OPM (other people’s money), the strategy that brought the global financial markets to their knees in 2008.

University of Pennsylvania – Organizational Dynamics (1999) – I learned that student’s work is only valued when it follows a structured academic path. My master’s thesis, “A New Model for the Creative Use of College Endowments to Reduce College Tuition” would have prevented today’s student loan crisis. Penn had no mechanism for “the administrators” to listen to students.

Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI) (2013) – I learned the importance of social media to listening deeply and delivering my message.

At an early age, I learned to communicate by listening. At my current age, I feel driven to share the knowledge and understanding amassed during my lifetime. Now I am speaking out.

—Diane Freaney, The Cat Lady


https://www.dianefreaney.com
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