SecProbe.io

Filing text and metadata
Intelligence Terminal Search Probe Scores Topics IPO Watchlist Monthly Activity About API

SEC Comment Letter for WALKER FINANCIAL CORP (CIK 0000104224) — Mar 11, 2005

WALKER FINANCIAL CORP (CIK 0000104224)
Date: March 11, 2005 · CIK: 0000104224 · Accession: 0000000000-05-011609

AI Filing Summary & Sentiment

File numbers found in text: 333-120748

Date
March 11, 2005
Author
Not clearly detected
Form
UPLOAD
Company
WALKER FINANCIAL CORP (CIK 0000104224)

Letter

March 11, 2005 Mr. Mitchell S. Segal Chief Executive Officer Walker Financial Corporation 990 Stewart Avenue, Suite 60A Garden City, New York 11530 Form 10-KSB for the year ended December 31, 2003 Forms 10-QSB for the quarters ended March 31, June 30, and September 30, 2004 File No. 0-28173

RE: Walker Financial Corporation Registration Statement on Form SB-2 Filed February 11, 2005 File No. 333-120748

Dear Mr. Segal:

We have reviewed your filings and have the following comments. Where indicated, we think you should revise your documents in response to these comments. If you disagree, we will consider your explanation as to why our comment is inapplicable or a revision is unnecessary. Please be as detailed as necessary in your explanation. In some of our comments, we may ask you to provide us with supplemental information so we may better understand your disclosure. After reviewing this information, we may or may not raise additional comments.

Please understand that the purpose of our review process is to assist you in your compliance with the applicable disclosure requirements and to enhance the overall disclosure in your filing. We look forward to working with you in these respects. We welcome any questions you may have about our comments or on any other aspect of our review. Feel free to call us at the telephone numbers listed at the end of this letter.

General

1. The financial statements and MD&A and should be updated to December 31, 2004, as required by Rule 3-10(g) of Regulation S-B. In addition, please update your other disclosure where required (e.g. executive compensation information).

Prospectus Cover Page

2. Please note that companies do not "list" their securities on the OTC Bulletin Board. Brokers must apply to the NASD to quote a company`s securities on the OTC Bulletin Board. Therefore, revise the reference to your stock being listed on the OTC Bulletin Board.

Prospectus Summary, Overview, page 5

3. As currently drafted, the description of your business is vague and contains industry jargon that does not provide any meaningful information. For example, what do you mean that you provide "prearrangement" and "pre-need products?" Also, what does it mean that you have "established a worksite and affinity marketing strategy?" Instead of this disclosure, simply state, if true, that you sell funeral plans to individuals on behalf of funeral companies. In addition, in light of your financial history and condition, it is unclear the nature and extent of your current and future operations. Please revise to discuss what products/services you currently provide, the extent of those operations to date, and how you provide these operations. In addition, please discuss what product/service you intend to provide as well as status of that product/service in development. Revise your entire document, including this section, your Business section, and your MD&A, so that ordinary investors have a clear understanding of what you do and the goods and services that you sell and how you sell them.

4. Further, as part of your revisions, please continue to provide a balanced picture of your operations, financial condition, and structure. Please disclose that you have an accumulated deficit of $4.1 million and only recently entered into your current business. In addition, disclose that you need $1 million to fund your operations for the next twelve months.

5. In this regard, please revise throughout the prospectus where appropriate to discuss your corporate history including when and how you entered into your current business.

Risk Factors, page 6

6. Please delete the second and third sentences of the introductory paragraph. Once you describe all material risks, and tailor each one to your specific facts and circumstances, you will not need this generic, boilerplate risk disclosure.

7. Please revise each risk factor caption so that it reflects the risk that you discuss in the text. Currently, many of your risk factor captions are unduly vague, such as "We have a limited operating history with which to judge our performance" on page 3, or merely state a fact about you, such as "Our auditors have recognized a material weakness in our internal controls" on page 4. Others captions simply allude to a future event, such as "Changes or increases in, or failure to comply with, regulations applicable to our business could increase our costs" on page 5. These are only examples. Revise throughout to identify briefly in your captions the risks that result from the facts or uncertainties. Potential investors should be able to read the risk factor captions and come away with an understanding of what the risk is and the result of the risk as it specifically applies to you. As a general rule, your revised captions should work only in this document. If they are readily transferable to other companies` documents, they are probably too generic. Please revise accordingly.

