California, North Carolina, Wisconsin increase bankruptcy exemptions

Debtors in three states will enjoy larger exemption amounts in 2010, thanks to legislation passed late last year. 

Linking Healthcare Costs to Bankruptcy — More Spin Than Truth?

A recent Harvard law school study indicates that health care costs are “behind” roughly 60% of bankruptcy filings. My personal experience gleaned from counseling close to 1,500 bankruptcy debtors since 2005 would suggest a much lower figure, at least under the commonly accepted definition of “behind.”  For example, according to my experience, in a typical bankruptcy case the credit card debt load alone comes in around $30,000 whereas the actual medical debt is usually less than $1,000. Does this mean that my clients’ medical debt is “behind” their bankruptcies? I wouldn’t think so, but add a relatively small portion of the credit card debt that may be pushing their bankruptcies, and the word “behind” becomes somewhat more credible. Still, not counting mortgages, car loans, student loans and tax debts, a large majority of the debt (in my cases at least) has come from purchases and personal loans for living necessities, family vacations, car and home maintenance, “toys” and, not insignificantly, from penalties and interest for late payments and overcharges.

Are my clients healthier than the norm? I don’t think so, but almost all of them receive their primary health care through Medicare, Medi-Cal (a state-specific variant of the federal Medicaid program), or employment-related benefit programs. To be sure, some of them have gone without while others have been left with residual debts due to co-payments and the occasional uncovered treatment or prescription — a relatively insignificant part of their overall debt load. There are, of course, exceptions to this — an uncovered trip to the emergency room with a $15,000 price tag or the like has provided the bankruptcy filing trigger more than a few times.

So, if I were issuing a report based on my cases, I could honestly say that health care debts have been part of the mix, but I wouldn’t want to insinuate that medical costs were the most important factor. Of course, since I only serve California debtors, their experience may be way different than that attributed to bankruptcy debtors in other states — and the Harvard poll may be perfectly accurate outside of the Golden State.

Still, the timing of the report — derived as it is from a poll taken some two years earlier — is suspicious given the fact that the national health care debate is about to begin in Congress. It makes me suspect that the poll is being reported in a manner to serve an agenda — one that is tilted towards significant health care reform. Simply put, someone is wagging the dog, but don’t get me wrong. That’s my agenda too. I just wish that polls and the statistics that are drawn from them were not so consistently used to manipulate public opinion in a particular direction rather than to tell “just the facts, ma’am” and let those who read them draw what conclusions they will. Jeez, I know, my naïveté runneth over.

Determining Mortgage Modification Eligibility on the Web

In an earlier blog entry and Nolopedia article, I explain the basic requirements for refinancing a mortgage and having your payment reduced under the Obama administration’s implementation of the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan.

Now the government has put up a user-friendly website dedicated to helping you determine whether you are eligible to have your mortgage refinanced or your mortgage payment reduced under this new law  In addition to eligibility determinations, the website helps you find a HUD-certified housing counselor and, in a resource section, provides calculators to help you determine your debt to income ratio and your likely payment if you qualify for the program. If you are wondering whether the Obama Administration’s mortgage modification programs will help you out, this is definitely the website of choice.

Stay Away from Debt Management Plans

In a brief article found on the Debt Law Network, the author notes:

The FTC has found that some organizations that offer debt management plans (DMPs) have deceived and defrauded consumers, and recommends that consumers check their bills to make sure that the organization fulfills its promises. If you are paying through a DMP, contact your creditors and confirm that they have accepted the proposed plan before you send any payments to the organization handling your DMP. Once the creditors have accepted the DMP, it is important to:

• Make regular, timely payments.
• Always read your monthly statements promptly to make sure your creditors are getting paid according to your plan.
• Contact the organization responsible for your DMP if you will be unable to make a scheduled payment, or if you discover that creditors are not being paid.

The article goes on to explain what can happen if you are late with a payment. What it doesn’t say as clearly as it might, however, is that your plan will most likely go up in flames if you fall short on your payments. In my humble opinion, you should stay away from debt management plans for this reason alone. But there is more. 

