Civil filings in court categories that include debt-collection and contract claims rose sharply across California in fiscal year 2024-25. Across 51 counties with comparable data, filings increased 27.3 percent, from 245,676 to 312,831. New insights by The Kaplan Group identify where that activity is growing fastest. Monterey, Madera, and Placer led percentage growth among counties … Read more
When a small business finishes a job but agrees to be paid later, it is lending money to its customer. U.S. businesses held $6.5 trillion in unpaid customer invoices in the second quarter of 2026. This is more than twice the $3.0 trillion in commercial and industrial loans held by U.S. banks. The business pays … Read more
California business bankruptcy filings have risen for four straight years, but the increase is uneven. Los Angeles added the most cases, while Sacramento and San Francisco posted the fastest growth among counties with at least 50 prior-year filings. Orange County moved in the opposite direction, recording the state’s largest numerical decline. A new report by … Read more
Software publishers are expanding rapidly, but smaller providers are feeling the squeeze. Demand is unpredictable, while debt costs are rising. On top of that, federal regulators are cracking down on automatic renewals, making it critical for SaaS providers to fix their subscription practices today. Software looks like one of the strongest parts of the U.S. … Read more
Strong demand does not always produce strong cash flow. Advertising agencies and marketing consultants help other businesses grow, but many of these firms are financially vulnerable themselves. The Kaplan Group‘s U.S. Industry Payment Risk Index ranks advertising agencies fourth among 23 B2B industries, with a score of 71. Marketing consulting ranks ninth at 65.5. Both … Read more
The U.S. Industry Payment Risk Index Payment risk is concentrated in a small group of B2B industries where weak historical credit outcomes overlap with current pressure on revenue, demand, and margins. The Kaplan Group’s U.S. Industry Payment Risk Index ranks 23 industries using SBA 7(a) loan losses and Census business-condition data. Transportation leads the ranking, … Read more
America’s major financial districts are showing signs of relief from high vacancy and slow leasing, but the pressure is far from gone. The Kaplan Group’s 2026 update looks at the same 19-city sample used in our 2024 and 2025 studies to show which downtown office markets are leasing faster, and where vacancy may still add … Read more
Quick answer: If US marketing and advertising firms face unpaid client bills exceeding $10,000, The Kaplan Group is a suitable choice — it specializes in the marketing and advertising sectors, works on a contingency basis with fees ranging from 10% to 20%, and boasts an 85% success rate for substantial and feasible claims [S1][S2]. Other … Read more
Small businesses have two common ways to survive a cash-flow crunch: borrow money or chase down unpaid bills. Both are getting less predictable at the same time. Small businesses are getting squeezed from two directions at once. It is harder to borrow your way through a cash-flow crunch, and it is riskier to trust whoever … Read more
Auto loans are the fastest-growing problem area in American household debt. Balances hit a record $1.713 trillion in the second quarter of 2026, and the share of balances seriously behind on payments is now the highest in the last 23 years. New auto loans also hit a nominal all-time high of $211 billion in Q2 … Read more
With 55% of U.S. B2B invoiced sales overdue, businesses need to collect unpaid bills without losing valuable customers. A harsh approach may recover one invoice but cost years of future business. Research from The Kaplan Group shows that respectful collection methods can improve cooperation, support payment, and protect customer relationships. The relationship is not separate … Read more
A new report by The Kaplan Group finds that American household debt remains near a record high. Total balances reached $18.77 trillion in Q2 2026, an increase of $382.5 billion from a year earlier and $567.5 billion since the company’s 2025 follow-up study. Although debt edged down by $13.5 billion from the previous quarter, the … Read more
Independent work is no longer just a side-gig phenomenon. It is increasingly being treated as a structured small-business path, especially in professional, creative, educational, and information-based sectors. A new report by The Kaplan Group analyzed two trend lines behind that shift: U.S. search interest, which is rising fastest for terms like “start freelancing” and “freelance … Read more
A shrinking, more expensive workforce under rising financial stress The U.S. debt collection industry is contracting at precisely the wrong moment. Over the past six years, the number of employed bill and account collectors has fallen by about 33%, based on BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The sharpest drop came between 2023 and 2024, … Read more
Jobs are the clearest signal of economic health. Where they’re growing, money moves and invoices get paid; where they’re disappearing, financial distress and unpaid debt aren’t far behind. The Kaplan Group pulled together more than 90 statistics across the industries we know best, debt collection, staffing, marketing, SaaS, software, manufacturing, financial services, and distribution, to … Read more
At The Kaplan Group, we have long contended that unpaid invoices are not simply accounting problems. Yes, they represent cash flow gaps that can turn into hard writeoffs. But beneath these entries are relationship issues that must be resolved before back debt can be recovered. This insight drives every step we take in recapturing large … Read more
Marketing is growing twice as fast as the U.S. average. The catch is who agencies are hiring, and what it costs later. The standard warning about AI is that it comes for the jobs. In marketing, it came for the bottom of the job ladder instead. Overall marketing hiring has held up, but agencies are … Read more
AI has moved from an experiment to the defining operational shift in debt collection. Just two years ago, fewer than half of agencies had AI plans of any kind. Today, that number has inverted. A new report by The Kaplan Group draws from the most recent data to assess where AI stands in 2026 and … Read more
Wage‑and‑hour violations are happening less often, but they are costing companies much more. A new report by The Kaplan Group looks at federal data on low‑wage, high‑violation industries from Fiscal Year 2013 to 2025. It shows that the number of cases has gone down in the last five years. At the same time, the average … Read more
Running a business in 2025 and 2026 means navigating a minefield of rising costs, tighter credit, and customers who can’t pay on time. Nearly half of all U.S. business-to-business invoices are currently overdue and bankruptcy filings are surging past pre-pandemic levels. The outlook from small business owners is at its most pessimistic since 2020. A … Read more