8. Please avoid the generic conclusion in the captions and discussions that if a risk occurs, your business and results of operations could be adversely affected or substantially harmed. This does not represent meaningful disclosure. Instead, replace this language with specific disclosure of the possible impact upon your operating results, business, liquidity, cash flow, financial condition, share price, etc.

Our auditors have recognized a material weakness..., page 4

9. Please provide more disclosure regarding the risk to you and your investors resulting from your auditors identifying a material weakness in your internal controls. In this regard, we note your statement on page 4 that management "believes that sufficient compensating controls have been implemented to minimize the risks associated with this material weakness." Please delete this disclosure as mitigating language is not appropriate in the risk factor section.

Increased advertising or better marketing by our competitors..., page 5

10. To the extent possible, please quantify your market share in the industry.

Changes or increases in, or failure to comply with, regulations..., page 5

11. Please provide more disclosure how this risk may affect you and your investors. For example, are you in compliance with all applicable laws? Have you incurred any costs due to these laws?

If we fail to remain current on our reporting requirements..., page 7

12. In order for investors to understand the likelihood of this risk occurring, please disclose whether you have been delinquent in your periodic reporting during the last twelve months.

Forward-Looking Statement, page 9

13. Please delete your reference to Section 27A and Section 21E as these safe harbors do not apply to any issuer who has issued penny stock. See Section 27A(b)(1)(C) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E(b)(1)(C) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Management`s Discussion and Analysis..., Overview, page 11

14. Please revise this section to highlight the most important developments of the period being reported without being repetitive of or summarizing the ensuing MD&A discussion. This discussion should be written in Plain English from the CEO`s perspective, focusing on issues "that keep him up at night." Such topics could include:

* economic or industry-wide factors relevant to the company; * how the company earns revenues and income and generates cash; * the company`s lines of business, locations of operations and principal products and services without being repetitive of the Business section or disclosure elsewhere in the prospectus; and * the material opportunities, challenges and risks that management are most focused on for the short and long term, as well as actions that they are taking to address these opportunities, challenges and risks. For example, we note your disclosure on page 13 that National Preplanning "expects to start achieving more substantial revenues in the second quarter of 2005." Your overview should highlight why management expects revenues to increase substantially in the second quarter of 2005.

15. Please discuss any future plans to expand your services and offerings including a discussion of the funding and timing requirements to complete any expansions for each subsidiary.

16. We note that your auditors cited a material weakness in your internal control over financial reporting for the period ended September 30, 2004. Please revise this section to discuss any potential material impacts on your financial condition related to the weaknesses in the company`s internal control over financial reporting.

Critical Accounting Policies, page 11

17. We note that your discussion of your critical accounting policies basically repeats the discussion of your accounting policies in note 1 to your financial statements. Please note that this is not the purpose of this disclosure. This section should only highlight accounting estimates or assumptions where:

* the nature of the estimates or assumptions is material due to the levels of subjectivity and judgment necessary to account for highly uncertain matters or the susceptibility of such matters to change; and * the impact of the estimates and assumptions on financial condition or operating performance is material.

Such disclosures should supplement, not duplicate, the description of accounting policies required in the notes to the financial statements. The accounting policy note to the financial statements generally describes the method used to apply an accounting principle while the MD&A disclosure should present a company`s analysis of the uncertainties involved in applying a principle at the current time or the variability that is reasonably likely to result from its application over time. Please revise accordingly.

Results of Operations..., page 13

18. Throughout this subsection, you frequently attribute a material change to two or more events or factors that you describe without quantification. In discussing the material changes, please quantify the amount of change attributed to each factor. For example, operating expenses were a significant reason for your net loss for the nine months ended September 30, 2004; however, there is no detail as to how much each component of your operating expenses (new employee hires, website development and marketing costs) contributed to the overall increase from the comparable earlier period. Refer to Item 303 of Regulation S-B.

