Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us on this needs to be said. Our friend attorney, Ron Drescher has joined us again today. We’re not going to specifically talk about bankruptcy today. He has a turn, that he’s going to take and he’s planning to this. Re-up the industry. I don’t know what that means, but I’m excited, sounds like he’s going to shake some things up. Welcome back to the show. Attorney Drescher, how are you?

I’m great. Thank you so much. How are you doing? I’m fantastic.

And they know I’ll call you Ron by the end of the show, but I start out, right. That sounds all right. So what you have, what do you have for us today? What’s the?

So, I’m a lawyer and, lawyers all over the country are required to do 12 hours a year of continuing legal education. Okay. And, and, you know, not only lawyers, doctors have it account to have this, real estate agents have this all, most, anybody who’s in a profession has a requirement to do continuing education in their profession, in order to maintain your license. So as lawyers, usually you get a done one of, one of two ways. One way you can get it done is you can go to a conference, and you know, and it could be a large conference. There are educational sessions, and sometimes these are really great conferences and you can, you know, when you meet some people, you, you say the old faces, you do a little bit of networking, and maybe you’ll get four to eight hours of your credit that way.

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And that’s, that’s the best way to do it right now. Another way that people do it is through on-demand programs. And we’re all familiar with on-demand programs because we’re Netflix and Hulu. And when we, have a cable subscription you have on demand programs, well, they have on demand programs for, continuing education as well and what a lot of lawyers do is they’ll procrastinate till the end of the year. And then they’ll, you know, December will come around or in some States, it’s October and they say, wow, I gotta get my CLE in. And they’ll find programs, maybe have some interest to them, maybe not as much interest to them, but they’ve got to get the CLE in. So they sign up for the on-demand programs and maybe in their computer or on their phones or in their car, they’ll follow it, they’ll listen to it. And that’s another way for them to get credit.

My feeling is, you know, lawyers have to do this. Why not do this a way that’s, you know, fun and engaging and interesting speaks to, to the, to the lawyer. So what I’m doing is I’m creating a series of events that I call the C L E golf tour. And it’s for lawyers who love to play golf. And the morning you show up at the golf course, you’re wearing your golf gear and, you know, you get, you know, a bagel and a cup of coffee, and you’re hunkered down for four hours of really fascinating, information, legally related and golf. So for example, this, this year, the, the program is going to deal with, there’s a very famous Supreme court case of Casey Martin versus the PGA tour, which is all about Casey Martin had a, leg disorder.

He was an amazing golfer, but he had this terrible leg disorder that made it very difficult to walk around the course. So he wants to be able to use a golf cart, in these events and, and the PGA tour said, no, you can’t because these are athletic events. It will, it will interfere with the character and the nature of the golf experience. And so Casey Martin sued the PGA tour, the Americans with disabilities act, on the ground that, Hey, this is a public event and you are required to accommodate me and, and that was a very interesting case. And so I want to talk a little bit about that case and how that went. It was kind of interesting is that the trial, in that case, you know, golf, legends, Jack Nicklaus, and Arnold Palmer and Ken inventory, they all testified in favor of the PGA tour and against King. And, you know what, I wonder if, if they don’t regret that years later, and spoiler alert, Casey Martin one,

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I look out I’m already rooting and I didn’t know all the details. It was like, why wouldn’t you accommodate this person is okay. You want to make them be on the level of, you know, let’s bring them up to normal as possible, you know So how do we level that for him and or her Yes, I was. I’m listening. Yeah.

So, so that’s one of the hours, you know, one of the hours is going to be, about w you know, discrimination and golf, you know, private golf clubs are still allowed to discriminate in their membership, even here in 2021. So I want to talk about why they are. They might be allowed do that, and when they absolutely wouldn’t be allowed to do that, then I’m going to spend an hour just talk about, golf injuries, for, for players, you know, getting hit by balls, getting injured with a cart, you know, if you trip on a hazard, a lot of different ways to get injured when you’re out on the golf course. So I’m going to talk about those and, and when you can Sue, and when you can’t Sue, and then I’m going to spend an hour talking about something that’s more in my wheelhouse, which is actually the history of the masters tournament and the Augusta national golf course.

What very, very few people know is, you know, Bobby Jones, a legendary golfer. He set out to create this golf club for the stock pickers coming from New York, by trained out of Florida. And they would make a stop in, in Augusta, Georgia, and they’d play around at Bobby Jones, his golf club. And he thought he would be able to sell a lot of memberships there, but he didn’t realize that that was right before the stock market crash of 1929 and the depression, the great depression of the 1930s. So while they built the course, they built it on credit. They weren’t able to get enough members. And so eventually a bank foreclosed on them, and some of the members bought it out of foreclosure in what’s called the friendly foreclosure. So we’re going to talk a little bit about that history and, and about how there are strategies that were used there that businesses are using even today.

So w we’re going to spend some time talking about golf related legal issues. w I ha I’m going to be making documentary style videos to compliment the presentation. Those are going to be made, by, an award-winning Emmy nominated documentary filmmaker. And then, and then we’ll, we’ll have a lava box lunch and we’ll go off and we’ll play a round of golf at a great golf course. And so that’s the day going to be limiting it to two to 12 lawyers. So you’re going to be having very high quality networking. It’s not like, you know, you can go to a conference, we’ve all gone to these conferences where there are hundreds and hundreds of people at the conference. And it’s hard to make connections at an event that big, but if you’re going to be going and spending the day on a golf course with lawyers who love to play golf, you’re going to make really great connections there that may really enhance, you know, your business and your law firm marketing.

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So, that’s, that’s the CLE the door. I’ve got three events planned in the Baltimore Washington DC area for right after Labor Day. I’ve got three events planned for the New York City area, right at the end of September. I’ve got three events planned in Southern California in the middle of October. And then I’ve got three events plans in central Florida for the beginning of November. and you know, so my, my hope is that that this will really strike a chord with lawyers, especially lawyers who likes to play golf, but even other lawyers who will say, yeah, this, I want to do this because I got to get the CLE in any way. And by the way, my program has already approved for COE in Delaware and Pennsylvania. And I’ve got applications pending in New York, Virginia, Florida, and California. And you know what, I expect it to be approved in those, I mean this is going to be really legitimate, meaningful, legal analysis this program. and then, I’m hoping that lawyers say, yeah, you know what I got to do these 12 hours anyway, why not four of them doing something that I love to do. So

If they were an interest, if they, even if they’re interested in getting started, I remember many years ago, a friend of mine was interested in golfing and his wife was like, he better love it because I spent a lot on these clubs, you know So it may be something that you want to get involved in. So, is it just limited to 12 lawyers, if it’s someone who enjoys golf, would this be beneficial for them or is this solidly an attorney event?

You know, anybody can come, but, I wonder if somebody who loves golf and is fascinated with the project, with the program, whether they’ll get the same thing out of it, that the lawyers will. but it’s open to anybody

That is curious. Okay. That would be a curious question. So we want to do, cause we are running at the end of this time, we’re going to wrap this one up and we’re gonna jump right back on and do part two because I want to be able to get all this information today. So can we do that? Sure. Because you got us warmed up, I’m excited. And I think when we hit record again, we’re ready to go. Okay, sounds great. All right thank you, Ron.

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The post Attorney Ron Drescher Talks With Katherine On “This Needs To Be Said” About His CLE Golf Tour appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.

Hello everyone. And thank you so much for joining us on “This Needs to Be Said”. Our attorney friend, Ron Drescher is here with us today, and he’s going to share with us, of course, another topic in the field of bankruptcy. But today we’re going to talk about the pros and cons or the good and bad. What is it going to be Ron? What are we talking about today?

We’re going to talk about the pros and the cons.

Okay, Chapter 13. All right, I see I’m hot on the trail. I can follow instructions. Well, I have my pen and paper out, Ron, and I’m ready to hear, I’m ready to hear this. I was excited about this topic because whenever I hear someone talk about a topic, they is like, they pick a side and you have to go just this way or just that way. So what, what I think you’re going to share with us today is a way for us to make an informed decision. So I’m looking forward to it.

