By Bob Pool

A Beverly Hills real estate broker is waiting for escrow to close on two upscale properties, but that won’t happen until after Christmas.

So what is a powerhouse agent to do to generate some quick spending money for holiday shopping?

This one hocked her diamond Patek Philippe watch at a Beverly Hills pawnshop for cash. She’ll reclaim her $15,000 timepiece when the deals close, said Jordan Tabach-Bank, chief executive of 73-year-old Beverly Loan Co.

“Never before have we seen so many affluent people needing cash,” he said. “People are in a cash crunch. You can’t go to the bank for a loan for holiday shopping.”

So that might explain why a Beverly Hills financial manager pawned his wife’s six-carat diamond engagement ring so he could reward his staff members with Christmas bonuses this year. And why an elderly woman decided to outright sell her $80,000, circa-1920s emerald and diamond bracelet to the pawnshop so she could buy Christmas gifts for her children and grandchildren.

There’s no pawnshop symbol — the signature three balls suspended from a bar — outside Tabach-Bank’s office in a South Santa Monica Boulevard office building. But people find the shop anyway. Most of his clients live or work nearby, he said.

Most of the thousands of pieces of high-end jewelry, artwork and collectibles are locked in a bank vault downstairs from the pawnshop. Ninety percent of the items will be returned to their owners, who pay a state-regulated fee of about 4% a month on the loan amount.

“We like to get the ring back on the finger, the watch back on the wrist and the art back on the wall,” Tabach-Bank said. “Loans in the $3,000 to $4,000 range are typical in Beverly Hills for the holidays.”

Items sold to the store or left unclaimed by their owners are sold by the pawnshop. The number of shoppers looking for deals on jewelry has doubled this holiday season over past years, he said.

There are some pawned items that Tabach-Bank is especially hoping will be reclaimed. Like the 1980 Raiders Super Bowl ring belonging to “a person slightly down on his luck. My hope is the gentlemen will be able to get it back,” he said.

The 33-year-old executive acknowledged that for some, “there’s a stigma, an embarrassment” to pawn loans. That’s unfortunate, since no one bats an eye at someone who is seeking a mortgage for a house, he said.

Nonetheless, pawnshops may be a barometer of the economy. And these days business is booming.

Beverly Loan Company also boasts an impressive collection of items for sale. The 73 year old pawn shop has a large selection of estate jewelry and high-end watches, as well as unique once-in-a-lifetime items available for purchase to the public at large at “dealer” prices. Beverly Loan Company’s items recently appeared on NBC’s hit TV show “It’s Worth What?” The show featured a stunning Alan Friedman yellow diamond pendant and chain ($175,000) and a De Beers diamond hourglass ($15,500).

Known as the “Pawn Shop to the Stars”, since 1938 Beverly Loan Company has offered confidential pawn loans against signed jewelry and watches, including such brands as Cartier, Graff, Tiffany and Co., Patek Philippe, Panerai, Audemars Piguet, and Rolex. Unlike your average pawn shop, Beverly Loan also specializes in modern and contemporary art, including works by Warhol, Picasso, Hockney, Lichtenstein, and Chagall. Owing to its exclusive 90210 location, Beverly Loan Company even has expertise in rare Hollywood collectibles such as Emmys and Golden Globes and sports memorabilia. The collection includes championship rings and belts, along with pop icon articles worn by figures such as Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, Elvis Presley, and Michael Jackson.

Tabach-Bank noted, “We take our customers needs for security and privacy very seriously.” Beverly Loan Company is located on the 3rd floor of the Bank of America Building on the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Beverly Dr. in the heart of Beverly Hills. Tabach-Bank added, “For our customers protection, Beverly Loan Company has an armed guard on duty at all times. All jewelry is stored in our private safe located inside Bank of America’s vault.” Beverly Loan Company has been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, E! Entertainment Television, the Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek.

Beverly Loan Company, the premier collateral lender in Beverly Hills, launched a new and improved website today, http://www.BeverlyLoan.com. The new site provides detailed information regarding Beverly Loan Company’s unique history and unprecedented security and privacy measures. The site also includes Beverly Loan Company’s extensive press coverage in an updated visual layout, as well as a host of interactive video and audio casts.

