While most people understand that bankruptcy may extinguish many types of unsecured financial obligations or permit a debtor to repay debts through a 3 or 5 year payment plan, the value of bankruptcy as an asset protection tool is often ignored.  One reason many debtors do not consider the value of bankruptcy as an asset [...]

One of the primary reasons that people are filing for bankruptcy these days is to let go of and truly walk away from real estate that is significantly underwater or in foreclosure. Bankruptcy is in nearly all cases a vastly more cost-effective and time-efficient means of walking away from a home than is a short [...]

During your Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you may hear the trustee or your own attorney say, “Secured property must be paid for or returned.” If you have a debt that is secured by a lien on property, you must make arrangements to pay the creditor or surrender the property. That is the general rule, but its [...]

A Chapter 13 bankruptcy, as Ive described here in prior posts, is essentially a monthly payment plan in which some and sometimes all of your debts are paid according to what, in theory, you can afford to pay after your basic household expenses are met each month. In other words, you pay in a Chapter [...]

Overpayments of Social Security benefits are unsecured debts just like credit cards and medical bills, and they are therefore dischargeable in Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy in most cases, short of any finding of fraudulence in the acceptance of the payment by the recipient. In other words, so long as you did not accept [...]

EBay is an online auction website where people and businesses buy and sell goods. You probably already know that. What you may not know is how EBay can help you during your bankruptcy. First, EBay can help you adequately value your household property. The bankruptcy laws require that the debtor account for all personal property [...]

Friendly’s Ice Cream Corp. recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  While the restaurant chain will continue to operate through the bankruptcy, officials say they plan to close 63 of their least profitable locations. The Massachusetts-based company listed between $100 and $500 million worth of assets and debts.  A Boca Raton-based creditor, Sun Capital, has plans [...]