“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, […]
The New Rules Of Asset Protection
I coined a new rule about asset protection schemes after meeting with a bankruptcy prospect: If the asset protection plan is too complicated for the owner to explain, it probably won’t stand up to challenge. This man had paid an attorney a fistful of money to create LLC’s and limited partnerships, each of which held fractional […]
When Can I File Bankruptcy Again
You can file bankruptcy tomorrow, so long as you don’t currently have a bankruptcy case pending. When you can get a discharge in that case is a different story. The Bankruptcy Code limits the frequency of getting a discharge, not the filing and completion of the bankruptcy case. My friend Gene Melchionne wrote a marvelous […]
$7000 Off The Price Of The Car In Chapter 13
How would you like to reduce your car payment, by lots? In a recent case, Chapter 13 allowed my client to save $7000 off the loan balance based on an examination of the car finance contract. You couldn’t see the issue from the monthly statement. When I got the finance agreement itself, I found the […]
Personal Assets Can Be At Risk For Your Business Debts
Business debt can bleed over into an entrepreneur’s personal assets. Hearing me say that, my client was dumbfounded. He was aghast that the generous equity in the home he and his wife owned was at risk when his corporate business folded. That was not because the shareholder is liable for the corporation’s debts. A properly […]
What Everyone Knows About Bankruptcy: Not
Lots of people profess to know all about bankruptcy. Whether they have good information or not. But other professionals should know better than to advise people about the workings of bankruptcy. And if they don’t know better, they should be made to pay, in some exquisitely painful way, for the harm they inflict. The rack […]
Tax Liens Live On After Bankruptcy, Unless….
You mean the tax liens won’t go away when I get a bankruptcy discharge? The client was startled that the lien would live on beyond his bankruptcy. So, if all my debt doesn’t go away, what do I get from the bankruptcy discharge? he asked. I thought the tax debt went away when I filed. […]
The Means Test: Badly Mangled
Another purported financial professional has confidently and conclusively gotten the bankruptcy means test absolutely dead wrong. And used that wrong conclusion to steer someone away from bankruptcy. Mt. St. Helens has nothing on me in terms of venting. How can financial professionals get this so wrong, more than a decade after the means test was enacted? Mangling the […]
Who Owns Your Business When You File Bankruptcy?
The bankruptcy trustee’s question was straightforward (if inartful) yet the business owner nearly blew the answer. The trustee asked: are you the sole owner of your business? When my client hesitated, she followed up: are you a sole proprietor? Focusing on the fact that he was the only person with an interest in the business, […]
Chapter 13 To The Rescue In Ruinous Business Lawsuit
Twice in the last six months, Chapter 13 bankruptcy has saved clients facing catastrophic lawsuits arising out of business. And because the targets of these lawsuits filed bankruptcy before they’d spent a fortune on lawyers and before the court had a chance to award huge damages, they fit beneath the Chapter 13 debt limits. We […]
