Can you afford to file?

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Ways to Protect You and Your Family

As I look out the window this evening the snow has begun to fall and the weather station is reporting a heavy storm to come. It is important that you are prepared for winter weather.

One of the first things you can do is create an emergency supply kit for your vehicles that includes: nonperishable food, a battery-powered radio, flashlights, water, extra batteries, snow shovels, clothing, and blankets.

Make certain that your car is filled with gas and have the following items checked: antifreeze levels to ensure they are sufficient to avoid freezing; the battery and ignition system should be in top condition and battery terminals should be clean; wear and fluid levels on your brakes; for leaks and crimped pipes in your exhaust system and repair them (Carbon monoxide is deadly and usually gives no warning.); replace and keep water out of the fuel system by using additives and maintaining a full tank of gas; the heater and defroster; lights and flashing hazard lights; make certain you have the proper oil, heavier oils congeal more at lower temperatures and do not lubricate as well; make sure your tires have adequate tread. (All-weather radials are usually adequate for most winter conditions. However, some jurisdictions require that to drive on their roads, vehicles must be equipped with chains or snow tires with studs.); and windshield wipers and windshield washer fluid.

Just as there are these steps you can take to protect your family in the winter days ahead, there are steps you can take to protect your and their financial future. One of them may well be to file for bankruptcy protection. It can be confusing to determine whether it is the right step for you and your family. If you need help making that decision, please feel free to contact me. Kevin D. Heupel, Colorado Bankruptcy attorney, 303-955-7570, COBankruptcyHelpEmail, free-consultation form. I will answer your questions without obligation. Remember, I am here to help.

Citizens Take Steps to Affect Their Future

Across the country citizens are participating in the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Others are asking what it is about. I think it is safe to say that it is about the many families who have worked hard their whole lives and now are unable to pay their mortgage, or their child’s college fees, or save for a retirement fund. It is about all of the struggling families who turn on their television to see the rich and famous paying ten thousand dollars for a pair of sun glasses or paying to dress their dogs in outfits that cost more than most middle class children’s clothing budget for a year. As I have pointed out, many times over the past year, these are rough times for a majority of middle class and lower income families. People are discouraged, scared, and in some cases angry. Finally, gathering together on the streets of major cities to support each other and express what they are thinking and feeling is a step that makes people feel empowered and free.

I believe another step that can be taken, a much simpler one in comparison, is to begin the process of filing for bankruptcy protection. Give yourself a fresh start before it is too late and you lose your home and family’s future security.

If I can be of any help in making the decision to file bankruptcy or in answering any of your related questions, please feel free to contact me. Kevin D. Heupel, Colorado Bankruptcy attorney, 303-955-7570, COBankruptcyHelpEmail, free-consultation form. I will answer your questions without obligation. Remember, I am here to help.

Please take care to have a safe and joyful Halloween!

Consumers Are Pessimistic About Economy

An article written by Scott Neuman and Tasnim Shamma posted on the NPR site yesterday addressed the fact that consumers have little confidence in the economy despite what they refer to as growth in the economy. Apparently, “consumer confidence is at its worst since March 2009.” The odd thing is that everyone keeps referring to economic growth despite the fact that unemployment is high and pay is low. As Kim Brown, a 34-year-old kindergarten teacher from Caroline County, Md. told NPR “Everything is going up but our pay, I’m not confident at all. I think things are going to get worse before they come back.”

“People are losing more jobs every day. There are a lot of homeless people on the street,” Antonio Jackson, a sewer worker in Washington, D.C., says.

Ben Herzon, senior economist at Macroeconomic Advisers, “is forecasting 9 percent unemployment through all of next year, and for it to come down only to 8.5 percent by the end of 2013.”

Given these conditions it doesn’t seem surprising that consumers are feeling pessimistic about the economy. As many of you know, this is a time fraught with economic challenges, and if I can help you to decide whether or not bankruptcy is the protection that is right for you and your family now please feels free to contact me with your questions. Kevin D. Heupel, Colorado Bankruptcy lawyer, 303-955-7570, COBankruptcyHelpEmail, free-consultation form.