19. Also, in this regard, please provide disclosure that will provide insight into the underlying business developments or conditions that resulted in the changes. Discuss whether any of these factors represent part of a trend that will continue to affect your operations going forward. For example, how do you expect competing with larger and more established funeral companies will impact you? In addition, discuss trends within your margins as you commence and expand operations. See Item 303(b)(1)(iv) of Regulation S-B.

20. Please disclose why your net sales for the nine months ended September 30, 2004 decreased so much from $505,098 for the nine months ended September 30, 2003. In your explanation, please discuss the extent to which change in revenues was attributable to changes in volume versus changes in price.

21. Please provide more detail on your history of net losses. Discuss the company, industry or other events or trends that contributed to your net losses and discuss whether and how you expect these trends and events to continue to affect you in the future.

22. Please revise the presentation of statement of operations on pages F-3 and F-21, to disclose separate line items for operating expenses and selling and general and administrative expenses.

23. In the last paragraph of the Results of Operations for the year ended December 31, 2003 as compared to December 31, 2002, there is a reference to cash and cash equivalents derived from "Walker." Please explain this reference.

Liquidity and Capital Resources, page 25

24. In addition, to the extent known, please quantify your expected capital expenditures to fund and expand your business for the next twelve months.

25. Your discussion of net cash provided by financing is difficult to read due to the amount of detailed disclosure you provide. Revise this paragraph to individually identify each source of financing you received during 2004 and disclose the material terms of each source of financing.

26. In this regard, please discuss the extent to which you have relied on loans and advances from company insiders as well as from private placements. Quantify the amount of funds you have received from these sources for the past twelve months.

27. Please quantify your obligation to the current holders of your 10% promissory notes due to your failure to register the underlying common stock and your default under the notes. Please advise whether your defaults under the indenture create a risk to investors that should be highlighted in the risk factors section. Advise whether any of the shares underlying the convertible notes are being registered for resale on this registration statement.

Plan of Operations, page 15

28. Please clarify what you mean by the statement that National Preplanning "continues its affiliation" with eight funeral homes in New Jersey. Does National Preplanning have a contractual arrangement with these funeral homes? Revise your Business section as well.

Description of Business, General, page 27

29. This section is difficult to read due to your use of vague terms and industry jargon. For example, we note your disclosure on page that you partner with "beneficial administration firms." What does this mean? As another example, you state on page 20 that your products include an "inflation rider." What is this and how does it make your products more favorable than others without an inflation rider? You must revise this entire section to delete vague terms and industry jargon and describe in simple clear language what specific products /services you provide and how you provide them.

30. Please provide more disclosure throughout this section regarding how you create and market death care financial service products. Please discuss how you procure your arrangements with funeral homes. In addition, please characterize the nature of these "arrangements." Revise throughout this section to clarify, if true, that you do not provide death care services, rather you package death care services provided by other parties and sell those services to the public. Furthermore, what do you mean that you establish "strategic partnerships with firms that will become distribution channels for the prearrangement products?" In this regard, please provide more detail regarding your distribution process. Also, please explain more fully how insurance companies and insurance agents assist in the provisioning of your products/services. Do you seek out insurance companies to underwrite policies for your death care packages? How can insurance agents distribute your products?

31. Please clarify, if true, that once you have sold a death care package to a customer, the customer has the option of financing the package through the purchase of insurance or through placing funds in a trust that you manage.

32. Please provide your basis for the following statements:

* "National Preplanning...began to achieve operating results by positioning itself as one of the first movers and leaders in the sale of funeral pre-arrangements...," page 16 * "...12% of American workers are current caring for an older person and this figure is expected to grow in the next few years...," page * "The death care industry is projecting over $17 billion in revenues for 2004, with over $5 billion derived from the prearrangement of death care services...," pag

Show Raw Text
<DOCUMENT>
<TYPE>LETTER
<SEQUENCE>1
<FILENAME>filename1.txt
<TEXT>

Mail Stop 0407

      March 11, 2005

Mr. Mitchell S. Segal
Chief Executive Officer
Walker Financial Corporation
990 Stewart Avenue, Suite 60A
Garden City, New York 11530