First, as confirmed by the FTC, the company you choose may be a scam. In addition to not delivering on its promises, it may be taking your money under circumstances where it’s clear you can’t afford the plan. Second, by paying a “middle man” to do something that you could do yourself  (negotiate a payment plan with your creditors), you are wasting precious resources. And third, none of the plans that I’ve seen are willing to open their books and publish their success/failure ratios. Since I don’t know what those ratios are, I can only guess that they would likely scare off future customers and bring the FTC down on them even faster than is already the case.

Perhaps my biggest reason for being so negative about DMPs is that they divert your income from you and your family to the DMP company and your creditors. Assume, for example, that your plan requires you to pay $300 a month for three years, and after the first year you are unable to continue making the payments. During that first year you will have paid $3,600 under your DMP for no good reason. Had you deposited that $3,600 into a savings account, you would be in much better shape to rebuild your finances.

Of course, you will still have to deal with your debt in some way. My way is bankruptcy. If you are guided by a morality that compels you to repay your debt, file under Chapter 13 and throw as much money as you can into your Chapter 13 plan. If you, like many, feel justified in getting a fresh start within several months rather than several years under a Chapter 13, file under Chapter 7. Unlike Chapter 13, you can probably handle your own Chapter 7 bankruptcy without a lawyer, which means that for several hundred dollars you can be rid of your credit card debt no matter how much you owe.

“But,” I hear you say, “my credit will be ruined if I file bankruptcy.” Yes it will, at least for a while, but your credit may likely already be in the tank. More importantly, in the new economy, we will all be required to live within our means. If you are able to save every penny you would use to pay off all or a major percentage of your credit card debt yourself rather than under a DMP, your savings account will be large enough to replace the financial cushion that good credit provides.

The New Federal Housing Plan: A Good Start

On February 17, the Obama Administration announced its new homeowner affordability and foreclosure prevention plan. On March 4th, the Treasury Department issued guidelines as to how the new plan would be implemented. Despite criticism from all sides, I think the plan is about as good an approach as is possible in the current political and economic climate.

Many articles and blogs that are critical of the program have pointed out the obvious — that the plan won’t apply to many who could use the help, or even to the majority of people at risk of foreclosure, especially those who are losing their jobs at such a rapid rate. There will be widespread injustices in that many people who deserve to get help will fall outside of the guidelines and an equal number of people who get help may arguably not deserve it. The plan is structurally insufficient given the lack of adequate funding. The mortgage modification part of the plan will crash and burn when (not if) the investors sue because they feel it favors the banks and homeowners and neglects their interests. And so on and so forth.

The fact is, there is no way to create a massive housing relief and foreclosure prevention program without its share of problems — big problems. Still, the Administration’s plan appears to successfully thread a very thin needle by making large and hopefully permanent improvements in the home mortgage landscape while avoiding the worst of the moral hazard bunkers — a political necessity.

The plan consists of two components: a $400 billion refinance program and a $75 billion mortgage modification program (all to be paid out of previously allocated funds). Setting aside the details for a moment, the programs will likely accomplish two important goals:

• The refinance program will potentially transform millions of funny-money loans with uncertain interest rate futures into stable, 15- or 30-year fixed-rate low-interest mortgages. Payments on the refinanced loans will increase in some cases, but the homeowner’s participation will depend on his or her ability to afford the new loans. And even though their payment may be higher in the short term, it will be stable in the long term — no more fear of interest resets. While the refinance program only applies to mortgages owned or backed by the two large federal housing finance agencies — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — we’re talking about half of the nation’s mortgages. Overall, the program is bound to have a substantial — and positive — effect on the mortgage default rate and the stabilization of home prices.
• Equally important, the mortgage modification program creates a workable approach to modifying mortgages so that payments for many will be brought within the affordability range. Also, for the first time, homeowners can get an objective fix on whether they are eligible for a modification. It’s impossible to say what the future holds for the real estate industry, but it makes sense to believe that once mortgage lenders become comfortable with the very idea of modifying loans, only good things will follow. Whether or not the number benefiting from this program will be in the millions — as predicted by the Administration — or in some lesser amount doesn’t really matter. The overall numbers are sure to be large.

