Purpose And History Of Bankruptcy In The United States By Brian Garvin And Jeff West

Bankruptcy is a declaration by a borrower of his or her inability to pay his or her debtors that balance that is owed. Companies can also declare it though it is usually declared by individuals whose debt has become overwhelming.

The main purpose of bankruptcy is to give a debtor a sort of fresh start by relieving him of most of his debts or to pay back his creditors what he can, though he might not be able to pay back everything. It usually allows people to be relieved of their legal obligation to repay most of their debts by submitting any non-exempt assets to a bankruptcy court so that the court can then distribute those assets among the accounts that are still owed money.

There are two forms declaring yourself bankrupt. The first kind is liquidation in which all of the person’s non-exempt assets are sold off in an attempt to settle debts with creditors. All of the other forms fall under the reorganization category, which is when the person or company is given an opportunity to restructure his or their assets and debts to better pay everything off. Typically creditors take a portion of the person’s income. Many businesses enter into reorganization to stay in an operating capacity.

In the United States, bankruptcies are under Federal jurisdiction by the Constitution as declared in article one, section eight of the Constitution. This article states that Congress can enact “uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States.” The implementation of these laws, however, is found in statute law. These statutes are incorporated into the Bankruptcy Code which is found at Title Eleven of the United States Code and then is subject to state law in instances that the federal law is not sufficient to cover the circumstances of an individual’s case.

The United States requires all bankruptcy cases to be filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court, which is adjacent to the United States District Courts. These cases are very dependent upon individual state laws, especially when dealing with exemptions and claims. Because these cases are so dependent upon state law, bankruptcy is not usually recognized in more than one state at a time.

The United States has six types of bankruptcy:

Chapter Seven: liquidation for businesses and individuals
Chapter Nine: municipal
Chapter Eleven: reorganization and rehabilitation, usually used by businesses though it can also be used by individuals.
Chapter Twelve: rehabilitation for fishermen and farmers
Chapter Thirteen: rehabilitation that comes with a payment plan for people who have a regular income source
Chapter Fifteen: for international and ancillary cases.

The most common chapters to be filed are chapter seven and chapter thirteen, and chapter thirteen is favorable to chapter seven in that an individual can keep his assets but is required to devote some of his income to the repayment of his debt, which is spread out over a period of three to five years. There are some who believe that bankruptcy does not actually benefit individuals and that credit counseling is better.

Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=220900&ca=Finances

Getting The Best Car Finance And Insurance Rates By Ajeet Khurana

When you buy a car you want to buy the best car that your money can buy but you want to make sure that your car finance program is equally as good. After you have your car you want to make sure that you have the best insurance, but of course you want to make sure that you have the best price for your great coverage.

When you are looking for car financing or for car insurance if you want to get the most for your money you will need to spend some time shopping around for the best programs out there. There is something for everyone and you don't need to pay top dollar for the best coverage.

Getting the Most for Your Money

When you are looking for car finance help you want to get the best loan that your money can buy. For some people this means having the best interest rate and for others this means that they are able to buy the car that they want. If you want the best car finance program that money can buy you first need to determine what is important for you.

To some people interest is everything so they won't accept a loan that has an interest rate of more than 7%. To other people they simply want to get into the car of their dreams, so they don't care if their interest rate is 20% as long as their monthly payment stays where it needs to be. For this reason, you need to determine what is important to you.

When you know what is important to you when it comes to car finance you will then need to start shopping around. Some lenders may require you to jump through hoops to get what you want while others will require that you simply provide them with the paperwork and financial information that is needed to process the loan. Which seems more reasonable? Everyone has a different idea of what they are willing to do for that perfect loan just as they have a different idea of what that perfect loan is.

When it comes to buying the best car insurance that money can buy, you will need to shop around, plain and simple. When it comes to car insurance there is a lot of competition out there and when you have competition that means that you are often able to get great coverage at great prices. Luckily there are a lot of websites out there that will help you compare and contrast coverage so you are sure to get the best deal.

Again, it all comes down to knowing what you want and then finding the best deal. This is different for everyone, which is why the process of getting the most for your money may require a bit of legwork on your part, but it will be worth it. Simply do a bit of work and chances are you'll get great coverage! And at the end of it all, you will find the journey worth it.

Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=221261&ca=Finances

Opportunity Cost And Your Long Term Care Decision By Robert D. Cavanaugh, CLU

If you are out shopping for long term care (commonly abbreviated as LTCI or LTC), I'm going to encourage you to take a look at a way of providing long term care benefits that is probably new to you. On the other hand, if you are in the crowd that thinks they will never need long term care, I would also suggest you evaluate this line of thinking.

Dick and Jane are both age 65, recently retired and models of good health. They have ignored the long term care subject until recently. They just put Jane's mother, who is 88, into a nursing home. Talk about sticker shock! She is in a nice place, but Dick and Jane are not 100% certain that her assets will allow her to stay there for the rest of her life.

Consequently, they have been out looking at long term care for themselves. They figure they can afford to insure a portion of what it might cost them if they ever need some form of LTCI, so they are looking at a benefit of $3,000 a month. The premium is around $4,200 a year.

Here's a new concept that Dick and Jane must become accustomed to now that they are retired. They both had good jobs during their working years. If they ever wanted to buy anything, it was just a question of looking at their income to see if they could swing the purchase. Pretty straightforward.

Now that they are retired, most of their expenditures are going to come from investment returns on the assets they have accumulated, not income from working. So they need to understand the difference between premium cost and opportunity cost. Here's what I mean…

If they elect to buy this $4,200 a year long term care policy, the money has to come from somewhere. Chances are it's coming from the interest earned on perhaps a CD or an annuity. But there is an opportunity cost associated with paying the premiums from earnings on any asset.

Let's say they are going to pay this $4,200 from the interest on a CD they own which is earning 5.4% interest. Since interest is taxable, and assuming they are in a 15% tax bracket, they would have to have $91,300 in that CD to produce $4,200 after tax to pay the premium.

They can't spend the $91,300. It can't grow. Basically, they have 'committed' $91,300 of their assets to pay the premium on their LTC policy. That's the one 'job' of this $91,300. The premium may only be $4,200 a year, but the opportunity cost is $91,300.

Let's take a look at another of their alternatives. It's called asset based long term care. How it works will unfold as I provide the example and contrast below.

One approach to asset based long term care involves re-positioning $91,300 of Dick and Jane's CD to a combination long term care/life insurance policy plan with an insurance company. Here's what moving this money does for them…

The money on deposit with the insurance company grows at interest, but it is tax-deferred interest so the insurance company will not send them 1099s every year for an amount they have to pay tax on like the bank is required to do. In 10 years, assuming current rates, the $91,300 will grow to $127,000; in 20 years $161,000. The CD, remember, does not grow, as its job is to spin off interest to pay the annual $4,200 premium on the traditional LTCI plan.

If either Dick or Jane needs any form of long term care, the insurance company plan will pay them $3,900 a month for 50 months--$900 a month more than the traditional plan.

But here's the real kicker.

If Dick and Jane never need long term care, then the camp that doesn't buy it would have been right. If Dick and Jane bought the traditional long term care plan, in 10 years they would have paid out $42,000 in premiums and about $7,400 in taxes on their CD interest in order to net out the required premium. That's a total of $49,700. The $91,300 portion of their CD would still be $91,300.

However, if Dick and Jane never need long term care, chose the asset based long term care plan and both die, for example in 10 years, the outcome is different. They have paid no annual premiums and the life insurance company will pay about $198,000 tax free to their kids.

Which sounds like a better plan?

Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=138201&ca=Finances