That’s right. So, you know, there are, there are really two main consumer sections of the bankruptcy code that you know, that my clients want to talk about when they come to see me. And those are chapter seven and chapter 13 and chapter seven is great if you can get in and make that work for you. That’s great. The typical chapter seven cases doe’s take about 90 to 100 days. You, you discharge all your credit cards, your personal loans. If you had a car repossessed, if you were fixated from a house, you had a house for clothes, medical debts, all of those kinds of deaths that, that typically get people in trouble. They get wiped out in a chapter seven and you know, nine times out of 10, or even more than that, you walk away with all of the assets that you brought in with you to bankruptcy.

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So yeah, chapter seven is great. If you can do it, some people just can’t do chapter seven for a number of reasons. Maybe they filed it, you know, within the last eight years or their income is too high or they have too much equity in their assets so those are reasons why they can’t file for chapter seven. And then there are other things where you can only get benefits by chapter 13. For example, if you wanted discharge toll violations or parking tickets, or if you want to cure an arrear on your home mortgage, or if you want to, you know, pay down the value of your car over, over 60 months, those are the things you can only do in chapter 13. So for people in that situation, chapter 13 is wonderful. It’s great that you have the ability to, for example, cure your rears over 60 months, in the event that your lender doesn’t give a loan modification, or let’s say you’re paying 24% on your car. You can go into bankruptcy and get it down to 5%, which is pretty miraculous. So though, that’s one of the reasons why chapter 13 is so wonderful because it really allows you to do some pretty miraculous things.

Do I chapter Right? Doesn’t that sound great?

It does. Yeah. All I heard while you were talking was keep the stuff that you had when you went to bankruptcy. So I was like, yeah, all of this sounds great, you know, but there are pros and cons of that as we’re talking. So that sounds really good. So, what’s the, what’s the bad side. Well,

After 13 you’re required to pay over all of your net disposable income over the life of your plan, which is, you know, 36 months to 60 months. And for had the bankruptcy trustee, the chapter 13 trustee is going to take a preliminary look at your monthly income and expenses. And if that trustee says, you know, what this particular expense I don’t think is reasonable then you’re going to have to have a fight and see if the judge agrees with you. The judge almost always agrees with the chapter 13 trustee, almost always. So, you know, if you, if you’re a high income person and we have a lot of them that get into trouble financially, and you’re used to making certain payments, you know, your kid’s private school, maybe mortgage on a second home, you know, maybe, you know, different household expenses, then, then you’re going to have a lot of trouble because you’re going to have to let go of some of those expenses and pay that over to creditors. Like I’ve got, I’ve got clients who have children who are in college and generally, and they’re paying their children’s, you know, living expenses. You’re not allowed to do that. And in chapter 13, and that’s a real, that’s a real hardship. Those are those, you know, your child is over 18, they’re considered an adult. You’re not allowed to, in the absence of extraordinary circumstances, you’re not allowed to pay their expenses while they’re in town.

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I don’t know. That might be a good thing. That might be a good cause. You know, if parents have a hard time saying no to their children, they can put it on the, you know, the attorney, listen, I can’t bake. So some parents are looking for a way to say no, that might actually be a good thing. I don’t know.

I don’t think you’re wrong about that, but it, but it does as a real shock to my client, it is a shock, you know and so they say, wow, you know what I, you know, look high. Some people are, are often used to going out for a meal or, you know, going on, you know, expensive vacations or, or doing these things. And you could still go out to a restaurant. You could still take a vacation but you know your expenses there, they’re going to be looked at by the trustee and potentially by the court. So that’s hard. It’s very hard to dedicate all your net disposable income for five years.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The part about the kids, I think, and, and I’m at the age where I have adult children and I have friends with adult children. And the expectation is that, you know, we are an ATM for the children. Well, I’m real good at saying no. Anyway, I say no. Before I even hear what the request is, what is it And then, you know, we kind of know we’re working our way out of a note, but more than likely it’s no, but my friends, I was like, Oh my why, why are you stressing over that Why can’t you just tell your child No, and I, they don’t have a good reason. And I think you’ve just given like a good reason, you know, it’s on you to reset their life. Listen, you know, mom’s trying to get back on track and, and it’s not a lie, but it’s your way out because some adults don’t know how to say no to their adult children. So I don’t know. I think that can go on the pro list.

Sure. And that’s, and you know, and that’s a big deal cause that comes up a lot. you know, so, you know, another thing is, you know, if you have equity in your property, that now if you have sufficient equity in your property that could even drive your payments above your debt, disposable income right. And so that can be a real problem. Sometimes I’ve got clients who have just too much equity in their property. So they ended up having to pay all of their creditors in full. and, and that’s a hardship for them to they, then what they have to do is they’ve really got to cut back on even normal, monthly expenses for that period of time so that they can become debt free. That’s, that’s a hard thing for them to,

But the thing really is that bankruptcy is a privileged, just the right. Or is it a difference between a privilege and a right, right.

This sure is in bankruptcy privilege and it’s not a right. Okay.

So it’s a privilege that we get to reset ourselves. So it is hard to even be in the space to face. I have to reset myself and I can imagine the rest of the shocks that other people feel going through bankruptcy. I’ve gone through one and I didn’t have an attorney like yourself, so it was, I mean, the person was nice and they did, they did, they did their job, get my tongue together, but it was still, it was hard. It was hard to do. It was hard to go through that. It was hard to feel everything that I was feeling and, and make a decision about what I must do to get back on track. So I get all of that is a shot, but the fact that we have the opportunity to reset ourselves, I think is the big outcome. And that’s what you talk about. You know, we get through the emotional part of it or the shame on me, part of it. And now we can really see the bright side and reset ourselves. And you’ve also talked about the good of coming out of bankruptcy that we could come out better than we were before we went in. So

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Yeah, that happens a lot, you know, for the people who can, find the discipline to make it work. Those people are going to be in great shape at the end of their chapter 13 plan because they’ll have established great habits and they can, they can start a pattern of savings wishes, which is really where you want to go. The, to me, the whole point of bankruptcy is not just to solve one problem, but to, but to create a lifestyle where you can, where you can build financial security.

Yeah. Yeah. It’s hard. It’s hard. I’m just, I’m thinking about it. I’m like, yeah, it was hard for me. And that was many years ago. And I, I just imagined, cause even now when I can’t do something because of something else that has to be done, even if it’s a little thing, like I can’t go get coffee or I can’t go to the store as opposed to I’m doing what I need to do. It’s just that thought that I can’t do it as opposed to it’s an option. And we can really, you know, it, realigns your thinking and bankruptcy reset will shake you up. So I think if you have to practice something for five years, you’ll definitely have a good, good habit. Sure. You have a good one. That’s definitely

That’s, that’s actually right. And you know, during the time of you’re in a chapter 13, if you want to buy or sell a car or you want to buy or sell a house or do anything like that you’ve got to get bankruptcy court permission to do it and that is a hardship for people who are used to just kind of managing their affairs as they please, as adult citizens in the world. No, while you’re in bankruptcy, chapter 13, you have to get permission from the court. A lot of times clients don’t like that. The chapter 13 world prefers that you have wage orders in place so that when you file the chapter 13, instead of voluntarily making that monthly payment to the trustee, the trustee has it deducted from your pay on a, you know, weekly, biweekly, monthly basis, which is the cases that have, that have a much higher degree of success.

Then when the clients meet to write the check because that’s a painful check to write nowadays it’s a little easier because most trustees have enacted a, a system where they can automatically debit the money from the bank account and they, and they just set that up to, you know, they set it and forget it. And that’s great thing too. That’s almost as good as the wage garnishment, but people, they, they want to know that they’ve got that ability to manage their finances, in the case of an emergency and I totally understand that, but it does increase the likelihood that your case won’t succeed.

