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Transcript for the video:
Thank you for your interest in The Kaplan Group and our collection agency services. In this presentation we describe how we handle the money we collect and keep you informed on our progress.
As part of the debt collection process, our debt collector will ask debtors to send their payments directly to The Kaplan Group, with checks made payable in the name of our client. There are a number advantages to this as far as the collection process is concerned. We deposit the funds into a segregated client trust account. The Federal Reserve has 7 business days to declare a check as NSF or non-sufficient funds, and then our bank has a few days after this deadline to report that a check bounced. We do not remit to clients or take our fee until we know the check has cleared.
Our standard policy is to remit payments to all clients once per month, by the 5th day of each month, for debt collection checks that cleared at the bank during the prior month. For example, by the 5th business day of April, we will be mailing checks to all of our clients for any collections checks that cleared during March. This payment will not include any collections checks that were deposited after the 10th of March, because as of April 1 when we start our reconciliation process, there is still some risk that these collections checks may bounce. At the same time that we send these remittance checks to our clients for debt collections deposited we take our contingency fees for services provided. We receive payment at the same time as our clients. Along with the remittance check, clients receive a detailed statement showing all funds that cleared the bank during the month along with a calculation of the fees we earned and deducted.
If a payment is made by a debtor directly to our clients, we can handle that two different ways. If we have other collections for that client, then we will simply deduct our fee on the direct payment from the monthly check we send to our client. If we are not sending you a check that month we email you an invoice for the amount of our fees.
For reporting purposes, we send out statements on a monthly basis with a summary description of the account status. We also have 24/7 access to summary information on accounts via the Internet. However, the key reports are typically done by email for each claim when we have something significant to report. This way you have detailed information on each claim, and we keep all the reports on a claim in one email thread so you can easily refresh your memory on the history of the account. We understand that for our corporate clients, it is important to have written information on hand whenever a question may come up internally about the status of a specific claim. That’s why we find these email threads are more valuable than phone reports. We understand your need to be well informed and have current information at your fingertips. For our smaller clients, we understand that this is your money we are collecting, and you want enough information to fully understand how we are progressing at getting your money. Again, we find email is a great way for you to access this information at your convenience, and to communicate with us any comments or reactions to our reports. Of course, we won’t hesitate to pick up the phone and call a client if we need to discuss a matter that is more complex and requires some interaction. And we will always take your calls and respond to emails if you have questions.
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