The client with a pending foreclosure sale called and canceled an initial consultation with me last week. He wanted to “think about it” before coming in. If I had been the one taking the call, I would have gone ballistic. (Can we still say that after the Tucson shootings?).
Gathering information about bankruptcy does not commit one to filing. There is such a lot of bad information out there about bankruptcy, not to mention the information that might have been good once, but is outdated post bankruptcy “reform”.
Reliable information is neutral. It is, itself, painless. Clients can make themselves feel as badly about filing bankruptcy as they choose, but the pain is largely self inflicted.
Money issues come with so much emotional baggage. My pitch to clients is to look at their financial options as purely a business issuee.
- can you repay this debt
- what important purchases or savings would be slighted to do so
- what would be at risk in a bankruptcy
So many clients come in, full of bankruptcy myths, misunderstandings, and “research” from which they’ve drawn erroneous conclusions.
My fear for the guy facing the foreclosure sale was that he might conclude that he was willing to let the property go, and not consider the significant adverse tax consequences that a foreclosure outside of bankruptcy might trigger. “Thinking about it” without solid information to contemplate is pointless.
Arghhhhh!
Image courtesy of jcfischer
As Bill Clinton used to say, “I feel your pain!” There hasn’t been more than a couple of days that go by in the 20+ years I’ve been practicing that clients either cancel appointments with me or don’t even want to go through the effort to provide basic information and schedule an appointment so that I can, for FREE, give them my analysis of their options, eligibility and usually a ton of free advice about their situation.
It’s made me start to take a very cynical view of some people out there. Very frustrating. Perhaps we should start paying them to consult with us….