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So these are I’ve been talking about the pros and the cons. The pros are, of course, at the end of the five years, you’re going to get a discharge of your debt. You’re going to be more or less debt-free unless you have, you know, student loans and you know, and you’re, you’re in great shape at the end of those five years. That’s, that’s the reward, but the price of, of paying over that net disposable income every month and being under the, under the scrutiny of the bankruptcy world for those five years, that is a hard road for a lot of people.

It is, it is. Cause it’s something that we, we haven’t done. We say the word budget, but it’s not really that budget is what I have until I don’t have it in a, in a sense as opposed to really setting things aside for rainy days, sometimes quotes don’t really do what they’re supposed to do. Cause what is rainy day, if you don’t have a purpose for it. And so people miss the point of it until we do find ourselves having to sit with you, and it’s a new way of thinking. It feels like punishment until it’s not. So I mean, you absolutely, right. This is great. I’ve enjoyed it as always. I enjoy when you come on now, are you working on any new programs Do you have a book coming out What’s going on What else do you have coming out

You know, I actually, where we’re at an end of the summer period, you know, I’m still selling my course, called complete bankruptcy for attorneys that want to get into the bankruptcy world. and I, you know, I wrote a book, a single mom’s guide to, financial recovery and I’m probably going to start, you know, accelerating, sending that out to the moms out there who are probably struggling with this whole COVID mess.

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, how do people get in touch with you outside of this interview

The best way is to go to the website, www dot Drescher law.com. That’s D R E S C H E R L a w. From there you can schedule an appointment, you could do a chat, you can check out what we’re working on and you could even make a call to the office.

Fantastic! Until our next time have a super day. Ron. Thanks a lot.

I really enjoyed it.

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The post Attorney Ron Drescher Speaks With Katherine On “This Needs To Be Said” About Bankruptcy Pros And Cons. appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.

Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us on “This needs to be said”. Our friend, attorney, Ron Drescher is here with us again today. And he’s going to talk about a course that he’s doing called complete bankruptcy. So for my attorney, this is something for you to tune your ears up to. And even for us who are friends of attorneys or get our antenna going cause, I’ve learned so much every time I talk with you, attorney Drescher. So I’m going to learn in that point, someone in the right direction. I appreciate it. How have you been?

You know what I’ve been, I’ve been very, very busy because I, yeah, cause you know, right after the shutdown started, sometime in early April, I started getting calls from other lawyers who were interested in getting into the bankruptcy field because they said, wow, you know what The economy is going to go through some really hard times. And you know people are going to need help. And I think it would be really great to transition and be able to take a few bankruptcy cases here and there because that’s going to be a hot practice area. Do you know of any resources and I really didn’t. and so I thought, you know, I’m going to create this course and I’m going to offer it to the lawyers so that I can help train the new lawyers that are coming into the practice, how to do it, right? So that clients get taken care of. And so the attorneys can, you know, benefit from that increase in business. And that’s what I’ve set out to do.

I have a question. So these attorneys that were reaching out to you were not previously bankruptcy attorneys, is that what you’re saying?

Exactly! Exactly!

Oh, how simple. Cause I went to school for education so we can make what’s called a lateral move if you have a degree in anything but education to get into the teaching profession. So I don’t know if that’s similar with attorneys. How would one convert because they saw an opportunity, but how simple is that to change?

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I don’t think it’s simple. I don’t think it’s easy, but I think that it’s possible if I have a mentor that is guiding you in the right direction and helping you separate, what’s really important for you to know versus the things that, that are less important for you to know so that you can accelerate your entree into that field. So, the course is primarily videos cause you know, I have 250 YouTube videos about different aspects of bankruptcy law. So I’m very comfortable delivering information in that format. So I do videos and there are three main modules. There’s what I call a client solutions module, which is the kind of things that you should expect to see. Then there’s the basic approach, which is how you take your case from the first, meeting with the client all the way through to the close of the bankruptcy case.

And then I have a chapter 13 module. Now these courses are really designed to be pragmatic so that you can hear them or, you know, or look at them. I set them up as videos, of course, and the videos have, have like bullet points on them or emphasis points on them. Cause there are certain areas that I really want the lawyers to pay attention to and to focus on. I also rip off MP3s so that they can download them to a device and listen to them while they’re driving around their cars. And I also have them all transcribed. So, and then I have forms. I talk about systems and workflows. I talked about marketing issues. I talk about things that are very specific to how to fill out the bankruptcy forms. What I call top five. I mean, you know, to fill out a bankruptcy form is not complex, but to, to have the benefit of seeing a few different ways that you could either get into trouble if you don’t fill them out correctly or to deal with situations that come up, but are not, you know, plain vanilla.

I do what I call the top five series. So top five for each of the different bankruptcy forms and I just started, pre-selling the chapter 11 small business module. That’s going to be released August 10th. And right now I’ve got, I have over 50 lawyers have signed up for the program. How long will it take them to complete the program It’s a program it’s a, it’s a teach yourself. I would say to go through all of the materials, if you weren’t doing anything else, you were really studying and focusing on, it would take you about a week if you just went through everything but like I said, there’s a mentorship component. I’ve created what I call the complete bankruptcy mastermind. And that is a twice monthly zoom, meeting where, I, the lawyers convene and I go into a deep dive on some area of interest to the lawyers and then the rest of the time is open for Q and a.

So they have a chance to ask me questions specific to that topic or their practice or a case they’re working on or bankruptcy law in general or how their law firm is working. Plus while you’re in the mastermind, you can, send me emails and I will respond within 24 hours and I have lawyers sending me emails all the time. I’m happy to answer them. And, and two months of the mastermind come with the course. And then after that, that way, I guarantee that they will have the opportunity, not just to have the information on video and audio, but also to help flesh out issues that come up because, you know, you’re a lawyer entering into a new practice area. You want to be able to have somebody to bounce thoughts off and you know, and listen, I’ve, I’ve had people call me, or send me emails before on issues and they, you know, you feel embarrassed after a certain point that you go to the well too often but if, if you have somebody who is saying, listen, I’m going to be your mentor. You know, don’t hesitate to send me these emails. You’re a little bit more relaxed in sending those emails. You’re more likely to accelerate your learning.

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Absolutely, well, I’m excited because you said something else that has nothing to do with the attorneys, but my business ears perked up. Can you tell me a little bit about the course that starting in August you said for small businesses?

Yes. Well, it’s not for small, but it’s for lawyers.

I bet I could learn something from it though, right.

Absolutely good! It’s for lawyers to handle small business and chapter 11 cases. She knows it’s very interesting. A new bankruptcy law was passed that went into effect February 20th of this year. That makes it easier for small businesses to go through chapter 11. It doesn’t make it easy. It makes it easier. And that’s an important distinction but, and you were required to file your for your plan of reorganization within 90 days. Well, the country went on shutdown, in the middle of March and all of these timeframes were extended. So I don’t know if more than a tiny handful of, of these small business plans have even been filed. so, lawyers that want to get in on the small business chapter 11 practice, which can be very profitable caveat, you can also lose your shirt, can get in on the ground floor and kind of have, have equal footing with, with experienced bankruptcy lawyers, because nobody has been working through the new law and now is the time to get involved and really, have an opportunity to get, make progress in your bankruptcy practice.

Now, there is something that I’ve noticed with you whenever we talk you’re you find a segment in bankruptcy and you focused on it because you did one for the single mom and we talked about that a while ago, but you find now this opportunity to be the educator of the attorneys and that you’re always educating. This is my point. And the fact that you have the complete bankruptcy course, the mentorship, as well as the small business piece for them and showing them how to seize the opportunities to really get the most for their clients as they’re helping them. So I always commend you for educating and for really having that eye for what’s being overlooked because years ago, when I filed bankruptcy, there wasn’t someone like you letting me know as a single mother it’s okay. You know, and he’s going to be able to reset yourself. And so now you’re telling the bankruptcy attorneys, Hey, well, the new the com the ones that are going to come over to become bankruptcy attorneys, this is an opportunity, and I’m willing to help you and take a lot of the I should know this stuff when we really shouldn’t, out of it for them, you take the scary part out for them. So thank you.

