Rosenberg & Weinberg

07/04/2024

Unfortunately , I am sharing that Jason Rosenberg of Rosenberg and Weinberg has passed away. Jason was a mentor who helped me make the transition from working mostly with corporations in a downtown firm to working mostly with people with their personal and business issues. He helped teach me how to mix opening my heart to people while staying objective so I could compassionately as possible give critical advise. He also showed me how to in a sensitive way to help people look forward and rebuild and not stay in the past.

12/10/2023

12/10/2023

Bankruptcy can help to make sure heirs get the benefit of their relatives hard work. While not assured, as long as the bankruptcy is filed before death, it is likely the debts can be discharged as the person filing is otherwise eligible. I have similarly worked many times with divorce counsel to file for divorcing couples so both of them can launch their post marital life debt free

08/30/2023

I feel like putting a sign above my door that if you do not have a six-figure income, you should go away.

With a full employment economy and a pause in student loans, most people have jobs with livable wages and do not need my help. A large minority, if not majority, of my clients have six-figure incomes, but also six figures of debt and, consequently, very much need my help

At the time they come to me, they would have to file a bankruptcy, chapter 13, where they would have to pay a thousand or two, if not more, a month to the creditors. By engaging in pre-bankruptcy planning, I am able to reduce that to several hundred dollars a month.

 The change in their lives is traumatic. At the time they see me, they are often behind on utilities and car payments as they are buried in debt. By the time we file the bankruptcy, not only have are current on their pills, but able to put away money for emergencies.

08/24/2023

The federal government has issued an internal memorandum under which it appears it is infinitely easier to discharge student loan debt under certain conditions. The two most common conditions is that one has been making an effort to pay the student loan for 10 years.(payments need not to have been made such as due to the Covid forbearance) and being over 65. The bad news is that one has to initiate a complaint in the Bankruptcy Court so that the cost of trying to get the student loan discharge will likely be more than the bankruptcy. The cost is highly likely to be less than 10,000 so they offered should be worthwhile if your student loans exceed 50,000.

04/23/2023

Just recently turned a potential foreclosure into a house saving event. Client had bought a house with a second mortgage before the Great Recession. With the turmoil of the Great Recession, they stopped paying the second mortgage. Fast forward about twenty years,an investor bought the mortgage and started foreclosure proceedings. We reached out to the creditor and explained while there was some equity now in the property, we could wait till the eve of foreclosure and then use bankruptcy to pay only the equity over five years and was able to pay off the mortgage at a very favorable amount.

We have seen that issue of a dormant second mortgage many times. Please feel to call if you have one.

02/01/2023

We were able to perform a miracle this week.  we received notice from our website service that a person had called our number twice and hung up before we could answer within 20 minutes around noon. Knowing that debtors can be reluctant to talk to anyone, we decided to return the phone call.

Turns out the person was an overwhelmed single mother who had a foreclosure for 3 o’clock that day on her home in which she had hundreds of thousands of dollars of equity. She had given up but called us and hung up as a desperate last step. We helped her deal with the feelings of guilt and being overwhelmed and work with us so that we could generate and file a Homestead and then file her bankruptcy before the foreclosure.

She will now be able to sell her house for fair market value which will result in her having enough money to change life for her and her children

We have been able to frequently to surprise our clients with what we can do. Please feel free to call us for a no charge consultation to see if we can help you.

11/20/2022

A road to discharging student loans in bankruptcy has been opened. We will not know how significant this is, but it could affect the millions of people hopelessly buried in student loan debt.

Last Thursday, the Departments of Education and Justice released a pleading under which they would consider agreeing to the discharge of student loan debt. It will only be done if you file a separate lawsuit within the bankruptcy plus if you meet certain conditions, such as being retired or never getting a degree. Exploring the possibility of getting a student loan discharge will cost a few thousand dollars but for someone with student loan debt of close to if not six figures, it may be worthwhile to file bankruptcy now versus waiting a year or two to see how the government reacts. If nothing else, you will not have to make student loan payments while the issue is being litigated.

The other consideration to keep in mind, is that the the federal government may change its policy in two years if there is a new president. While I have no political insight, due to the vigorous litigation by republican officials against the current student loan forgiveness, it appears highly likely that a Republican president would change the policy of the federal government and this door will close.