	RE:	Walker Financial Corporation
		Registration Statement on Form SB-2
		Filed February 11, 2005
		File No. 333-120748

      Form 10-KSB for the year ended December 31, 2003
Forms 10-QSB for the quarters ended
March 31, June 30, and September 30, 2004
      File No. 0-28173

Dear Mr. Segal:

      We have reviewed your filings and have the following
comments.
Where indicated, we think you should revise your documents in
response to these comments.  If you disagree, we will consider
your
explanation as to why our comment is inapplicable or a revision is
unnecessary.  Please be as detailed as necessary in your
explanation.
In some of our comments, we may ask you to provide us with
supplemental information so we may better understand your
disclosure.
After reviewing this information, we may or may not raise
additional
comments.

	Please understand that the purpose of our review process is
to
assist you in your compliance with the applicable disclosure
requirements and to enhance the overall disclosure in your filing.
We look forward to working with you in these respects.  We welcome
any questions you may have about our comments or on any other
aspect
of our review.  Feel free to call us at the telephone numbers
listed
at the end of this letter.

General

1. The financial statements and MD&A and should be updated to
December 31, 2004, as required by Rule 3-10(g) of Regulation S-B.
In
addition, please update your other disclosure where required (e.g.
executive compensation information).

Prospectus Cover Page

2. Please note that companies do not "list" their securities on
the
OTC Bulletin Board.  Brokers must apply to the NASD to quote a
company`s securities on the OTC Bulletin Board.  Therefore, revise
the reference to your stock being listed on the OTC Bulletin
Board.

Prospectus Summary, Overview, page 5

3. As currently drafted, the description of your business is vague
and contains industry jargon that does not provide any meaningful
information.  For example, what do you mean that you provide
"prearrangement" and "pre-need products?"  Also, what does it mean
that you have "established a worksite and affinity marketing
strategy?"  Instead of this disclosure, simply state, if true,
that
you sell funeral plans to individuals on behalf of funeral
companies.
In addition, in light of your financial history and condition, it
is
unclear the nature and extent of your current and future
operations.
Please revise to discuss what products/services you currently
provide, the extent of those operations to date, and how you
provide
these operations.  In addition, please discuss what
product/service
you intend to provide as well as status of that product/service in
development. Revise your entire document, including this section,
your Business section, and your MD&A, so that ordinary investors
have
a clear understanding of what you do and the goods and services
that
you sell and how you sell them.

4. Further, as part of your revisions, please continue to provide
a
balanced picture of your operations, financial condition, and
structure.  Please disclose that you have an accumulated deficit
of
$4.1 million and only recently entered into your current business.
In addition, disclose that you need $1 million to fund your
operations for the next twelve months.

5. In this regard, please revise throughout the prospectus where
appropriate to discuss your corporate history including when and
how
you entered into your current business.

Risk Factors, page 6

6. Please delete the second and third sentences of the
introductory
paragraph.  Once you describe all material risks, and tailor each
one
to your specific facts and circumstances, you will not need this
generic, boilerplate risk disclosure.

7. Please revise each risk factor caption so that it reflects the
risk that you discuss in the text.  Currently, many of your risk
factor captions are unduly vague, such as "We have a limited
operating history with which to judge our performance" on page 3,
or
merely state a fact about you, such as "Our auditors have
recognized
a material weakness in our internal controls" on page 4.  Others
captions simply allude to a future event, such as "Changes or
increases in, or failure to comply with, regulations applicable to
our business could increase our costs" on page 5.  These are only
examples.  Revise throughout to identify briefly in your captions
the
risks that result from the facts or uncertainties.  Potential
investors should be able to read the risk factor captions and come
away with an understanding of what the risk is and the result of
the
risk as it specifically applies to you.  As a general rule, your
revised captions should work only in this document.  If they are
readily transferable to other companies` documents, they are
probably
too generic.  Please revise accordingly.

