The Money Store (company)


The Money Store is a U.S. residential mortgage lending brand owned by MLD Mortgage Inc., a consumer finance company that is based in Florham Park, New Jersey with offices nationwide.

History

The origins of the company date back to 1967 when Alan Turtletaub operated mortgage lending firms in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In 1972, "The Money Store" name was trademarked for advertising purposes to promote the various firms. The company was based in Union, New Jersey. It specialized in home equity loans and also was a large Small Business Administration lender. Baseball Hall of Famer Phil Rizzuto was a longtime advertising pitchman for the company. He was then followed by Jim Palmer, another Hall of Famer.
Alan was succeeded as president by his son, Marc Turtletaub. In 1991, the company went public, and in 1997 was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. After a major revamping and consolidation effort, most of its corporate employees transferred to the newly built headquarters at The Ziggurat building in West Sacramento, California between 1996 and 1997.
The company was sold to First Union Corp. of Charlotte, N.C., for $2.1 billion in June 1998. First Union, preparing for the Wachovia merger, split "The Money Store" into four divisions and dumped all of First Union's bad home equity loans into The Money Store's home equity division and took it off its company books two years later, at a loss of $1.7 billion. First Union then transferred the remaining divisions to its subsidiary Wachovia along with 13 billion in shares. However, the student loan division, Educaid, and the SBA loan division were retained by First Union.
In 2006, Wachovia sold The Money Store name to MLD Mortgage, Inc. There's no direct connection to the old West Sacramento-based company, but a veteran executive of the old company operates it. Morton Dear, chief financial officer of original The Money Store, is the founder and chairman of the new incarnation.