Closing Credit Cards Will Not Necessarily Help Finances

One step people have been taking, in an attempt to reorganize their finances, is closing their credit card accounts that have a zero balance. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily the wisest move. When you close an account your credit score will drop-albeit not radically, but it will drop. The reason is the credit report assesses your debts vs. the percentage of credit you have available to determine your score. The higher the debt you have and the lower your available credit lines the lower your credit rating will be.

Of course, if the account has an annual fee and you want to change to another account with no fee in the long run it will be worth it, according to John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education at SmartCredit.com. The impact on your credit score will be minimal and your score will more than likely recover within two or three months. But, if you intend to apply for a loan, retain the credit card until the application process has completer. In some instances, a credit score lowered even by a few points only can affect your obtaining the best interest rate.

If you are considering filing bankruptcy or have any questions please contact me. Kevin D. Heupel, Colorado Bankruptcy attorney, 303-955-7570, COBankruptcyHelpEmail, free-consultation form. I will answer your questions without obligation. Remember, I am here to help.

Debtors Must Submit Bankruptcy Pay Advice

Let me begin by explaining what is meant by a “pay advice.” A pay advice is any document that will fulfill the requirement for written proof of your income. Your pay stubs, printouts of your income and withholding supplied to you by your employer, or proof of monthly direct deposits from your employer supplied by your bank are examples of what may serve as a pay advice. If you are filing for personal bankruptcy you are required to submit pay advices for the six months prior to the time you began the bankruptcy protection process. In other words, if you intend to file bankruptcy in November of 2011 you will need to supply your attorney with your pay advice for the months of May 2011 through November of 2011. It is also necessary to submit to the trustee assigned to your case the pay advices for the sixty days prior to initiating the bankruptcy process. If your spouse is filing with you they will also be required to provide his or her pay advices.

The purpose of requiring that you submit this documentation is twofold. One is to calculate your current monthly income for the Means Test, and two is for documentation that must be given to the trustee in order for him/her to facilitate your bankruptcy case.

If you are self-employed or have been paid in cash and do not have pay advices, then you must submit a sworn statement attesting to the fact that you were paid in cash or unemployed for six months prior to filing to the bankruptcy court. In some instances, the trustee or the bankruptcy court may request additional information such as profit and loss statements in order to prove that all of your income has been reported.

Ninety Days Prior to Bankruptcy?

Several times I have had people ask me about the ninety-day rule as it applies to their bankruptcy cases. It is a common misunderstanding that there is a prohibition against spending or paying any large sums of money ninety days prior to filing bankruptcy. Here is what the ninety day ruling actually applies to: a bankruptcy trustee may reclaim payments someone has made on a debt if the payment is within ninety days prior to bankruptcy and involves a larger payment than the creditor would usually have received via the bankruptcy process. This is often referred to as “preferences”. Preferences may be recovered by the trustee for the benefit of all creditors of the debtor’s estate. A debtor is not penalized for making payments to one creditor rather than another.

The action taken by a bankruptcy trustee to recover payment from a creditor will more than likely involve payments of at least seven-hundred dollars. It is left up to the discretion of the trustee whether or not to pursue such a course. But it is usually not considered to be expedient to do so over a small sum of money.

If you are considering filing bankruptcy or have any questions please contact me. Kevin D. Heupel, Colorado Bankruptcy attorney, 303-955-7570, COBankruptcyHelpEmail, free-consultation form. I will gladly answer your questions without obligation. Remember, I am here to help.

Time to Change Bankruptcy Law

There has been a discussion of late about the need to change the bankruptcy law to assist the middle class individuals with their fight to survive economically-particularly as it relates to the radical drop in housing values and heavy student loan debt. Experts are suggesting that it is time to make discharging these debts via bankruptcy a more viable option for these citizens.