8. Please avoid the generic conclusion in the captions and
discussions that if a risk occurs, your business and results of
operations could be adversely affected or substantially harmed.
This
does not represent meaningful disclosure.  Instead, replace this
language with specific disclosure of the possible impact upon your
operating results, business, liquidity, cash flow, financial
condition, share price, etc.

   Our auditors have recognized a material weakness..., page 4

9. Please provide more disclosure regarding the risk to you and
your
investors resulting from your auditors identifying a material
weakness in your internal controls.  In this regard, we note your
statement on page 4 that management "believes that sufficient
compensating controls have been implemented to minimize the risks
associated with this material weakness."  Please delete this
disclosure as mitigating language is not appropriate in the risk
factor section.

   Increased advertising or better marketing by our
competitors...,
page 5

10. To the extent possible, please quantify your market share in
the
industry.

   Changes or increases in, or failure to comply with,
regulations..., page 5

11. Please provide more disclosure how this risk may affect you
and
your investors.  For example, are you in compliance with all
applicable laws?  Have you incurred any costs due to these laws?

   If we fail to remain current on our reporting requirements...,
page 7

12. In order for investors to understand the likelihood of this
risk
occurring, please disclose whether you have been delinquent in
your
periodic reporting during the last twelve months.

Forward-Looking Statement, page 9

13. Please delete your reference to Section 27A and Section 21E as
these safe harbors do not apply to any issuer who has issued penny
stock.  See Section 27A(b)(1)(C) of the Securities Act of 1933 and
Section 21E(b)(1)(C) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Management`s Discussion and Analysis..., Overview, page 11

14. Please revise this section to highlight the most important
developments of the period being reported without being repetitive
of
or summarizing the ensuing MD&A discussion.  This discussion
should
be written in Plain English from the CEO`s perspective, focusing
on
issues "that keep him up at night."  Such topics could include:

* economic or industry-wide factors relevant to the company;
* how the company earns revenues and income and generates cash;
* the company`s lines of business, locations of operations and
principal products and services without being repetitive of the
Business section or disclosure elsewhere in the prospectus; and
* the material opportunities, challenges and risks that management
are most focused on for the short and long term, as well as
actions
that they are taking to address these opportunities, challenges
and
risks.  For example, we note your disclosure on page 13 that
National
Preplanning "expects to start achieving more substantial revenues
in
the second quarter of 2005."  Your overview should highlight why
management expects revenues to increase substantially in the
second
quarter of 2005.

15. Please discuss any future plans to expand your services and
offerings including a discussion of the funding and timing
requirements to complete any expansions for each subsidiary.

16. We note that your auditors cited a material weakness in your
internal control over financial reporting for the period ended
September 30, 2004.  Please revise this section to discuss any
potential material impacts on your financial condition related to
the
weaknesses in the company`s internal control over financial
reporting.

   Critical Accounting Policies, page 11

17. We note that your discussion of your critical accounting
policies
basically repeats the discussion of your accounting policies in
note
1 to your financial statements.  Please note that this is not the
purpose of this disclosure.  This section should only highlight
accounting estimates or assumptions where:

* the nature of the estimates or assumptions is material due to
the
levels of subjectivity and judgment necessary to account for
highly
uncertain matters or the susceptibility of such matters to change;
and
* the impact of the estimates and assumptions on financial
condition
or operating performance is material.

Such disclosures should supplement, not duplicate, the description
of
accounting policies required in the notes to the financial
statements. The accounting policy note to the financial statements
generally describes the method used to apply an accounting
principle
while the MD&A disclosure should present a company`s analysis of
the
uncertainties involved in applying a principle at the current time
or
the variability that is reasonably likely to result from its
application over time.  Please revise accordingly.

   Results of Operations..., page 13

18. Throughout this subsection, you frequently attribute a
material
change to two or more events or factors that you describe without
quantification.  In discussing the material changes, please
quantify
the amount of change attributed to each factor.  For example,
operating expenses were a significant reason for your net loss for
the nine months ended September 30, 2004; however, there is no
detail
as to how much each component of your operating expenses (new
employee hires, website development and marketing costs)
contributed
to the overall increase from the comparable earlier period.  Refer
to
Item 303 of Regulation S-B.

