Natalie Hawkins, mother of 15 year old Olympic gold gymnast Gabby Douglas filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy earlier this year in part due to expenses related to her daughter’s training.  The good new is that Gabby just signed a three million dollar endorsement deal with Kellogs and vows that the first thing she is going to do is help her mom out financially.  Way to go Gabby.

Soda Tax?

Last weekend I watched the movie Larry Crowne, starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.  In the movie, Tom Hanks plays a character that had recently been terminated for his job due to his lack of formal education, so he decided to go back to community college to remedy the situation.  He took an economics class there with an eccentric professor.  One day, the two of them were outside the school having a discussion on whether there were any economic benefits to filing for bankruptcy, I believe with Tom Hanks arguing that there were not and the professor arguing that there were.  Granted, this w

IRA, individual retirement accounts, are they protected in bankruptcy? I am willing to bet you expected the answer to be yes, individual retirement accounts are protected in bankruptcy. Most bankruptcy lawyers would automatically say yes, IRA accounts are protected in bankruptcy.

Many couples or individuals, prior to deployment, try to get their personal matters in order.  During this very stressful time and period of adjustment the last thing any service member needs is to be worried about their financial status.  For many, however, this issue arises as life never goes according to plan.

Bankruptcy debtors use their $4,000 wildcard exemptions most often to protect cars. The debtor can apply the wildcard only to cars in the debtor's name. For example, if a married couple is considering Chapter 7 bankruptcy and both of the...

This blog entry includes material originally prepared by the author for the 2012 FBA Bankruptcy Seminar.