Giving debtors their due Worley builds a $4 million biz bringing people back from the brink of bankruptcy
Villager
June, 1999
By Chris Smith

Ten years ago, Tiff Worley was employed as president of Felas Lasers, a medical equipment distributor, when a colleague suggested that he investigate the credit counseling business.

Posing as a person deeply in debt, he applied for the services of two different Twin Cities credit counseling firms. He was decidedly unimpressed.

"It was a very dehumanizing process," said Worley, a Highland Park resident. "I didn't know anything about the business, but I knew I could do it better".

Worley established Metropolitan Financial Management (MFM) in 1990 and made humanizing the process its mantra. In 1991, the nonprofit company's first full year of operation, MFM had revenue of $20,000. By 1998 that figure had grown to $4 million.

"It's easy to be judgmental about people who find themselves overwhelmed by debt," Worley said, "but that doesn't do anyone any good. Putting scarlet letter 'D' on their clothing is not helping."

"Tiff and his counselors put people in the equation," said Bruce, a Woodbury resident and former MFM client who declined to give his last name. "There was a real sense of relief after we met with Tiff because now we had a plan that we worked on together and that was going to get us out of the situation."

For MFM, putting people in the equation begins at the beginning. "I'd say 98 to 99 percent of the people who call us get a real live person right away," Worley said. "The majority will have an appointment later that day."

MFM cannot handle every debtor's problem, "but as a nonprofit we can help some people other agencies might reject," said Jim Keen, MFM's director of operations.

If a client is not right for its program, MFM will refer him or her to other agencies, including bankruptcy attorneys. "But you have to remember that people come to us because they want to pay their bills," Worley said.

MFM 's clients agree on a budget and a monthly payment and a monthly payment they can make toward retiring their debt. "Then they have to go out and live on that budget without their credit cards," Worley said. "The first 90 days are critical. We encourage them to call for support and ideas or if they're having problems."

MFM then handles what Bruce calls the nasty part - convincing creditors to accept lower interest rates and sometimes reduced balances. "Creditors usually recognize that getting something is better that getting nothing," Worley said. "In the long run, they recognize that if they treat the client fairly, they're going to keep a customer."

Bruce came to MFM after being turned away by another credit counseling firm. With his business experiencing "lean times," Bruce said he maintained his standard of living with credit cards. "I think we were up to $42,000 in unsecured debt when we came in (to MFM)."

According to Worley, Bruce's situation is typical. "In our society, where credit is so easy to get, you are what you buy," he said. "People will try to remedy financial problems by borrowing more money."

One of the keys to MFM's success is the low fees it charges - an enrollment fee of $25 and a monthly processing charge of $5.00. MFM Is able to get by on that partly because many creditors are willing to donate a percentage back to the agency.

A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Worley earned a college degree in sociology and served in the Army Medical Corps. He worked as an epidemiologist and for various medical products companies before moving to Highland Park 18 years ago and becoming director of marketing for 3M's vision care division.

With MFM, Worley seems to have found his calling. "What we try to do is treat people the way we'd like to be treated and give them some peace of mind," he said. "People come in here in crisis. We want to make a qualitative difference in their lives as soon as possible."

In eight years, MFM has grown to include nine offices in six states. In 1998 it handled the transfer of more than $25 million in funds, and last month alone it accepted 750 new clients. But the number that Worley is most proud of is MFM's 65 percent success rate, about double the industry average.

"We've been out of debt for about two years now and the budgeting skills we learned we still practice," Bruce said. "My wife has been able to leave her job and we're about to move into a new house."