Sara Routhier, Managing Editor of Features and Outreach, has professional experience as an educator, SEO specialist, and content marketer. She has over five years of experience in the insurance industry. As a researcher, data nerd, writer, and editor she strives to curate educational, enlightening articles that provide you with the must-know facts and best-kept secrets within the overwhelming worl...

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Joel Ohman is the CEO of a private equity-backed digital media company. He is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, author, angel investor, and serial entrepreneur who loves creating new things, whether books or businesses. He has also previously served as the founder and resident CFP® of a national insurance agency, Real Time Health Quotes. He also has an MBA from the University of South Florida. ...

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Reviewed by Joel Ohman
Founder, CFP®

UPDATED: Dec 12, 2011

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A new organization claiming to be a non-partisan coalition of consumers, businesses, civic groups and faith-based groups called Stand Up Missouri has been launched.

 

This group argues to be protecting Missouri from the Missouri Payday Loan Ballot Initiative, an initiative looking to reform state’s limits on interest rates and fees on consumer credit, title, installment, and payday loans.

 

“Missourians are being asked to sign a petition for a ballot initiative that would cap lending rates. While the initiative is being reported as an effort to protect consumers from payday loans, it would actually restrict access to all small loans, including beneficial traditional consumer installment loans. These traditional loans help individuals and families get access to safe and transparent credit in a way that enables them to preserve their financial security,” said Tom Hudgins, CEO and Chairman of Stand up Missouri, in a press release.

 

The organization’s website steers clear of defending payday lending, stating in large font “Stand Up Missouri does not represent payday lending or payday interests.” Instead, the group focuses on installment loans, and features four video testimonies speaking out on behalf of the installment industry.

 

Hudgins continued to support installment loans by saying “These traditional [installment] loans also support small business by providing borrowers with the funds they need to purchase the businesses’ products and services. Stand Up Missouri is working to educate Missourians on the facts so they can make informed decisions and protect their best interests as the ballot petition travels throughout the state.”

 

The group argues that while the ballot would save individuals a few dollars a month, the impact of this bill would devastate Missouri’s economy and small businesses.

 

Stand Up Missouri’s advertisements all feature the response they urge resident’s of Missouri to give signature-seeking activists: “NO, thank you!”