Getting back to the details, let’s continue with the refinance program: Even if you have a shot at this program because your mortgage is owned or backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, you will only qualify if what you owe on the mortgage is within 105% of the home’s current value. For example, if your property is valued at $200,000, you won’t qualify for refinancing unless you owe $210,000 or less on your first mortgage. This means you probably won’t benefit from this program if you live in the areas most heavily impacted by the housing crisis — home values in these areas are frequently 25% or more below what’s owed on the mortgage. You also will probably be disqualified if your loans are jumbo rather than conforming (over $417,000 in most areas, and $729,750 in higher-cost areas like New York and California).

But suppose you’re lucky and live in a part of the country where you’re just a little upside-down, within the 5% range. Even then you’ll need a good payment history (some say good credit is also required) and an income that is adequate to afford the payments under the new loan, which, as mentioned, may be higher than under your current loan, at least for a little while.

In the final analysis, the homeowners who least need a refinanced mortgage are the most likely to get one, and vice versa of course. And this says something very important about both of the new programs: They were carefully crafted so that the Obama Administration could credibly assert that only responsible homeowners would be helped. They didn’t want to defend themselves against the allegation that we taxpayers were rewarding bad behavior — the moral hazard quandary. In the case of the refinance program, only homeowners who have a good payment history and who aren’t very much upside down are getting to play. Homeowners who somehow got in way over their head or who have shirked their payment duties will likely not be invited to the party.

The Administration’s attempt to only help responsible homeowners is also evident in the mortgage modification part of the program. To qualify for a modification you have to show:

• financial hardship caused by change of circumstances, such as loss of a job, a medical emergency, or an interest-rate reset (if you were in over your head from the beginning, it’s unlikely you’ll qualify for help)
• risk of foreclosure, meaning you have missed at least two payments, or your debt to income ratio (your DTI) is higher than 31%, and
• sufficient and provable steady income (by way of a tax return and wage stubs) to make the payments required under the modified loan.

The ball starts in the mortgage servicer’s court. All participating mortgage servicers (so far, most of the big ones have signaled their willingness to play along) must perform an initial “net present value” (NPV) analysis on all loans in their portfolios that are either at least two months delinquent or that are in “eminent risk” of default. Although the guidelines don’t define what “eminent risk of default” means, I assume it means loans with a debt to income ratio in excess of 31%.  A loan’s NPV is what it would cost (in cash flow) to modify the mortgage relative to the cost of foreclosure and is to be calculated according to parameters set out in the guidelines. Based on past practices, most NPV analyses will favor modification and in those cases the servicer will be required to notify you, proceed with modification discussions with you, and modify the mortgage, assuming you meet the other eligibility requirements.

The ultimate goal for the modification program is to adjust the interest rate and duration of the mortgage so that the homeowner has a debt to income ratio (DTI) of 31% (meaning the payment on the first mortgage, including taxes and insurance, will be 31%of the homeowner’s gross income; the mortgage debt that goes into this DTI ratio doesn’t include payments on a second mortgage, installment payments, or mortgages on other houses).

The modification is to be accomplished by first reducing the interest rate to as low as 2% and then by extending the term of the mortgage (from its inception) to a maximum of 40 years. Once the payment (through this process) reaches a DTI of 38%, the government will share the cost of the rest of the reduction down to 31%. The servicer also has the option of modifying a mortgage loan by reducing its principal — with government participation and backing. Last but not least, the program provides monetary incentives to servicers for keeping people in their homes and to lenders for agreeing to modify the mortgage. 

Both programs are designed to operate without the need for homeowners to come forward with a request for assistance. Rather, the servicers will be contacting people for a follow up after their initial eligibility for a modification or refinance has been established. Nevertheless, it would be a good idea for you to consult with a HUD-Certified Housing Counselor to see whether you are being treated fairly under the new plan. To find a counselor, call 1-888-995 HOPE.

Under no circumstances should you pay a counselor for his or her services. A bevy of mortgage brokers have been retrained to modify mortgages under the new plan (in fact, a new trade organization has been created just for “loan-modification experts”) and are charging outrageous fees for doing absolutely nothing that a HUD-certified housing counselor won’t do for free. Some new mortgage modification companies are hiring lawyers to be front-people for them so that fees can be collected in advance (something that many state laws prohibit). And it’s true that lawyers can sometimes be very helpful in preventing foreclosures as such. But, as with mortgage brokers, lawyers have no magic keys to the kingdom of mortgage modifications. Again, for that purpose, you and your wallet will be better off with a HUD-certified counselor.