As a follow-on to a previous article let’s review Beneficial Finance before Household International and William F. Aldinger. Many people sent emails over the years telling us what a good company it once was. Beneficial Finance was also - at one time long ago - a fair and honest friend of the U.S. Military.
Finn M.W. Caspersen, found dead earlier this week, made his fortune as chairman of Beneficial, which he led for more than two decades after his father ran the firm for 17 years. The Beneficial Loan Society was founded by Col. Clarence Hodson, who encouraged the enactment of laws to make small loans at affordable rates to working-class Americans. New Jersey was the first state to adopt such a law, in 1913.
“Loan societies started as a way for wealthy individuals to provide loans to their servants,” said Charles “Sandy” Hance, an attorney in Newark and former senior vice president and general counsel of Beneficial. “Beneficial came into being because of the need for lending to people of moderate means.”
Caspersen was chairman and chief executive of Beneficial from 1976 to 1998. He expanded the company and was a pioneer in second mortgages, which later evolved into home equity loans, allowing consumers to borrow against the value of their house. “He saw this trend developing at a very early stage,” Hance said.
Beneficial was sold to rival Household International in 1998 for $9 billion. The combined company had 25,000 employees and 1,650 branch offices around the country. That company was eventually taken over by HSBC Finance Corp.
Our latest email came from a person who was an executive with Beneficial Finance for over 25 years. As with many careers, a man or woman should retire with a sense of satisfaction. With many Beneficial Finance employees that would not be the case.
When people hear the Beneficial Finance name today they associate it with the Household International era of predatory lending and lawsuits, and later with HSBC. We still receive complaints about Beneficial today, and will in the months to come.
Our grandchildren should be able to say “Your career must have been fun and exciting, and I’m proud of you.” What became of Beneficial must have hurt Finn M.W. Caspersen.
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