Well, that’s so nice of you to say, by the way, there’s there, I speak to that very issue you just raised, which is that there wasn’t a lawyer there to, to say that it was okay to file. And one of the points that I emphasized to the lawyers in the client solutions module is that it’s important for the lawyer to somewhat be a bit of a cheerleader for their clients, because, you know, it’s one thing to know how to fill out a form and to file a bankruptcy gaze and to get a discharge but you know, there are feelings of failure that clients go through when they filed bankruptcy and I think the really skilled bankruptcy lawyer understands that and addresses that on an emotional level with the clients and one of the things that I say to clients and that I, that I tell the lawyers and I advise them to say is most really go through extraordinary lengths to avoid bankruptcy.

They’re not running up credit cards and then jumping in there being all abusive. That’s not, I mean, you’re talking about the tiniest less than 1% of bankruptcy. Clients are like that. Most people struggle and they work really hard to pay their deaths. and what I tell people is, you know, people who are going to be clients is that, look, when you take on a debt, you have a plan to pay that debt back. And it’s a plan that you’re putting together in your mind in good faith. And bankruptcy happens when the plan goes awry, usually through no fault of your own, or even if it is your fault. It’s, it’s a, it’s just mistakes. It’s not, it’s not,

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You didn’t set out to do it, right.

I’m set out to take advantage. And so I commend my clients for their heroic actions. I say, you know what I could see you really took your ROIC steps to avoid this. So I have a lot of respect for you and you know what that’s important for the client to hear. And, and it helps bonds the attorney with the client and it really meaningful way.

Yeah. I need to trust you. I’m scared right now, life has changed. I remember that feeling. We have to wrap up because our time is up. Tell people how to get in touch with you. If they want to know more about what you’re doing. Cause there will be some attorney that is going to hear this or read this blog and need what you have. We never know where that student is for you. So make sure you give them that information.

Well, definitely go to my main website, www.Drescherlaw.com that’s D R E S C H E R L A W. I’m going to have a form that you could fill out and a link to a, to a page where you can get a little bit more information about the course and you could also go to complete bankruptcy.law, and that will also take you. So either Drescherlaw.com or complete bankruptcy.law will get you to where you need to be. So you can get some more information and, and then that’ll put you into a campaign which I will teach you how to do that will give you all the information to give you a lot of freebies or things you can download. That’ll give you some idea of, of, of what it looks like to be a bankruptcy lawyer,

Ron, until next time; have a super day.

Thanks a lot, Katherine, stay safe. Thank you.

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The post Attorney Ron Drescher Speaks With Katherine On “This Needs To Be Said” About A Course Called, COMPLETE BANKRUPTCY. appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.

Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us on “This needs to be said” today. Our friend, Ron Drescher attorney, Ron Drescher is here and he’s going to talk with us about bankruptcy in the age of COVID-19 Corona virus. That thing that has caused a nation- wide stay at home order. Meaning if you are not considered an essential worker, you’re probably supposed to be at home and helping to keep down the possibility ofspread. That’s one thing your health is definitely important, but we talk about the rest of your world included with your health When, we talk about bankruptcy. Ron, welcome back long time. No talk to how are you?

I’m well, Katherine, you know, or I’m like you just said, I’m hunkered down at home and, trying to, you know, work and taking the opportunity to work on some special projects that I have been thinking about doing for a while. And, so I’m doing okay. Thanks.

How are you doing?

Actually, because I work from home, there was no big change from, for me. So I was already using, you know, other sources to bring things to me. I had to change like the, preferred contact, free delivery or something like that. So they just set the bag down and I pick it up, but I already work from home. So it wasn’t a big adjustment for me. However, for my family, it was a big adjustment for them because they’re away from the house. And then when they’re here, that’s the only time I have to adjust as like what do I do with these people in my face so it is different and then around me, my neighbors are getting up as early and you hear children more often during the day because they’re not at school. So the outside noise is, is what changed for me.

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Interesting, I could see that, but right, Leah,

We’re going to talk about bankruptcy and COVID-19 and even how this even matters to each other today, right

Yeah, absolutely! Absolutely and so I want to tell you some of my thoughts and some of the things that I’m seeing and, and some of this will qualify, apply both to businesses and to individuals. First of all, you should not be in a rush to file bankruptcy right now. especially if you’ve been furloughed or fired, your business has gone under, you know, if you’ve still got borrowing room in your lines of credit and your credit cards, you may need those to, you know, buy food, and, you know, pay the utilities and do other truly essential things. So, I am not in favor of rushing out and filing bankruptcy right now. What I think would make better sense for most people who are, who are going to need to file bankruptcy is that you wait until things really start to reopen and it looks like your income is going to resume.

That’s the time to really think about filing bankruptcy, because you’ve got your greatest hardships behind you don’t know what kind of hole you found yourself dug into by this disaster, but it’s, but it’s the advantage of bankruptcy to get you to jump out of that hole and resume a normal life. So I think while you’re still, at home sheltering with no income coming in, except for perhaps unemployment, I say, don’t file bankruptcy yet. Wait until things start appearing a little brighter and then many people are going to be tempted to see if they can dig themselves out. They might say, all right, you know what I’ve got that money in my IRA or my 401k let’s take out a loan, let’s pay those bills. And I admire the heroic, sentiment behind that. but I would urge anybody who is considering invading their retirement account to seek their bankruptcy options first cause creditors can never get their hands on your retirement account.

And it really was never set up to be a rainy day fund set up to fund your eventual retirement. So I would very, very much urge people to, to put that desire on pause before you, you invade those accounts. So that’s, that’s one thing about COVID and bankruptcy planning. And that also goes for businesses as well. I had a, a chiropractor call me at the very, very beginning of it. I mean, you saw his consequence, you know, subsequent appointments really, declining down to zero. And my feeling there is, again, you’re, if you have a business, you need to be in position when once this, this crisis opens up to be able to resume your business and perhaps re hire employees and purchase goods and services that are essential to your business. So I would say don’t deplete all of your personal resources now, before you can go back in set those aside, if you have to bite the bullet, make the hard decisions, lay the people off.

I’m sorry to give that advice, but I think it is the right advice so that when things open up again, you have resources to jump back into the stream of business and, and, and keep your small business alive. So those are my two main sources of advice for people who are kind of thinking, well, I’m in trouble. Should I, should I bite the bullet and pull the trigger and file bankruptcy Now I say, no, I would. I advise, I advise waiting now on the other side of the coin, oddly enough, this whole mess to some people may provide an opportunity if you time it correctly, because you might be a high income person who would not qualify for the broad relief that’s available in chapter seven. And because of your income, you might be forced into a chapter 13 where you have to make a payment over over five years every month.

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If you have severe, severe income interruption due to this, this COVID mess. I, again, I say, wait until the end of it. And it looks like your income is going to be picking up again because we look at the last six full months. And my guess is you will have had pretty significant income interruption from March and, and tremendous income interruption for April. And I don’t know what Mae is going to bring, but you’ll probably have some income disruption for me as well. So if we put your bankruptcy off until June, when, when it seems most likely that things will really start picking up, in a flurry, then we’re going to go back. And we’re going to look at the full income from may and the full income from April and the full income from March. And then of course, February, January, and December, and those six months might be enough to allow you to get into chapter seven, but otherwise you’d be in a chapter 13. So that might be amongst the dimmest of silver linings imaginable, but it is a potential opportunity for people who would otherwise have needed to consider their bankruptcy options going into the quarantine. Now they might really be able to get the best available bankruptcy relief once the quarantine begins to open up.