19. Also, in this regard, please provide disclosure that will
provide
insight into the underlying business developments or conditions
that
resulted in the changes.  Discuss whether any of these factors
represent part of a trend that will continue to affect your
operations going forward.  For example, how do you expect
competing
with larger and more established funeral companies will impact
you?
In addition, discuss trends within your margins as you commence
and
expand operations.  See Item 303(b)(1)(iv) of Regulation S-B.

20. Please disclose why your net sales for the nine months ended
September 30, 2004 decreased so much from $505,098 for the nine
months ended September 30, 2003.  In your explanation, please
discuss
the extent to which change in revenues was attributable to changes
in
volume versus changes in price.

21. Please provide more detail on your history of net losses.
Discuss the company, industry or other events or trends that
contributed to your net losses and discuss whether and how you
expect
these trends and events to continue to affect you in the future.

22. Please revise the presentation of statement of operations on
pages F-3 and F-21, to disclose separate line items for operating
expenses and selling and general and administrative expenses.

23. In the last paragraph of the Results of Operations for the
year
ended December 31, 2003 as compared to December 31, 2002, there is
a
reference to cash and cash equivalents derived from "Walker."
Please
explain this reference.

   Liquidity and Capital Resources, page 25

24. In addition, to the extent known, please quantify your
expected
capital expenditures to fund and expand your business for the next
twelve months.

25. Your discussion of net cash provided by financing is difficult
to
read due to the amount of detailed disclosure you provide.  Revise
this paragraph to individually identify each source of financing
you
received during 2004 and disclose the material terms of each
source
of financing.

26. In this regard, please discuss the extent to which you have
relied on loans and advances from company insiders as well as from
private placements.  Quantify the amount of funds you have
received
from these sources for the past twelve months.

27. Please quantify your obligation to the current holders of your
10% promissory notes due to your failure to register the
underlying
common stock and your default under the notes.  Please advise
whether
your defaults under the indenture create a risk to investors that
should be highlighted in the risk factors section.  Advise whether
any of the shares underlying the convertible notes are being
registered for resale on this registration statement.

   Plan of Operations, page 15

28. Please clarify what you mean by the statement that National
Preplanning "continues its affiliation" with eight funeral homes
in
New Jersey.  Does National Preplanning have a contractual
arrangement
with these funeral homes?  Revise your Business section as well.

Description of Business, General, page 27

29. This section is difficult to read due to your use of vague
terms
and industry jargon.  For example, we note your disclosure on page
20
that you partner with "beneficial administration firms."  What
does
this mean?  As another example, you state on page 20 that your
products include an "inflation rider."  What is this and how does
it
make your products more favorable than others without an inflation
rider?  You must revise this entire section to delete vague terms
and
industry jargon and describe in simple clear language what
specific
products /services you provide and how you provide them.

30. Please provide more disclosure throughout this section
regarding
how you create and market death care financial service products.
Please discuss how you procure your arrangements with funeral
homes.
In addition, please characterize the nature of these
"arrangements."
Revise throughout this section to clarify, if true, that you do
not
provide death care services, rather you package death care
services
provided by other parties and sell those services to the public.
Furthermore, what do you mean that you establish "strategic
partnerships with firms that will become distribution channels for
the prearrangement products?"  In this regard, please provide more
detail regarding your distribution process.  Also, please explain
more fully how insurance companies and insurance agents assist in
the
provisioning of your products/services.  Do you seek out insurance
companies to underwrite policies for your death care packages?
How
can insurance agents distribute your products?

31. Please clarify, if true, that once you have sold a death care
package to a customer, the customer has the option of financing
the
package through the purchase of insurance or through placing funds
in
a trust that you manage.

32. Please provide your basis for the following statements:

* "National Preplanning...began to achieve operating results by
positioning itself as one of the first movers and leaders in the
sale
of funeral pre-arrangements...," page 16
* "...12% of American workers are current caring for an older
person
and this figure is expected to grow in the next few years...,"
page
19
* "The death care industry is projecting over $17 billion in
revenues
for 2004, with over $5 billion derived from the prearrangement of
death care services...," pag