Jason Kilborn, scholar-in-residence at the American Bankruptcy Institute states, “I emphatically believe that the bankruptcy system is the best place to sort out the current consumer debt mess.”

The figures are really quite staggering. Approximately eleven-million homeowners are currently underwater on their mortgages, and outstanding student loan debt nears one-trillion dollars. Kilborn hopes the amendments could help give consumers more money.

“People can overplay the importance of debt relief, but it would certainly help if people could get out from under their burdens,” says the codirector of the Center for Economic and Policy Research Dean Baker.

The bankruptcy mortgage-debt modification would only help underwater homeowners write down mortgages to the current value of their homes and make reduced payments, which would prevent more foreclosures. By stabilizing the housing market, the amended law would also help the country’s economy recover.

Legislation introduced by Durbin, Cohen, and others that will allow a discharge of private student loans is currently pending in Congress. Cohen says, “People who seek higher education to better their futures should not be dissuaded from doing so by the threat of financial ruin.”

It makes sense to offer an option to those citizens who have been unfairly hit by the present economy while trying to get ahead. Bankruptcy continues to be one of the most effective forms of protection consumers have available to them. If you are considering filing bankruptcy or have any questions please contact me. Kevin D. Heupel, Colorado Bankruptcy attorney, 303-955-7570, COBankruptcyHelpEmail, free-consultation form. I will answer your questions without obligation. Remember, I am here to help.

Correlation Between Cancer Diagnosis & Bankruptcy

By the end of 2011 approximately 1.6 million Americans will file for personal bankruptcy protection. There are many sources attributed to this, such as unemployment, overextended credit, and the depressed housing market. But Harvard University has reported the results of a new study that states that greater than sixty-two percent of all consumer bankruptcies are a result of inordinate medical expenses. The major disease that is responsible for this has been cancer. The American Cancer Society says that the total cost of cancer increased in this country to $263.8 billion in 2010.

A new study by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has found a link between personal bankruptcy and a cancer diagnosis-relative to the general population, bankruptcy are almost twice as high among cancer patients one year after diagnosis. Seventy-eight percent of the bankruptcies resulting from an involvement with cancer did have some form of health insurance.

At this time, the average out of pocket cost for patients with cancer is near $1300 a month, according to Duke University Medical Center. Medical expenses for these patients can do radical damage to their financial situation, wiping out savings funds, retirement accounts, and home equity. This often leaves them with no other option than to file for bankruptcy protection. One thing is for certain: individuals struggling to survive cancer do not need the added stress of excessive debt.

Fed Confused about Economy: Citizens Are Not

A headline in yesterday’s New York Times read “Conflict and Confusion over Economy at the Fed.” Not a very comforting notion for those citizens heavily impacted by this depressed economy. The author of the article, Binyan Appelbaum, starts off by stating that “The Federal Reserve’s policy-making committee is increasingly divided between advocates for stronger steps to bolster the economy and dissenters who see little benefit and considerable risk in such efforts, according to minutes of the committee’s most recent meeting.”

Appelbaum goes on to cite instances in which various committee members were asked to vote on measures that would aide our ailing economy. The votes were more often than not heavily divided. The internal divisions were partially attributed to “a lack of clarity about the health o the economy.” Apparently the Federal government continues to overestimate the progress of economic growth. The Federal Open Market Committee pointed at disappointing labor market conditions as a major source of the lack of progress. Finally, the committee noted that both consumers and businesses continue to be “surprisingly pessimistic.”

Given the inability to find employment and to survive on what income many individual are receiving pessimism is not surprising. In most middle class family’s lives there is little or no indication of an economic uprising in this country. This is why it is not prudent for those who are overwhelmed by debt to wait for a new employment opportunity or a better economy before filing bankruptcy. It is wiser to be proactive and take you own steps toward a fresh start and a more secure future.

Colorado Bankruptcy Help

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