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Welcome back.

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So we are here with the man that you may recognize from one of our videos that

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we did. It was a popular video actually, because it's an important video,

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and he just wrapped up speaking, uh, regarding the legal process, uh,

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with disclosures, uh, David Austin. Yeah, the man, the myth, the legend. Uh,

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for those that don't know you go ahead and introduce yourself and, uh,

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and who you're with, you know, your, your company and all that. Sure,

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Sure. Uh, yeah, my name is Dave Austin and I'm the managing partner of Austin,

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l l p. We're a small firm.

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We focus primarily on the M C A industry, so we do compliance,

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regulation and litigation in that space.

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That, so talk to me so far, you just wrapped up speaking to,

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to a bunch of people regarding the legal process, uh, complying, you know,

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uh, the disclosure. What, what was, uh, you know,

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kind of the main concept of the conversation that you guys had over there. Yeah,

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well,

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This is a broker conference, right? And what we find, what,

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what I find when I'm helping a funder understand how to do disclosure laws is,

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you know,

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you have to approach the merchant that you're funding in a certain way.

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And it's very easy for the funder to just say to the broker, okay,

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here's what we're willing to do with financing. But brokers on the other hand,

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they have to be a little more careful. They,

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they can't give an offer to a merchant when they're talking with them.

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They have to give the, the, the merchant options on different offers.

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And so we really walk through how the broker could approach that conversation

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without getting themselves into a situation where they're presenting an offer to

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a merchant before the law allows them to.

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So we're no interesting place with disclosures because obviously it's been

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introduced and people have kind of adapted to it, you know,

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they've made it part of their process, uh, and, you know,

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new states are coming out with new rules.

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So it's a constantly evolving situation. So walk me through, uh, in,

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in the last two to three months,

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what changes or what surprises have you seen regarding people trying to work

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with the disclosures?

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So the surprise that there's more, right? Even with us, we did a u u,

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Utah, Virginia and California disclosure.

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I started working on New York and then all of a sudden, boom, boom, boom,

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Florida, Georgia, and Connecticut come up. Uh,

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and so I think what's happening is these are here to stay.

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More states are going to adopt them, and we're gonna have to figure out,

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as an industry, you know, how to circumnavigate through all of these. Uh,

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that I think is the most surprising thing for me, that for years,

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the number of states had these bills come up, they would,

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they would get discussed and then they would go away. Now all of a sudden,

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there does seem to be some traction.

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So I expect in the next year we'll probably have another five to 10 states

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coming online.

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So is this disclosure situation,

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is it a threat or is it something that is good for the industry?

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Uh, there are different opinions on that.

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My opinion is that it'll be good for the industry overall.

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And the notion to keep in mind is that what legislatures,

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state legislatures are doing is they wanna bring the small

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business person into more of the protection scheme that a, a consumer has.

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So a lot of these regulations are disclosure regulations that are not unlike the

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truth in Lending Act and what you need to disclose to a, a,

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an average consumer before you give them a credit card or another type of loan.

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So, uh, it's gonna be a tight fit, it's gonna not feel good for a while. Uh,

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but once your business becomes used to making these disclosures,

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it's just gonna be business as usual.

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And I do think there'll be a backside benefit in courts because it's a,

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a regulated industry now. So there's less of a chance that you'll assert your,

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your, your, your agreement in court,

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and the defense attorney will be able to argue that it's a usurious loan and not

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a revenue purchase, because now it's regulated by the states.

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So last question. Overall, I mean, people have to get used to this.

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People have to accept the fact that this is, uh, that we're regulated now.

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So what do you say to people that have a hard time adjusting to that or that,

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you know, think that, Hey, this, this is, this,

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this is something that won't impact me. Yeah,

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It will impact you eventually. You know, I mean, uh,

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California's one of the big states, right? Uh,

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and California was the first to pass these regulations.

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So a lot of funders said, well, I'm just not gonna fund in California.

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Then New York came along and, and, and, and, you know, Georgia and Florida,

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Florida's a big state too. So, uh, I think it's basically, it's just a,

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a you gotta bite the bullet, get good advice, get your system in place.

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Once you have your system in place, it's gonna be business as usual.

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And then for you, for your business, I mean, coming here to California,

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not only being here, but also doing business here, you live here, uh,

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throughout the year. Um, why is California an important part of your business?

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Oh,

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So I'm licensed in both New York and California,

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and so I split my time between both states. For me,

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California has really become more of a focus because of the disclosure laws and

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the requirements around that.

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And I felt it would be good for our firm to have a presence in California to

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guide, you know, the industry in that space and, and,

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and be on the ground when I do that.

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Well, David, thank you so much for your time. Oh, no, appreciate it. Of course,

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you're a man with many nuggets of wisdom for people to try to move forward and

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make sure they accomplish the most out of this industry. So thank you. Yeah,

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appreciate it. Thank you. No problem.

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I'll let you go ahead and enjoy the rest of, uh, your time here. So again,

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that was David Austin.

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We spoke with him before and he just came on here to walk us through the

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different things regarding not only what he spoke about in his panel,

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but also how, you know, the disclosure laws impact people in this industry,

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specifically in also how this will impact, uh,

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you if you don't adjust to the reality of, uh, you know,

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accepting that this is something that's here to stay,

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the disclosures that are going on all over the country.

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So that was a great interview that we had with him. You know,

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we were able to chat with him. So again, we're gonna be talking about,

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we're gonna be talking to more different people, uh, throughout the day.

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And also we're gonna take you guys over to Anaya to let you guys know what she's

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been up to. So don't miss out on that. We're gonna take you over now to Anaya.

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Naya, what's going on where you're at.