IRS places $500K in tax liens on Kierl Financial

By Jerry Siebenmark

Wichita Business Journal
Updated: 7:00 p.m. ET

Jan. 30, 2005A 6-year-old, locally owned financial services company is facing more than half a million dollars in federal tax liens.

The Internal Revenue Service filed two tax liens late last month against Kierl Financial Group Inc., at 7309 E. 21st St. N., totaling $509,910.

Ken Kierl, the company's owner, did not return calls for comment on the liens.

The company, according to a 2002 Business Journal article, had specialized in investments, wealth management, mortgage financing, insurance and tax accounting services. According to the Kansas State Bank Commissioner's office, the company is licensed as a mortgage loan originator.

Kevin Glendening, deputy commissioner of consumer and mortgage lending for the bank commissioner's office, says the company is not due for license renewal until 2005.

He says he was not aware of the federal tax liens against Kierl Financial Group.

"We didn't have specific information about this," he says.

Glendening says tax liens are one element his office considers when renewing any mortgage loan originator's license.

"We generally do review their financial situation at least at renewal time, if not more frequently," Glendening says.

Kierl Financial last renewed its mortgage originator license in September 2003.

In the Wichita area, mortgage lenders say business is slow on the refinance side, but steady on the home purchasing side.

"It's brutally slow in the refinance end," says Chris Green, Wichita branch manager of American Home Mortgage. "Most of the people who wanted to refinance have already done it."

That's despite interest rates in the market of around 5.5 percent, a rate that Green says is near historical lows.

Nationally, the mortgage origination business is down and is expected to continue to fall through 2005: from a record $3.9 trillion in 2003 to $2.4 trillion in 2005, according to Freddie Mac.