The higher-than-average wages in the Bay Area don’t disqualify you from bankruptcy, despite rampant misinformation about the bankruptcy means test. The means test, added to bankruptcy law in 2005, was (poorly) designed to keep above-average earners out of bankruptcy. But it hasn’t worked in the Bay Area, largely because of the cost of housing here. […]
California Exemptions Increase for 2025
New 2025 California exemption amounts becomes effective April 1, 2025. And it’s no joke. The new exemption numbers will protect more value in cash and assets necessary for everyday living. Exemptions define the assets that are safe from creditors in bankruptcy. The California exemptions found in CCP 704 exemptions are also available outside of bankruptcy […]
7 Principles of California Community Property
Baffled by California community property? Think it makes you personally liable for the debts of your spouse? Lots of people do. But it doesn’t. California has been a community property state since it became a state in 1850. You would think we’d have gotten the hang of it long ago. But the community property system […]
What Happens To Cash In Bankruptcy?
How much cash can you keep when you file bankruptcy? It’s not as though you won’t have living expenses after you file bankruptcy. You need to know how you’ll manage and what you’ll have to manage with. Funding that fresh start is what exemptions are all about. We are talking here about California because exemptions, […]
California Homestead Exemption: The Truth Isn’t What You Think
“They can’t take my house, whatever happens. Right?” The young man in my office “knew” how the California homestead works: he insisted that his home was exempt as a California homestead, even if he filed bankruptcy. He “knew” that credit card debt was dischargeable. And that “knowledge” lead to his conviction that , in bankruptcy, […]
New California Homestead Numbers For 2025
It’s time to check out the California homestead numbers for 2025. The 2021 expanded California homestead not only brought the exemption closer to the real cost of housing, it provided for annual adjustments for inflation. The original legislation created a $300,000 floor on the exemption and a $600,000 cap for homeowners, based on the median […]
How Filing Bankruptcy Can Benefits Your Heirs
Elders in California enjoy enhanced state exemptions that protect them from debt collectors. Those protections often make it unnecessary for a debt-laden senior to file bankruptcy. But no one talks about one consequence of relying on exemption law to fend off creditors. California exemption laws that fully protect the assets of seniors provide no protection to the heirs. […]
Which Spouse Is Liable For Debts In California
California has been a community property state since 1850, and still we struggle to understand which spouse is liable for debts. So here, broad brush, is a guide to the legal liability of spouses, ex spouses, registered domestic partners and their community property for debt. Because, as I’ve written, the community is a third “party” […]
California Extends Protection For Home Loan Borrowers
One of the home refinance pitfalls for Californians bit the dust. Starting January, 2013, antideficiency laws that protect home loan borrowers from personal liability have been expanded to include a refinanced purchase money loan. If a borrower refinances a loan used to buy a property in which he will live, he will no longer lose […]
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