Click Here To Receive FREE Email Updates!

Archive for July, 2007

Same Sex Marriages and Bankruptcy »

Same sex married bankruptcy filers are treated differently from those of opposite sex. The federal Defense of Marriage Act from 1996 defines “marriage” and “spouse” to exclude same sex spouses.  In Massachusetts and some other states, same sex spouses may file joint state tax returns but not joint federal tax returns.  They also may not file [...]

Do I Need A Credit Report? »

There are three national credit reporting agencies and they keep tabs on most, if not all, adults in this country and their credit history.  They determine a “credit score” based on a magic formula to specify the credit worthiness of each of us.
Everybody should be roughly aware of their credit score because that score is [...]

Blood In The Water: Investor Bites Back »

Raphael Nach filed suit in US District Court in the Northern District of Illinois alleging Moody’s CEO made “false and misleading” statements and assigned “excessively” high ratings to certain subprime mortgage backed bonds, Edvard Pettersson of Bloomberg writes in his column Moody’s Finance Chief Sued by Investor Over Subprime Ratings. This is another of [...]

Reversing Fraudulent Conveyances »

The Bankruptcy Court in Massachusetts In re Mark J. Paulding, — B.R. —-, 2007 WL 1783867 (Bkrtcy.D.Mass. 2007) recently reviewed the law on reversing fraudulently conveyed property. An example of a fraudulent conveyance is the “I’ll transfer my house to my wife for a dollar” scenario.
People who do this usually do so because of [...]

Bankruptcy Basics: What Does The Chapter 7 Trustee Do? »

When a person files for bankruptcy, the instant the person files–an estate is created. The Bankruptcy Court appoints a “trustee” to be in charge of the estate. The Chapter 7 Trustee has many responsibilities: looking over the schedules of assets and liabilites that the person has filed; reviewing the exemptions [...]

Alternatives to Bankruptcy »

Clients invariably ask, “Should I file bankruptcy?” Though it might be less than polite, I want to ask them, “What do you propose to do if you don’t file bankruptcy”.
Most Americans want desperately not to file bankruptcy but the simple arithmetic of their income, their assets, and their debts dictate that they cannot [...]

Getting Help Filling Out Form 22 Of Your Bankruptcy Papers »

The US Trustee, the government agency that oversees all bankruptcy case filings, issued a nine page summary interpreting Bankruptcy Form 22C, the form that is used to calculate Current Monthly Income and Disposable Income in Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases. Disposable Income is the amount of money a debtor must pay to unsecured creditors. [...]

California exemptions in bankruptcy »

Californians get a choice between two distinct exemption schemes when they file bankruptcy. The state law system has a large homestead exemption for homeowners;  the California bankruptcy exemptions provides a wildcard, or grubstake, exemption that can protect cash, stock or anything else of value.
Bankruptcy law allows the debtor to keep assets that are exempt to [...]

The Summer of Financial Unlove: Heads Up But Hold On To Your Wallet And Other Mixed Metaphors »

No Chicken Little, the sky is not falling.  But a whole bunch of other stuff is. 
Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch rating services dropped recommendations on over $5 Billion worth of subprime mortgage backed securities.
As bond ratings fell, so did the value of the bonds, resulting in losses as much as 50 percent.  See Subprime [...]

What is a “910 Car Claim” and Should You Be Worried About It? »

The Bankruptcy Code treats vehicle loan claims differently, depending on how long ago you purchased your vehicle. Specifically, if you purchased your vehicle less than 910 days ago, you will end up paying the full balance due, with interest, in your Chapter 13. If you purchased your vehicle more than 910 days from [...]