Student-loan debt continues to be a major obstacle along the path to home ownership across the nation, particularly for millennials. But it’s not the only one.

As purveyors of Bitcoin seek out mainstream acceptance, the cryptocurrency – arguably the best-known in a diverse field – may have just gotten a boost in Pennsylvania.

Stephen Gift, 63, founded Gift CPAs (formerly Gift and Associates) in 1984 and is today its managing member. The firm was named the 2019 large practice Accounting Firm of the Year by the Professional Association of Small Business Accountants. Gift CPAs has offices in five midstate locations, including Mechanicsburg and Harrisburg.

Building on its growth in Lancaster and York counties, Univest Bank and Trust Co. has hired its first commercial lender for Cumberland and Dauphin counties.

After expanding its Maryland business through a merger this spring, Orrstown Financial Services Inc. has hired former BB&T executive Christopher D. Holt to head up its operations in the Old Line state.

A legal case over a stormwater levy enacted in 2016 by West Chester borough, one of dozens of municipalities around Pennsylvania that have added the fees over the last few years to cope with stormwater runoff and comply with environmental regulations, has pitted it against West Chester University.

A state representative from East Stroudsburg, Rosemary M. Brown, has introduced House Bill 858, which would encourage savings accounts with some of the excitement of a lottery or raffle.

Managers at Conrad Siegel looked at personal-finance statistics from a variety of sources and figured there must be a better way to help clients and their employees plan for a secure future. So the Harrisburg-based employee-benefit and investment-advisory firm set about to create online planning tools that would take at least some of the mystery, as well as the stress, out of financial planning.

Steven Buterbaugh, 54, is president and CEO of York-based McConkey Insurance and Benefits, which he joined in 1991.

Honeycomb Credit, a Pittsburgh-based technology firm, has built a crowd-funding program that it is hoping to bring to small businesses across Pennsylvania.

Gettysburg-based ACNB Bank will have a second subsidiary bank in Maryland if a planned acquisition is completed with Frederick, Maryland-based Frederick County Bancorp Inc.

Digital and person-to-person payment services such as PayPal offer the convenience of clicking a few buttons – instead of cutting physical checks or going through the hassle of a wire transfer - but businesses and individuals alike should beware of the potential for fraud in these kinds of transactions.

State lawmakers are pushing to expand a program giving tax breaks to companies that donate to nonprofit educational and scholarship organizations, including private schools, but the governor is pushing back. This month he vetoed a bill that would have expanded the popular program, known as the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program.

Even during favorable economic conditions, certain companies will falter. While some of these companies may prove beyond repair, others can be turned around under proper leadership. But there is a process that needs to be followed for companies interested in purchasing these distressed companies, as outlined here>

Scranton-based Peoples Security Bank & Trust is venturing into Central Pennsylvania for the first time with an office opening in North Cornwall Township, Lebanon County.