Bankruptcy Can Remove Liens on Household Goods If you took out a personal loan, did the lender ask you to write down a list of your personal belongings? If so, you may have given the lender a lien against your personal property, turning what would otherwise be an unsecured personal loan into a secured one. A lien is a claim against an asset that can be used to satisfy a debt. In other words, if you don’t pay the loan,
Is Debt Settlement a Better Alternative to Bankruptcy? The formula for debt settlement seems simple: hire a debt settlement company, stop paying your creditors, save up funds to use for settlement, then make offers with your creditors for pennies on the dollar. It sounds like a great alternative because it keeps you out of bankruptcy, but beware of the details. You can be sued in debt settlement Debt settlement requires you to stop making your regular monthly payments to creditors. However, when
Are You Thinking About Filing Bankruptcy? Don’t Try These Three Things First. When a client comes to me seeking help to file bankruptcy, many times they have tried something else first. Whatever they tried didn’t work. It was also time, money, and headache that could have been avoided. Sometimes there are strategic reasons to wait to file bankruptcy. But usually, the sooner you file bankruptcy, the sooner you eliminate your debts and begin making a financial recovery. If you are
Do you Qualify for Bankruptcy? Odds are that you qualify for at least one of the bankruptcy chapters. Very few things will actually disqualify you from filing bankruptcy: If you have been in a bankruptcy in the past six months and your case was dismissed under limited circumstances If you failed to take an approved pre-bankruptcy credit counseling course within six months before filing your bankruptcy case and you do not meet any of exceptions that would excuse you from
You Don’t Lose Your Retirement Accounts in Bankruptcy You made responsible choices and contributed to a retirement account, and now that nest egg has grown significantly. Don’t worry about losing your retirement savings in bankruptcy, because it’s exempt. Under North Carolina exemptions, all IRS qualified retirement accounts (employer pensions, 401(k)’s, Traditional IRA’s, Roth IRA, etc.) can’t be touched by the bankruptcy court. If you are a state or municipal employee, those retirement benefits are exempt too. This also applies to