Gotcha, you know we talked about this and, another interview probably at least twice, you and I, and I say, okay, Ron, when is the right time for a person to come and over the time that we’ve been talking, nothing really happened like COVID-19 right, So we didn’t have like, Hey, your listener you’re being impacted right now, because before it was very personal, very private contact, Ron, on your own about your own topic, it won’t be a one size fits all. And it’s still not a one size fits all, except for the part where everybody some way is affected by what’s going on right now, go to the grocery store. Physically, you have to, you know, be mindful where you’re standing. Some people are wearing masks. Some people are not, you know what I mean so we’ve talked about when to file for bankruptcy, went to know and see the signs

And for me, because we’re in this moment, it’s so vivid for me. And this could be anybody USA, anybody in the world, but anybody USA, as we’re speaking, it’s affecting you. And I’m listening to what you said about, you know, this could be an opportunity, even though it’s a crisis and the timeline and how you just mapped it out, I was like, okay, well, you see where you are right now. If you’re laid off or, you know, you, you see a severe income interruption. I wrote that down. I liked the way you put that. So you see this and you said, okay, this is the timeline. We’re looking over six months. And if you go at the beginning of the epidemic, then you’ll maybe get one option. But if you wait and you can stand the pain a little bit and see have a better picture of what your financial picture is going to look like, because the first three months, yeah, you had money, but you also had a job.

Now, you don’t have a job, but there hasn’t been time between you not having that job. So the way you just explained it wrong in my mind is like, wow, perfect timing, perfect example. This applies to everyone. Everyone has to listen. And I think this will stick to any personal situation they’ll have. And they’ll say, well, you know, Ron talked to us about COVID-19 and how to, you know, see if we can put ourselves in a better position to get the best option. If we need to file bankruptcy, what else can I do How else can I apply this And I’m really lingering on that point audience, because I want you to think about when you have one example, it fits somewhere else. And before I didn’t have one that touched everybody, maybe some people lost the job, maybe. Yeah. Maybe some people had medical experience expensive but everybody is having to stay at home now. So that’s what makes the difference here. So with this one exam, go ahead.

Yeah. You know, Katherine, I was, I told my wife because we were sheltered together. So, you know, Carvana, right.

Corona viruses, not the top story. It’s the only story. Wow. Yeah. So, I mean, right, you look at cable news and you read the paper, everything. It’s also an, a virus for good reason. I mean, we, none of us, none of us listening, none of us talking I’ve ever been through anything close to this. So this puts me back to a kind of my general philosophy about bankruptcy. I frequently tell people that bankruptcy is a four letter word and that word is gifts because he really is GIF T it really is the opportunity to climb out from, from things that, that are oppressing you to, to kind of get a blue sky again. And another thing that I tell people about bankruptcy is, you know, most people, when they take on a debt, almost everybody, when you take on a debt or you live your life, you have a plan, have a plan for how much each month you’re going to pay towards that debt.

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And, and most people are very prudent. They really are. And most people that come to see me are prudence. you know, buts bankruptcy becomes necessary when your plan goes awry. And you know, so how are the different ways your plan goes awry You know, you’ve got a small business selling greeting cards of Walmart opens up across the street. You just sick. You get injured, you lose your job. You get divorced. All of these things, your child gets sick. I’ve seen him all of these ways that people, have an unexpected, wrinkle that comes up that interferes with their plan. And now we’ve got the biggest of all. This is the biggest wrinkle of all, where, where the entire world is shut. And, you know, the ripple effects of this are going to be astronomical. And I think of, you know, you think of the, you know, the sports sporting events theme, well, the players, the players go without on the vendors go without, and you don’t want to, if you got a guy who has a little like piece of grounds, you know, a half a block from the stadium, you know, supplements his income by charging 10 bucks for parking, you know, the ripple effects.

And then for the people who was all for the consumer, you know, so you don’t have the entertainment, they don’t have the employee. It is it’s everything. So if you spend a Sunday getting a break,

The dry cleaning store, do you ever dry So we have, we, you know, people aren’t going to work, so they’re not wearing their suits. They’re not worried their blouses. They’re not wearing their pleated skirts. They’re not wearing their, you know, starch collar shirts. That means that they, the laundry, the cleaners are suffering

Car detailers, Amit, any, any of the airport Go ahead.

Here’s here’s another one. Look, let’s say even a big company, a company like Costco, big company. All right so let’s say you’ve got people that are relying upon performance bonuses to take a vacation. Yeah, alright well, the performance bonus is not going to be there because the company doesn’t have the money. You don’t have the vacation. That means all right, nobody’s going to be weeping for Disney world. How about the small motels around this new world that has people on a budget, but how about, you know, the, the, the, the small restaurants around Disney world How about the guy who parks a car on a valet by the airport You know, the ripple effect is just going to be unimaginable.

No, I think because Ron, I think because we have never seen it before we, we have heard about things. I can’t even say this, but we’ve heard about things. We’ve read history. Books, grandparents have told us things. We’ve never lived it. And it’s really hard for us to wrap our minds around it. I asked different people. What’s the reason you think that particular communities are not taking it seriously. Someone emailed me and said, well, I heard that the Mecklenburg County, health director says the African American community isn’t taking it seriously. Well, I went to the African American community and said, Hey, I hear we’re not taking this seriously. What’s the reason and, the people that I talked to said, well, one, it’s not just the African American community, too, people don’t know how to properly protect themselves. Three people are not understanding, how to adjust and for a lot of your low skilled workers are in your minority groups. So they’re going to be out anyway. So I was like, wow. So it’s not just blatant disrespect. So then we have our opinions of why this person or this group isn’t doing, but it’s a ripple effect because if those low income, low wage workers don’t go to work, that doesn’t, we won’t have a lot of the things that we need to just basic groceries. I want to get gas at the, at the gas station.

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I could go further than that. There’s a couple of really interesting things. First of all, the more high income you have, the more flexibility you’re likely to have the ability to work from home and working remotely. If you are in, if you are in a lower income service business, you know, I mean, if you’re a waiter or waitress or something like that, she can’t. So, so that’s a, there’s a form. It’s more of a class problem in my opinion, than a race or ethnic problems another thing that lower income people have less living square feet per person, right Yeah. I mean, if you are, if you’re a higher income person, you’ve got a larger dwelling place. Where as if you’re a lower income person you’re living on top of other people in the apartment house or the projects or something, right? Of course, of course, there’s going to be a greater spread amongst that community. I made it hogwash to say that the African American community is not taking it seriously. Every time I go out, I don’t see any distinction between, you know, African American people, Asian people, Hispanic people, white people, they’re all there. They’re all they’ve all rolled their sleeves up, put their masks on and are doing their best. That’s what I’m seeing.

Yeah. I am in agreeance with you. I was like, wow, okay. I’m in the African American community. Maybe I missed something. You know? the people I know, you know, we seem to, right, right, right. But I give, I give ’em a valid airtime, you know, to people to say, okay, well, you know, because that’s what happens with stereotypes. We figured bankruptcy’s bad. Right, when we’ve talked repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly that this is part of your, your rights. This is in your constitution to have this right, to be able to reset yourself. You see So it’s okay. You know? It’s okay for people to, you know, think that something isn’t right. Or cause that gives us the room to talk about the elephant in the room. The elephant here is I don’t care who you are, what class you’re in, you’re being affected. Because even if it’s not you directly on your job, like you said, a higher wage earner has more flexibility.

A lower wage earner has lower flexibility, lower options, less options, right So it affects all of us. But that person on the bottom probably bags your groceries probably parked your car for you. You know what I’m saying So we all work together and we’re all, important in this. However, what we don’t understand is what is available to us, no matter what class we’re in, whether you’re a low wage earner or high wage earner you’re able to use this gift that Ron just pointed out. It is a gift of resetting yourself financially but it’s not just go out and quick fix it. It’s really your plan went off the trail and you just trying to get back on track. This is not a get out of paying your bills kind of thing. You really have to understand what’s available to you. You know what I mean

We could talk about so many different things, so many ripple effects, so many, we, if we would have done this, we would have had this kind of behavior. You know, if, if wherever you’re living, you feel like your official, your government isn’t doing right by you. It didn’t start when we had COVID. It started with us not understanding what we have available to us. And in resetting your finances, bankruptcy is one of those things, Ron, I’m going to shut up. I’m sure the audience is enjoying us talking, but I want to make sure that they understand, you know, your purpose in being here today, talking about bankruptcy in the face of the age of COVID 19,

Right and so, you know, my office, I’ve always tried to make life convenient for my clients. And so I’ve had a remote bankruptcy product for years where my clients really never have to leave their house to do the bankruptcy. We do the consults, over the phone, everything is done by email or you can upload your documents. you know, you can sign them all remotely. You don’t have to come to my office to do that. And it used to be that the only time you had to leave your house to do the bankruptcy when you use my firm is to go to the meeting with the trustee, which involves more as at the federal courthouse, but now all the courthouses and all the bankruptcy courts, at least in my jurisdictions are doing telephonic trustee meetings. And you know, so, so now literally, I mean, look, if you’re being garnished and there are still garnishments going on, there are still bank accounts seizures going on.

