New York bankruptcy debtors often have retirement accounts, investment retirement accounts (IRAs) and 401(k) plans with their employers, and they regularly consider depleting those accounts to pay off creditors rather than file bankruptcy. One feature that tempts debtors into doing this is the ability to take out loans against their retirement accounts. Essentially, they are …
I recently analyzed bankruptcy data to find out who chapter 7 New York bankruptcy debtors are. The dataset came from the federal courts’ 2016 BAPCPA Report, which contains information on people who file bankruptcy but owe mainly consumer debts. However, not all bankruptcy debtors are consumer debtors, so the post gave incomplete information on how …
How Many People File New York Bankruptcy Each Year? Read More »
Back in July, The New York Times ran a long article about abuses (and incompetence) of debt collectors trying to recover from private-student-loan debtors. The issue is important because unlike federally backed student loans, debtors with private loans have fewer options to deal with them when they become burdensome because those loans are ineligible for …
NYT Explores ‘Assembly Line’ of Student-Debt Lawsuits Read More »
(Click here to read, “Who Are Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Debtors?” part 1.) In part 1 of this two-post series, I showcased two tables from the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) Report for 2016. The information in the tables can help debtors with consumer debts answer common questions they have about Brooklyn bankruptcy …
Who Are Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Debtors? (Part 2 of 2) Read More »
The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) of 2005 changed the Bankruptcy Code in many ways that made it harder for debtors to file a simple chapter 7 bankruptcy. However, one potentially positive change it made is requiring federal courts to track data on bankruptcy cases. The information they collect is not particularly …
In a recent blog post by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, researchers discovered that the permanent effect of a job loss on workers’ earnings is 20 percent. The finding is important, obviously, because many consumer New York bankruptcy cases originate in debtors’ job losses. The New York Fed explored income shocks to households, …
NY Fed: Losing a Job Results in a 20 Percent Permanent Decline in Earnings Read More »
Most bankruptcy debtors intuitively understand that they should file their cases close to where they live: Manhattan Bankruptcy is handled in Manhattan, Brooklyn bankruptcy in Brooklyn, and Suffolk County bankruptcy in Central Islip, etc. Because New Yorkers live in dense environs, there can be circumstances where a bankruptcy court in an adjacent jurisdiction is more …
Many working debtors have retirement accounts, chiefly investment retirement accounts (IRAs) or 401(k) accounts through their employers. These accounts are assets, but New York bankruptcy exemption rules shield them completely while the federal exemptions protect them up to an enormous amount—more than $1.2 million. Debtors sometimes ask whether retirement contributions are allowed in bankruptcy, but …
Increasing Retirement Contributions (IRA, 401(k)) Before Bankruptcy Read More »
The only situation in which debtors can file a joint New York bankruptcy case is when they are married (to each other). Debtors can only create joint cases by filing together simultaneously. Debtors may not join spouses after they have filed their individual cases. What happens, though, when debtors in a joint case no longer …
The schedules and statements a debtor must file in New York bankruptcy case require the debtor to affirm that they are true to the best of his or her knowledge under penalty of perjury. This is something debtors would expect because the threat of perjury crops up in so many other contexts, such as filing …
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