11/13/2022

The ability to help owners of small businesses deal with debts in bankruptcy has been recently dramatically expanded. The amount of unsecured debt an individual can have in Chapter 13 has been increased from less than a half million to $2,750,000. From my experience, the new limit opens Chapter 13 as an option for most small business people.

Chapter 13 is designed for individuals so it costs the money and legal time a fraction of Chapter 11. One significant limitation is that it is limited to individuals.

I have had individuals whose business is incorporated assume their business debts and liabilities before filing so the business is protected by the Bankruptcy Court. While the transfer could be challenged, I have been able thus far been able to show creditors that they are better off with the Chapter 13.

02/08/2022

Refinancing your family house and removing your spouse with debt and impaired credit score so you can get a lower payment happens routinely. Saw it twice last week.

Both couples had wanted to get the refinancing done with the lower payment and thinking they had the bonus of saving the house from creditors. After the refinancing, they met with me to try to discharge the debt.

I had to tell them by transferring the house in the apparent ordinary course, they in fact legally conveyed the debtors half of the house for free to a relative. Due to that,the non debtorsoouse is liable to the debtors spouse creditors for the debtor spouse half of the house.

If the debtor had filed a simple two page homestead declaration which would protect $500,000 of joint equity which is all the equity in the house. The debtor could have wiped out the debt in an immediate bankruptcy and a few months done the refinancing debt free.

When a person is buried in debt, even apparent innocent financial transactions with family can have horrible consequences. It is crucial to confer with someone with insolvency expertise before doing Finantrial transactions with family.

I had done a similar posting on Facebook focusing on danger of dyi asset protection . I also posted on LinkedIn like this focusing on the dangers Of ordinary course transactions with indebted family members. That posting has gotten by far the most views, likes and comments including a from a top Massachusetts bankruptcy lawyer and prominent attorneys from Thailand and Israel than any of my other postings. Consequently, I have reposted emphasizing the danger of even apparently innocent family transactions when one is heavily in debt.

Specializing in bankruptcy law for over 80 years. Helping people and companies resolve their financial problems through bankruptcy .

02/06/2022

Twice in the past week, I have met with couples that have taken their homes which were invulnerable against creditors claims and do what they thought was obvious dyi asset protection of conveying the house to the non debtor spouse before meeting me. As the houses were being refinanced, real estate attorneys were involved in the transfer.In fact, the debtors half of the house equity is now subject to claims of creditors for four years as a fraudulent conveyance . Fraudulent conveyance is a transfer without payment and can be undone by creditors for four years. More importantly, a homestead which can absolutely protect up to 500,000 of equity in the house not only can not be claimed on fraudulently conveyed property but is limited to under 200,000 if the home if we try to fix the mistake and put the house back in the debtors name within 1215 days of filing bankruptcy.

Common law favors creditors. Assets and income are protected by statutes. If you do not strictly follow the statutes, your asset is not protected. I have no doubt that some bankruptcy trustees have lavish summer houses due to debtors not paying attention to a legal technicalities in protecting their assets.

I know I have written on this before but after having to give bad news to two very nice hardworking couples with credit card debt free non debtor spouses, I feel I must do it again.

04/05/2021

Just quickly and inexpensively got a great result for a creditor. Client had lent six figure sum to long term friend who helped him get significant business from the friends employer. Just found out friend has a huge gambling problem and owed millions to employer. Came to us as the client, friend and employer used the same lawyers.

We did a quick asset check and found the employer just tied up most of the gamblers assets as part of a deal keeping him employed. Explained to our client how we could file an involantary bankruptcy and wipe out the liens but there are risks of minimal if any payment from the bankruptcy most notably due to large tax debts as well as the trustee with him/ her charging hefty fees. Trustee and tax debts generally get paid in full before creditors get paid a single penny. The client was also likely to lose the work from the employer. He went to his friend and explained he needed to be paid quickly from his remaining assets if he was not take legal action which would expose his legal problems . Client got mostly paid and kept the consulting work

Used our knowledge of what debtors are likely to do from mostly helping debtors to get amazing results for creditors.

Feel free to ask about our twice getting a creditor paid more the secured creditors who were represented by national law firms. In both cases , we knew of traps for the unwary debtors and looked for them and exploited them when we found them. The debtors national law firms casually took a generally temping factual position that they unknowingly put my clients in a very favorable position . It was easier to payoff my client than try to backtrack on the factual assertions .Both times got a five figure unsolicited bonus from the client