There are still reasons why you would have to file bankruptcy that that are pressing. And we can take care of that. My hope is that this experience will cause a sea change in the bankruptcy universe. So that from now on all of my clients will be able to appear telephonically at their trustee meetings. Because you know, to me, that’s a terrible irony that the meetings are five or six minutes long, but they run late and you have to take a half day off work. So we’re talking about the most at risk population. People need to file bankruptcy, have to take a half day off work to go to a trustee meeting that can just as easily be conducted over the telephone. So let’s all keep our fingers crossed that, that this experience we’re having will, will cause very traditional, and an old fashioned ways of looking at the world to change for the better of everybody. And, and I’m hoping that we get, we get that opportunity as well.

I’m, I’m listening to you. I’m seeing it. And I I’ve heard someone say multiple times, different people say business is not going to be able to go back to the way it used to be. And I am seeing opportunities. I’m seeing that we should have had social distance in any way. Have you ever been in a store thinking, gee, you’re too close to me You know what I mean So I’m hoping that even for the people that are mostly affected by things that if they took time off from work would really impact their household. I’m hoping that a service like being able to do the trustee board meeting after this, pandemic, I hope that it continues. I hope that we find ways to you already are going through something. You know what I mean Like it doesn’t have to be traumatic, like terrible, but you have to go and do this process.

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If we have a better way to do this process and still get the same, you know, the end result is we need to have the meeting with the trustees then great because now you have really enriched this person’s life with this gift. Yes. You must go through these things. Yes. You know, whatever the process is for bankruptcy. And when we get here, we’re not going to continue to make it hard for you, even though it’s been the process forever. I hope it does get to change, Ron. I really do. I hope a lot of things get to change for the better and that we’re able to. I just really want people to see this as a gift I had to use bankruptcy years and years and years ago. And I felt so bad, so ashamed, so guilty so all I did something wrong and Hmm, I have to tell you wrong. And I’m trying not to cry because this has been lots of years ago. It was, it was bad.

I’m going to tell you something. I had a house foreclosed 30 years ago and it was the worst feeling in the world. But things happened in my life couldn’t be helped. I was already a bankruptcy lawyer by then. But, yeah, people just go through stuff and, and that’s, and that’s the plans go awry. They just,

And it’s not that you’re a bad person. Yeah. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. Doesn’t mean you like skipping out on your bills. It doesn’t mean those things. So when I’ve been doing these interviews, you guys, I know what it’s like to have to make the phone call. And

I think that it, I think that if people were more willing to ask for help, it would be a better world.

It would, it would, there are people that are willing to help you, but we don’t know what to do. We humans don’t know what to do for the other humans. And if I offer you something, it may not be what you need it, but it’s the thought that counts. No, it really didn’t help me this time. So we would ask for help just if I say, no, maybe Ron says yes. If Ron says, no, maybe the next person says, yes, you know, we want a shortcut and we want it easy. And we want no problems. And if we just set it and forget it, like it’s great, life takes effort. You got to participate. So yeah, I think if we did and if it wasn’t for, and even with me, I don’t mind asking for help, but it still hurt my feelings. But if I didn’t do it, I would have, I would have been stuck with an option that couldn’t work for me.

Good thing for me, I was a space where she was able to, my attorney was able to give me options and say, you do this you make the monthly payment. You do this it’s a clean slate. And either way, it didn’t feel good cause i’m like, oh, these people, this is bad. Right, but also needs to reset. And I had three children and I’m a single mom kind of thing, you know so they, they didn’t need for me to, try to be the hero and do it all myself. I needed help. So I used my gift and, and the thing about it, I didn’t know at the time and not that I intend to have to use it again, but I didn’t realize it. Wasn’t a one and done, you know, but you do have to, you know, do your best, but you got a clean slate.

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Now you can begin again and try to do better. And I have to say, you know, I didn’t have your program or the seven 50 wrong, but I have to give you back to seven 50, but I am in better position than I was before I actually, if I would have left it alone. So I know for myself that it was good. I didn’t feel warm and fuzzy like I do when I talk with you and I don’t feel better educated, but the person, you know, let me cry. And they helped me get through the process. It wasn’t a warm sympathetic thing. It just kind of was like, well, this is where you are. And this is what we can do. And it felt cold and it may not be what they meant. But when I had the opportunity to interview an attorney who cares and does bankruptcy, I was like, Hmm, suspicious, but let’s go for it.

You know and over time I’m like, wow, these are the attorneys I would have loved to. You know and I want more people to see that it’s a relief. It’s not a magic wand. It’s a relief. This is your right. You get to use this. This is for you to reset. And everyday people go through it, our bankruptcy attorney just share it. He’s gone through it. You’re radio host it. She just went through it. Anybody can get it. Any body can be affected by it. You know So Ron, thank you for letting me get myself together.

I’m glad you were able to get help back when you need it.

Yes. Oh my gosh. Yes. Yes. It was terrifying but it didn’t have to be, it didn’t have to be. And the more we educate people, the more they’ll realize, Hey, this is what I need to do that, you know, and even other things that aren’t exactly related to bankruptcy when you, well, I guess it is cause you said bankruptcy, your creditors can not take your retirement. People listen to these things. Listen to these things because you may feel guilty. I’m have this money and savings, but it’s for a reason, if it’s for retirement, make sure you don’t mess up tomorrow trying to fix today. All right, Ron, before we get out of here, I know we are over overtime and we’ll have to get together again soon. But before we go, let people know how to get in touch with you outside of this needs to be said,

You know what Drescher law.com, D R E S C H E R L A W.com. My website, I have, I have250 videos on my YouTube channel. That’ll answer a lot of your questions. And that’sa Maryland bankruptcy lawyer to Google, Maryland, bankruptcy, lawyer, my name RonaldDrescher, you’ll find my YouTube channel and, and there’s a lot of information there.

Thank you Ron so much. Thank you. And until next time you have a super day

My pleasure, you too, Katherine, stay safe.

Thank you.

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The post Attorney Ron Drescher Speaks With Katherine On “This Needs To Be Said” About Bankruptcy In The Age Of COVID-19. appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.

