Modeling data for complex applications: inheritance? modules?

I'm developing a prototype for a Rails application that has a somewhat complex model. I'm having a hard time figuring out how the model should be designed.

Here's the basic idea:

Say the app is for a small coop, and should allow users to file "applications" (as in a apply for a loan, accounts, etc) online.

Technically, all of them are "applications" and my client would like a dashboard presenting all pending evaluations for a given group (ie: the auto loans group). So, I'm thinking of having an application model. I could subclass ApplicationModel for loans, accounts, etc., but I'm thinking Rails will use a Loans table, an Accounts table, and so, and so for each type of model. There are different kinds of loans too: Mortgage, Auto, Personal, etc. All require different data. A manager for the whole Loans division, should be able to see all pending loan approvals from his dashboard (all classes of loans).

If I were to do something like Loans.find() would I get all Loan subtypes with it? Or only what's stored in the loans table?

Is inheritance the way to go? Should I be looking at something else? Is rails even adequate for this kind of application?

I saw the legacy application built on Java that they were using (but hated with a passion). The previous developer had an ST_APPLICATIONS table which store all applications. In that table he stores all the application dat开发者_高级运维a in a blob containing a bunch of XML. Would such an approach be recommended with Rails?