Before fancy trusts and gifting, before engaging attorneys, before buying insurance, put pen to paper to determine if your financial plan can sustain the cost.

Benton-Franklin Trends’ Patrick Jones crunches the data on the bicounty’s per adult capita value of investment income and offers several reasons why investment income is relatively low here.

The Richland-based credit union provided more loans and millions of dollars more to borrowers receiving government-backed financing in 2024 than the year prior, helping businesses to expand and grow their operations. 

The national business magazine noted that regional institutions such as the Walla Walla-based Banner Bank are operating more efficiently than national banks, leading them to dominate this year’s list. 

Some Mid-Columbia farmers, ranchers and other agricultural producers may have lower loan balances after the agricultural lending cooperative distributed the funds as part of its patronage program. 

The three major credit reporting agencies – Equifax, Transunion and Experian – aren't the only companies collecting and selling access to people’s data. The latest list of consumer reporting companies from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau provides information on how people can dispute inaccurate information and request a block so third parties can’t access their data.

The bank sold nearly $1 billion in multifamily real estate loans at the end of December in a bid to return to profitability. The effort was driven by its failed merger with FirstSun Capital Bancorp, which the institutions called off after regulators halted it. 

Walla Walla-based Banner Corp. reported a net income of $46.4 million, or $1.34 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2024, leading the company to announce a quarterly cash dividend of 48 cents per share. 

Work is underway on a credit union’s first three Tri-Cities branches, set to open in late 2025 or early 2026.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleges Capital One promised consumers that its flagship savings account provided one of the nation’s “best” and “highest” interest rates, but the bank froze the interest rate at a low level and then created another savings account product with higher interest without telling its costumers.