I’m handling a case now, where a woman has worked for a candy company for 30 years, and she is just not going to be making much more money than she’s making now. There’s no evidence that she will, and the evidence is actually to the contrary. I felt that she’s got a pretty strong case and that’s why we agreed to file it. But I don’t think you have to prove hopelessness, but you do have to prove that it’s just you know doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better.
I have some other clients, whose daughter has a permanent kidney disability, and she’s just never going to be able to work, so we’re going to try to discharge student loans in connection with her. So that’s the second requirement.
The third requirement, that you’ve got to make a good faith effort to have paid them. You’d be surprised, or maybe you wouldn’t be surprised, how many of my clients come to see me, they satisfied the first one, they satisfied the second requirement, but they’ve never made a single payment towards their student loans, years after graduating. They’ve never picked up the phone to call the servicer. They’ve just lived in default for all these years. Katherine: Oh, wow. Ron Drescher: And an otherwise good student loan discharge case can’t go forward because I can’t prove that they’ve made any efforts to repay. Katherine: Ron? Ron Drescher: Yes. Katherine: What about if a person wasn’t in default or maybe it’s the same thing. But if they’re in deferment or forbearance, you mentioned that earlier. So what if they get to number three on what has to be checked off, and they’ve been in deferment? Ron Drescher: You know there is at least one case out there that basically says, as long as you’ve been talking to the servicer responsibly, that shows a good faith effort to repay. Katherine: Okay, okay. I will be surprised with how many people are in default that come to you, who don’t take that step of deferment, at least to protect themselves for a little bit, in my opinion. And I’m not the attorney, I’m the host of the show, so remember that people as you’re listening, listen to Ron. I’m just talking with him.
But I am surprised that people would come to you with the default as opposed to a deferment, so I wanted to ask that question, not to get you off track, but I was curious. Ron Drescher: It’s all right. It does come up with some frequency. Katherine: Okay. Ron Drescher: So those are the three factors that you have to prove in order to discharge student loans in bankruptcy, and it’s tough because the language of the statute says that you can’t discharge student loans unless requiring the clients to repay them would cause an undue hardship. So you have to show that extra level of hardship, and that’s what the courts have fashioned.
Now every year or so, I do a survey of the top student loan discharge cases that are being litigated, to see if there has been kind of any loosening of the standards. And the short answer is in the states and in the jurisdictions where you would expect there might be some loosening, there has been. And in the states and jurisdictions where you think, “Wow, there probably hasn’t been some loosening,” there hasn’t been.
So I’ll leave it up to your listeners to kind of try to decide which those are. But I guess what I would say is the states that are more predominantly urban, you’re going to see more leeway and more flexibility that the courts will apply in deciding whether or not a student loan debt should be discharged. Katherine: Why is that? Ron Drescher: I just think it’s the overall perspective on the nature of debt. I think it’s a broad social political question. Schedule An Appointment Katherine: I was hoping you weren’t going to say that, but I kind of figured that because it sounds like with what you’re talking about here, is some broad strokes, where you are not really sure if a person… Like you’d have to… People, you would have to call Ron, so he can look at your situation individually. Because it doesn’t seem like anybody has any one way, and this is not just with student loans. They don’t have any one way to describe what does this look like, or how can this fit. And maybe it’s because the assumption is the more urban the area, the more impoverished the people are in that area, but education is supposed to help you come out of that.
So this is like… I’m glad you’re researching it. This is crazy. You know, like wow. Ron Drescher: It is crazy that we have these situations. But I want to talk to you about a different strategy that I have employed for some clients, and it’s a Band-Aid. It’s not surgery, it’s a Band-Aid. Katherine: Okay. Ron Drescher: I call it a perpetual chapter 13, and the way it goes, let’s say you have zero chance at discharging your student loan debt, and let’s say it’s a private student loan. Because if it was a federal student loan, they have these great programs where you can consolidate the debt into an income-based repayment, get yourself out of default, and at least limp along with a payment that’s based upon your family size, and your adjusted gross income that appears on your tax returns.
So this typically comes up much more in private student loans, and what we have done is file a chapter 13 for my clients, that will last for five years, and just put off repaying the student loans. Just put it off for five years. And unfortunately five years go by in a hurry. But at least during those five years, my clients are getting some relief. And with the thought of, “Well when I get out of the bankruptcy in five years, I’ll see where I am. I’ll see if the lender is a little bit more flexible at that point, having gone without any payments for five years. And see if it’s a thing that I can do.”
I’ve got a few clients in the chapter 13 program. I can’t say that it’s a great program, but if your wages are being garnished for non-dischargeable debt and you need to get some relief, it’s an option. Katherine: Yeah. And as I’m listening to you, time does fly. If you have kids, it goes fast for sure. But just thinking about when we have to make these decisions because we have life happening, and yes, when you went to school, the intent was to improve your situation, not to have to figure out how to discharge it, or how to have enough money to pay it, or will you be paying it until you’re dead. That’s not a thought that we have. That’s not in your plan when you’re writing it down to make life better.
But now that we’re here in this space and you’ve gotten loans, your children have gotten loans, this is education that you need on how to re-look at. I’m saying re-look at, look at again, look at your life again, and say, “Okay now this is what I was trying to do but here’s where we are now, and what can I do?” And Ron, I’m just like, “Wow.” Because it sounds like a hard decision for a person to have to make. Yes, I’m filing chapter 13, it does give me a little bit of a break. But with your guidance it sounds like, “Okay I know the next thing to do.” Because as you were talking I was thinking, “Man, somebody might forget.” But you know we have to be responsible somehow. You can’t do it all for us Ron, but you’re giving us the next steps. Now after you finished with this, the next thing to look at, to re approach will be, are the people flexible now with the terms of what you need to repay.
So life, it takes work, it takes work and you have to pay attention and you have to ask questions. Because I think that this wasn’t even a part of bankruptcy conversation for a while, was it? Having your student loans? Ron Drescher: Well, it’s always been on the outskirts of the bankruptcy conversation. But lately I think people are more desperate, and they’re more willing to take a risk and throw themselves at the mercy of the bankruptcy court. But you know what I want to talk to you about a non-bankruptcy approach to student loans that may work for some of your listeners. Katherine: Okay. Ron Drescher: I mentioned before, income-based repayments for people who don’t have any income. Katherine: Okay. Ron Drescher: Bear in mind that income-based repayment programs have a debt cancellation provision depending on the program, 15 years, 20 years or 25 years. And that seems like forever. That seems like, “Ridiculous, I’ll never make that.” But the truth is, you know what, if you’re 30, and your debt is forgiven when you’re 50, you have a lot of great years after you’re 50. 50 is pretty young. Katherine: Yeah, yeah. Ron Drescher: People don’t think that way when you’re a kid. Katherine: Until they get there. Ron Drescher: But you know what, when you’re 50, you’re still very robust. Katherine: Oh, yeah. Ron Drescher: And you’re very active, and you are really in the prime of life. So with that in mind, if you are not working for whatever reason. Let’s say you’re married and you have children and you decide that one spouse is going to be the earner, and the other spouse is going to stay at home with the children. The spouse that stays at home with the children may have student loans, and that spouse should not go on deferment, should not go on forbearance. That spouse should absolutely 100% go on an income-based repayment. Because let’s say that spouse has zero income for 15 years. You have to file your taxes separately from the working spouse. Katherine: Okay, yeah. Ron Drescher: So you’re going to file your returns that are going to show zero income, and you’re going to send that to the loan servicer, and your income=based repayment is going to be zero dollars. So for 15 years, you’re going to pay zero dollars. That means you only got five years left. If you want to decide now to go back into the workplace, then you keep adjusting it. And then in those five years, you’ll… You only have five years left. Katherine: Are you telling me it’s just 20 years to pay off a student loan? Ron Drescher: Well for some it’s 20. Katherine: Some. Okay. Ron Drescher: If you’re on certain income-based repayment programs, some are 25 years, some are 20 years, and I even think that some are 15 years. I’m not a hundred percent sure of that. But I know that many of the programs that came up during the end of the Bush era and during the Obama era, were 20 year repayment programs on an income-based repayment scheme.
So that’s what’s… That’s a hidden trick, especially for those families, where one of the spouses is going to stay home and come out of the workforce. And get that clock ticking for the 20 years. And if you’re making zero dollars, take the benefit of those programs. Katherine: My mouth is wide open, and our time, we are over time. But I needed to have you share what you were saying, to finish it today, while we were talking. While we’re here, tell people how to get in touch with you outside of This Needs To Be Said. All of this needed to be said today. Ron Drescher: I’m happy to get your… You can visit me on the website. Drescher Law, D-R-E-S-C-H-E-R L-A-W.com. You can find me on Twitter @RonDrescher. And you could always give us a call at (410) 484-9000. Katherine: Thank you, Ron, again as always, for coming on and sharing your knowledge, being patient with me for sure. And until next time, you have a super day. Okay? Ron Drescher: Thanks a lot, you too. Katherine: Thanks. Schedule An Appointment

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The post Ron Drescher Talks More on His New Book – “The Single Mom’s Guide to Financial Recovery” with Katherine from “It Needs to be Said” appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.

