PAST ISSUES: December 2006

Editor's Note:  The business of money
"Money makes the world go round," Joel Grey sang in "Cabaret." The musical was set in pre-World War II Germany, but the sentiment is just as true today.
In this issue of Ventures, we take a look at some of the people and institutions that are in the business of money -- the banks, the credit unions, the financial advisers and the tax experts.

Cover Story:  Adapting to changing marketplace
On Notre Dame Avenue in Manchester, there is a building that holds the answer to an interesting trivia question: Where was the first credit union formed?

Cover Story:  Giving back to their communities
Beyond the attractive deposit and loan rates and beyond the smiling tellers and the free lollipops, Seacoast banks are battling homelessness, hunger, animal cruelty, and urban blight. The list of causes goes on and on, often overlooked as these institutions compete for customers or please shareholders.

Cover Story:  There is help available
The incubator is incubating.
Seacoast Suites for Business and Technology, a 35,000-square-foot center on Merrill Drive in Hampton, is nearly leased out since Coastal Economic Development Corp. bought the property for $1.95 million in 2003. Today it is home to 16 tenants and more than 60 employees.

Entrepreneur Watch:  Turning a new page
After working elbow-to-elbow for the past six months in the playroom and on the dining room table of Traci Bisson's Barrington house, the growing employee cadre at the literary-focused public relations firm Bisson Barcelona can finally stretch out, courtesy of a new office along Route 125 -- which happens to be close to the school bus stop for her older son.

Featured Article:  Online banking a growing trend
The evolution of e-commerce has slowly built consumer demand in Maine and New Hampshire for online banking services, a point-and-click market hungry for an easier way to transact financial business.

Featured Article:  A changing landscape
Banks sit on every corner that doesn't have a Dunkin' Donuts, or so it seems in Maine and New Hampshire.
And yet there continues to be new branch offices from local and national banks, even as they face fierce market competition from one another and from financial institutions such as credit unions, investment firms, and finance services.

Featured Article:  Being socially responsible ... and profitable
Not so long ago, business owners concerned about the environment, equality in the work place and social justice issues might have felt largely precluded from finding investments that jibed with their belief systems and made financial sense at the same time.

Featured Article:  SEPs a way for small business owners to save
The single biggest tax advantage for small-business owners is a retirement fund, according to two local financial planners.
A Simplified Employee Pension, called an SEP, is a good way to defer paying taxes to the Internal Revenue Service, said Dave Landers, president of Landers & Associates Inc., with offices in Rye and Holden, Mass.

Politics:  New Hampshire Banking Department has no teeth
The state of New Hampshire Banking Department has an awesome responsibility. It is charged with the general supervision of all state chartered financial institutions, including commercial banks, fiduciary trust companies, savings banks, merchant banks and credit unions.

Last Word:  Splitting the moral hairs
Retired Army officer Gary Terhune spent too much time in the closet, so to speak, in his second career as a financial consultant. Terhune, who owns Portsmouth-based Seacoast Financial Navigation, had jumped into the financial advising business because he felt he had done a good job "of investing my own money so why not do it for others?" This was the dilemma he felt: As a devout Christian, he felt the financial advising industry "was so secular" and he needed something more, an ability to, well, Christianize his work.
"I want to practice Christianity in my business and in life," Terhune told me recently about his missionary journey to let his clients know who he was and how they could make more moral investing choices -- and that he was interested in a morally purer return on investment.