Known as the “Pawn Shop to the Stars”, since 1938 Beverly Loan Company has provided pawn loans against high-end luxury items, including Cartier, Patek Philippe and Rolex watches, heirloom jewelry, diamonds and fine gems, as well as modern and contemporary art, including works by Warhol, Picasso, Hockney, Lichtenstein, and Chagall. Owing to its exclusive 90210 location, Beverly Loan Company also specializes in rare Hollywood collectibles and sports memorabilia, such as Emmys and Golden Globes, as well as pop icon collectibles, including articles worn by figures such as Madonna, Elvis Presley, and Michael Jackson. Most recently, Beverly Loan Company has made pawn loans against sports memorabilia, including championship rings and belts.

The website’s new “Pawn News” section will provide users and clients with continuous news covering topics that fall into Beverly Loan Company’s expertise, including “how to grade a diamond” and market trends in art and jewelry auctions. Additionally, the new website also highlights Beverly Loan Company’s forthcoming second location in New York City’s International Gem Tower.

Jordan Tabach-Bank, Beverly Loan Company’s CEO, stated, “We’re very excited to present our revitalized online presence to the world.” Beverly Loan Company is also expanding its presence on social media with Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube and other social media pages that can be linked to from the new Beverly Loan Company homepage.

Beverly Loan Company has been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, E! Entertainment Television, the Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek.

The 2007 financial crisis, which led to the weakening of global economies and the loss of 8 million jobs in 2008 and 2009 in the United States, tightened the availability of credit for consumers and small businesses.

Since the crisis, the unemployment rate in the United States has remained stubbornly high and the economic recovery has stalled, causing fiscal uncertainty to hit consumers’ pocketbooks and the balance sheets of small businesses.

In this new economic environment, consumers and small business owners have increasingly turned to nonbank sources of credit, such as collateral loans.

More Consumers Are Seeking Out Collateral Loans

Collateral lenders provide short term non-recourse cash loans against items individuals already own.

While retail and other sectors have suffered in the economic downturn, the collateral loan industry has thrived, giving people a low-hassle option for obtaining a line of credit.

Collateral loan businesses specializing in upscale merchandise are especially popular.

Jordan Tabach-Bank, owner of Beverly Loan Company, a collateral lender in Beverly Hills, operates a thriving shop that caters to socialites, businesspeople and celebrities in the nation’s most famous zip code.

“We’ve seen a higher volume of business since the recession hit,” Tabach-Bank said. “People are looking for accessible lines of credit right now, and our confidential pawn loans appeal to them.”

The family-owned “pawn shop”, which opened in 1938, provides large collateral loans against fine jewelry, watches and artwork. The shop has been dubbed the “Pawn Shop to the Stars,” for its notable clientele and reputation of providing confidential loans.

Beverly Loan Company offer “pawn loans” against, purchases and sells luxury goods to the public at large from its discreet location on the third floor of the Bank of America building. Situated one block east of Rodeo Drive, Tabach-Bank’s shop embodies the high end of the collateral loan industry, an increasingly popular market as people seek out new and alternative lines of credit.

Collateral Loans Help Small Business Owners

Small business owners, finding it more and more difficult to obtain loans from banks, are using upscale collateral loans to meet payroll and answer other financial pressures. These short-term pawn loans provide business owners a much needed cash infusion to keep their business operating and profitable.

Upscale collateral lenders, such as Beverly Loan Company, also enable new business owners to get their companies up and running. Would-be small business owners can present luxury items as collateral for a pawn loan to finance start-up expenses without impacting their credit.

 Beverly Loan Company’s certified gemologists specialize in vintage and modern diamond jewelry, including signed pieced by Cartier and Tiffany and Co, as well as high-end watches, including Rolex and Patek Philippe. This Beverly Hills institution also lends against other luxury items, including sterling silver flatware, Baccarat and Lalique crystal, as well as modern and contemporary art, including works by Warhol, Picasso, Hockney, Lichtenstein, Miro and Chagall. And, due to its unique 90210 location, Beverly Loan Company also provides pawn loans against entertainment and sports memorabilia, including awards, costumes, and championship rings and belts.

“We see all kinds of fascinating items come through our doors,” Tabach-Bank said.

But Tabach-Bank believes that it is more than the unique pawn loan offerings that keep clients coming back–it is the reliable and personable business model.

“People appreciate the confidentiality and consistency of our service,” he said. Pawn loan transactions are conducted in private offices, and valuables are kept in a secure bank vault.

“We’ve always offered something unique, and we continue to be recognized as the foremost collateral lender of luxury goods in the United States,” he said.

His shop has been written up in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek, among other publications.

The rich have always faced periodic “liquidity shortfalls,” where they have plenty of assets but not enough cash.

