I recently discussed what happens to health-insurance policies in bankruptcy, so debtors might also be curious about what happens to the actual proceeds from insurance claims. With the health-care policy, the issue was the character of the agreement, but with proceeds, the question focuses on the money the insurance company pays to the debtor when
The Wall Street Journal published an article showcasing a nonprofit startup that is writing software ala Intuit’s TurboTax that’s designed to make it easier for indigent people to file bankruptcy. This is a laudable goal because many debtors’ can’t afford an experienced New York bankruptcy lawyer to handle their cases, and the filing fees are
At a first consultation, a debtor will usually tell a New York bankruptcy lawyer about his or her debts in good detail. Information on the other term in the bankruptcy equation, assets, is often more difficult to provide. After all, debtors struggle paying their bills, and their property doesn’t remind them that they own it
The trustee in a New York bankruptcy case will probably be a nice person. My practice represents them, even. For consumers, though, the trustee’s congeniality might be confused with his or her responsibilities. The trustee’s responsibility is to the bankruptcy system, specifically the estate that’s created by the bankruptcy filing. Thus, the trustee does not
Sometimes New York bankruptcy debtors create, benefit, or manage trusts, which are legal entities managed by trustees that hold assets for other parties that aren’t owned by those other parties. The bankruptcy estate is a type of trust, which is why, unsurprisingly, it’s managed by the trustee. Debtors may be interested in what happens to
Intuition tells us that debt causes difficult health problems, and in recent years researchers have carefully established this fact. One study even found that debt can kill people: As many as 12,000 Americans died because of debt during the great recession. Scientists are also exploring the effects of poverty on cognition, and the results are
If you’re reading this post then chances are you are “potentially affected” by the data breach of Equifax, one of the three major credit-reporting bureaus. It’s probably the largest such breach in U.S. history. Equifax gathers and maintains all the personally identifiable financial information that a thief could want: people’s names, addresses, Social Security numbers,
I’ve written about wealthy relatives bearing gifts and how New York bankruptcy can help elderly debtors to illustrate the tension between elderly debtors’ options for shielding their assets from probate while enabling smooth transfers to their descendants (usually their children). The tension works like this: Elderly debtors may have own substantial assets they want to
Not all areas of the law are the same, which can lead to confusion for people who are unfamiliar with the law. This can be especially true for bankruptcy because it’s a mundane court process that millions of Americans have encountered, even though it takes place in federal court. One question debtors may ask is
In mid-August The Washington Post ran an article in its business section warning of the perils of consumer debt returning to record high levels. “Haven’t we learned?” it moans. The better question is, “So what?” It appears the author has not learned that population growth, higher incomes, different debt compositions, and low interest rates should
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