Public Finance Consulting
Our personalized approach allows us to understand your unique transaction and develop an individualized, cost effective approach to close your transaction.
A Full Portfolio of Services
Our Public Finance Consulting team provides our clients with unwavering attention to detail, working closely with issuers of tax-exempt debt and their financial advisors, underwriters and bond counsel.
Our professionals provide a full portfolio of services including:
Third-party verifications for refunding and defeasance transactions
Independent third-party verifications for tax-exempt housing bond issues
Escrow bidding and investment solutions
Arbitrage rebate services
The Causey Difference
Because we are involved in a large number of transactions each year, we see the newest types of escrow products, structuring techniques, and the impact of revised Treasury regulations soon after they are announced. Our team has assisted many clients by providing guidance in the application of new, non-proprietary techniques.
In addition to ensuring the mathematical accuracy of the calculations provided for every transaction, we also ensure that the proposed refunding is being undertaken in a manner consistent with the Offering Documents for the issue to be refunded.
The Causey team is committed to providing high-quality, quick turn-around service on each engagement. Our verifications are performed using customized software and a process that includes, both prior to pricing and on the day of pricing, initial scrutiny and analysis by one of our managers or staff consultants and a second intensive review by one of our principals.
AREAS OF PRACTICE:
Verification Services
Escrow Bidding
Investment Solutions
Arbitrage Rebate Services
Verification Services
Our professionals have provided services to the public finance industry since 1986, and are currently the leading CPA firm in the United States which provides independent, third-party verifications for refunding and defeasance transactions. A few things that make us unique include:
We provide independent, third-party verifications for tax-exempt housing bond issues.
We have experience in all 50 states and all territories and commonwealths.
We have provided verification services for more than 20,000 engagements for refunding or housing transactions
We have provided verification services for more than 500 transactions of $100 million or larger and more than twenty-five transactions in excess of $1 billion.
We have been involved in transactions that have included multi-generational transferred proceeds and multi-purpose allocation issues, universal cap considerations and other complex allocation issues.
Escrow Bidding
The Causey Public Finance Consulting team provides solutions to governmental entities seeking to invest proceeds of a tax-exempt bond issue or other available funds. We are the largest provider of bidding services related to the purchase of eligible securities for deposit into refunding or defeasance escrows in the country. Our process and the related forms and certificates we prepare have been approved by most of the country’s leading bond counsel firms.
We have extensive experience with a variety of escrow funding options including U.S. Treasury Securities, agency securities and forward delivery agreements and can clearly delineate the benefits and limitations of each to government officials and their financial advisors and bond counsel.
Investment Solutions
In addition to providing escrow bidding agent services, we also assist our issuer clients with the investment of funds held in a Project Fund or a Debt Service Reserve Fund. We typically work with the issuer to identify their applicable cash flow needs and other investment parameters and statutory limitations and conduct a competitive bid process to acquire an investment portfolio designed to meet those requirements. We have experience with numerous types of investment solutions including:
Laddered U.S. Treasury Securities
Agency securities
Municipal bonds
Certificates of deposit
Collateralized and uncollateralized guaranteed investment contracts
Forward delivery agreements
Many of our engagements are performed at the request of financial advisors or underwriters with whom we consult throughout the bidding process. Our combination of experience, knowledge, technical competency and sensitivity to the cost of our services relative to the value received by the issuer as a result of our services results in an investment acquisition process that our clients consider to be the best in the industry.
Arbitrage Rebate Services
We have provided arbitrage rebate and yield compliance services to issuers located throughout the country and have performed our calculations under federal tax code interpretations as set forth in Arbitrage Certificates prepared by many of the country’s leading bond counsel firms.
As the leading firm of verification agents in the country, we are continually aware of new issues that have an impact on arbitrage rebate compliance. In the past three years alone, we have provided arbitrage rebate computation services on a variety of bond structures including:
Fixed rate issues
Variable rate issues
Construction issues
Refunding issues
Multifamily and single-family issues
We have extensive experience dealing with complicating factors such as: allocation of commingled funds, transferred proceeds, universal cap considerations, amortization of upfront letter of credit fees and deemed swap termination payments.
We recognize that paying a professional CPA firm to compute the amount of rebatable arbitrage associated with an issue of tax-exempt bonds, is often not contemplated by the issuer at the time the bonds were sold. Because rebate calculations vary in complexity, our pricing structure takes into account the actual effort required to complete the rebate analysis and passes along any savings we realize. We also look for characteristics of a transaction that may result in a reduced rebate liability, improved future earnings on existing assets or an immediate cash payment to the issuer. Many of our engagements are performed at the request of financial advisors with whom we consult regularly on rebate planning issues.