Yet apparently, those shortfalls are becoming more common in the bad economy. And the cash-poor rich are fueling a continued rise in high-end pawn shops.

According to an article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, business is booming at Boca Raton Pawn, which will pawn everything from Hublot watches and Jimmy Choo shoes to diamonds and Lamborghinis. The shop recently got a call about a Picasso.

“We looked around and there were really no pawn shops in the area catering to the rich,” owner Seth Marcus said. “We call ourselves a pawn shop, but we’re really a high-end collateral lender.”

Boca Raton Pawn is part of a growing cottage industry of pawning to the rich. They work like regular pawn shops, where the shop gives a loan based on a piece of collateral that it holds. If the loan isn’t paid back, the shop sells the collateral. The only difference is that high-end pawn shops deal in bigger numbers.

Boomerang Lending, a Colorado-based business founded in the depths of the crisis in 2009, has pawned a $90,000 Ducati racing bike, a Corum Golden Bridge watch, and a solid-gold, 19th-century cocktail purse valued at $25,000. Boomerang Lending has dealt with a Picasso (what is it with pawned Picassos?). Their interest rate is 48%.

“There is a certain type of affluent customer that will not go into a pawn shop,” owner Todd Hills told Newsweek in 2010. “And they don’t have a $50 or $100 problem. Maybe they have a $100,000 problem.” The granddaddy of all the plutocrat pawnshops is Beverly Loan Co., in Beverly Hills, which bills itself as “the Pawnshop to the Stars” has been helping the cash-strapped and famous for nearly 75 years.

Owner Jordan Tabach-Bank told CNN in 2009 that he was “giving more loans and they’re bigger than ever.”

“I recently had a hedge-fund manager in here getting a large loan on his collection of diamonds,” he said. (Yes, Beverly Loan also lists Picassos among their previous inventory).

You’d think that after the market rebound in 2009 and 2010 that the rich would be more flush and pawn-free.  Yet Seth Marcus of Boca Raton Pawn said some of Boca Raton Pawn’s business is coming from small-business owners pawning designer watches to make payroll. One woman pawned her engagement ring to buy a puppy.

Would you ever go to a high-end pawnshop?

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De Beers Diamond Hourglass

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The flourishing family-owned business is situated in the heart of Beverly Hills on the third floor of the Bank of American Building and is known across California and the country as the Pawnshop to the Stars™.  As an exclusive, upscale pawnbroker, Beverly Loan Company specializes in collateral loans against a wide variety of high-end merchandise, including luxury watches, antique and estate jewelry, fine diamonds and gemstones, as well as modern and contemporary artwork.

As the foremost pawn 90210 provider, Beverly Loan Company also specializes in Hollywood collectibles such as instruments, clothing and awards belonging to musical icons and screen legends like Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Madonna and Johnny Carson. The distinguished firm also makes pawn loans against sports memorabilia like autographed jerseys and championship rings, as well as political memorabilia like letters written by President John Kennedy and dresses belonging to Princess Diana.

Beverly Loan Company owner Jordan Tabach-Bank and his professional staff are highly trained experts who have an excellent, long-standing reputation throughout the 90210 zip code and beyond. The staff maintains the utmost confidentiality inside their private, well-appointed Beverly Hills pawn 90210 facility, and all pawn loan transactions are conducted in private offices. No matter how large or small the pawn loan, all precious collateral items are also placed in high-security bank vaults.

Thanks to the reliable, personable and discrete service provided by Beverly Loan Company, the esteemed pawn 90210 broker has been prominently featured in well-known media outlets like the New York Times, Good Morning America, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and the Today Show. Additionally, Tabach-Bank is a respected member of the National Pawnbrokers Association and also serves on the Board of Directors of the California Pawnbrokers Association, a private, non-profit industry organization committed to improving the pawnbroker industry in California through education and legislation.

by Amandy Gordon

Want proof that the recession is finally affecting the rich too? The high-end Beverly Loan Company pawn shop is currently granting twice as many $50,000-and-up loans in exchange for luxury goods as it was just six months ago. “Never before have we seen so many white-collar customers in need of short-term cash: doctors, producers, politicians, agents, brokers,” says CEO Jordan Tabach-Bank. Ninety-five percent of the collected “collateral” is jewelry (Cartier, Tiffany, etc.) and fine watches, but recent pawns have included everything from Frank Gehry chairs and Francis Bacon triptychs to jewel-encrusted ivory horse bookends.

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