One, of course – is so it’s nice to have money, but you have as much money as you have, unless you know, and you could go out and you could get a second job or a third job or a fourth job or some sort of other side is, uh, but ultimately there is only as much money as there is, so I think you need hope and I think you need information when you’re facing financial distress. And one of the things that I’ve always liked about interacting with women, uh, and, and forgive me if this is a generalization, but, but I find that women tend to respond well initially on an emotional level and then on the informational level. And one of the things that I like about that is, to me that is real life. Um, if you’re going to information solely on that intellectual, informational level, um, I don’t know that that’s going to resonate with an audience or with a reader who, who needs help.

Uh, I think when you, when you are facing a problem, you need to be addressed on an emotional level. Um, so that, that creates that idea of, of hope and even, you know, excitement from the hope which, which are both strong emotional responses and that’s one of the things that I’ve always found really rewarding about, about working with women is that there are these emotional components of the work that make the experience more rewarding and, and, and allows, you know, the clients and the attorney to kind of work on a, on a deeper level than if you’re simply analyzing information and data on a purely intellectual level. So that’s, you know, and I hope that that’s a meaningful answer to your audience because that is definitely something that I’ve found Schedule An Appointment Katherine: Well I’m sure that it will be, it’s something that they probably have not thought about consciously, but as women we realized that we are, you know, and, and it is a general statement and it applies to the majority of people in your experience in. So I don’t think that anyone should look at the information that you’re providing in any other light other than this is general. Find yourself in the information. If this does not apply to you verbatim, I understand, but sometimes we have to have the three components or we may have one of the three components, so look and see what you may be missing if you are a single woman, single mom, and you have found yourself in a place where you’re stuck and you’re not able to move forward. Sometimes it just takes a little nudge, a little information or a little whatever you’re missing. Not a lot of it to get you where you’re trying to go and a lot of times we’re trying to go somewhere new because this book is for single women, but how did you become single Have you always been single If so, then you know, approach it that way.

Have you been married now you’re single than approach it from okay, or rebuilding point of view. So some of us are trying to get by, but we’ve never been and some of us are trying to get back at least to where we’ve been. Because when your finances have changed, I get emotional because I couldn’t. I get concerned and I want to know what can we do to solve this problem or how did we get into this situation and we as a single person is me, myself, and I because I’m the one that’s managing everything for me and the children. So how did we get here and how can we get out of this? This is a question that will be in my head, which means I lack information to know how to avoid being in this place again. So I think what you’re about to bring to us is going to be well received and it is needed. So what are some things that can be found in this book but let me pause that question because that’s not sound like you had something to say. Ron Drescher: Yeah, no, actually it was going to talk about some things that are in the book. One of the things that, uh, one of the realities that my clients find so distressful when they are, uh, find themselves single again or on their own again, is they may have reached some sort of agreement with their ex that, okay, you know, I’m going to pay the credit card bills or you’re going to pay the credit card bills, so now I don’t have to worry about that. I’m going to take on these other obligations or I’m going to take on these other assets or you’re going to take on these assets and then you’re going to pay the credit card bill.

So I’m going to be okay. The truth is that those agreements between spouses or significant others as to who’s going to pay a credit card bill is not binding on the creditor, not binding on the credit card company. So even though you’re, your x might say, okay, as part of this separation or divorce agreement, I’m going to agree to be responsible for paying that Visa Card. The truth is you’re still on the hook for that Visa Card. So if something happens with your ex, your ex has a job loss or your ex just decides, you know what, this really didn’t turn out to be such a good deal for me, so I’m not going to pay that credit card anymore. You’re still responsible for that. A lot of people don’t understand that. They don’t realize that. And so it’s important to know that, first of all, it’s important to know that before you make the agreement to divvy up the debts and it’s also important to know that you’re still going to be responsible for that if something goes wrong with your ex.

So to know that going in would be helpful. And to know that afterwards you’ll spare yourself some very unpleasant news when you get that demand letter from the attorney for the credit card company, when it turns out that you x hasn’t been making those payments that were agreed upon to make. So that’s, to me, one of the most important things that is a, that comes out of thinking about what a single mom facing financial distress has to think about is if you thought you were free from those credit card bills because you’re asking them that may not turn out to be the case. So that’s important. Uh, other things that are important are, you know, how to deal with, uh, expenses that have come up if you don’t, if you now just don’t have the money to pay them. One of the things that we will talk about in the book is bankruptcy and whether or not bankruptcy is a good tool for you if you’re in that position to help cope with your new financial reality.

So that is certainly a thing that I will discuss in the book. Um, you know other things I will discuss in the book there. There is a series that I’ve, um, started, um, called the bankruptcy lawyers, a guide to saving money. And I’m going to include some of the information from that series of blogs that I wrote. For example, is it going to help you to buy a car at an auction and it helps you to drop your high payment vehicle and go look for a car at an auction and there are some techniques that are , really will work great. And there are some things that you’ve got to be super careful about before you jump into that. But if you’re paying, if you’re paying $500, $600 a month on a car, and the money’s just not there for that, I think you do need to find other strategies.

You know, I’ve had a client who gets a ride to work every day and she takes a lift home and she’s been criticized for that and I say, you know what, I think that’s a great strategy for you because you don’t need to be paying a car payments and gas for the car and car insurance and maintenance for the car if you’re hardly driving it. So, you know, it ends up it actually costs about $200 a month over 600. That’s right, that’s right. So by taking a Lyft or an Uber from work every day, that’s not a bad strategy, uh, for, for the right person. So I’m going to be exploring different approaches like that, uh, that are maybe a little bit outside the box that you wouldn’t necessarily think about. Schedule An Appointment Katherine: I think this is so neat. It, Ron, I know that we’re going to get into this some more. You promise me that. So I’ll put that out there. So the audience knows to expect more. I know to expect more. I am continually excited about things that cater to a different way of thinking and I kind of felt that when you said she was being criticized for it, everybody has an opinion, don’t they Sometimes you just say too much, let a person be, but you have to have the nerve in this world to go ahead and do what’s best for you regardless of what other people say, just because they would accept you having a five or $600 car payment. So you’d have this car and be independent or whatever. They’re criticizing this lady about you made the decision that’s best for your household. And what you can do to make it work and so you can sleep at night and not be worried. So boys, it is tough and knowing when to, you know, be head strong.

Not head strong. The word to be more intellectual, to be more emotional, to be more of anything else you have to learn that and way out. Does what they say matter over what attorney Drescher is sharing with me some new strategies to make my life work for me because everybody’s life isn’t cookie cutter. Yeah, you got married. Yeah, you got kids, but the part of the cookie cutter that isn’t clear is the. Yeah, you got separated. Oh yeah, you got divorced or yeah, you are the only adult responsible for the household. Now, whatever the change, is change, it happens. How you got there, maybe devastating everyone doesn’t know the right way for everyone, but there is a strategy that may work because your situation is slightly different from your friend that you talked to at the water cooler about her separation. So I want people to be ready to receive your information with an open mind and to receive these books, received this book when it comes out and you’re going to share with us how we can get on a list so that we’re ready when this book drops. But before you shared that one, give me the three keys. We started out in the beginning of this interview and you said there are three things that we should, I guess, engaged when we are considering either rebuilding or approaching this book. And I want to make sure I have them down right. Ron Drescher: The first and most important one is know your fat. Okay. So many people have, I guess you could call it, you know, rose colored glasses way of looking at their life, but there is no substitute for knowing exactly how much money is coming in and what your fixed expenses are. So the first thing is one, know your facts, okay All right. The second is, don’t be afraid to change. Because I mean, if you’re looking at a situation where you’ve got some, you’ve got all right, so you, you’ve figured out your facts, this is the amount of money that’s really coming in now. How much is it really costing me to live you need to know that and you may need to make very hard choices about that, but make those choices. Don’t let them be made for you. I mean, don’t wait for the eviction to come if you know that you can’t afford that housing, don’t wait.

You know, so one, know your facts to don’t be afraid to make the big decision. And then here’s the third one, get help, get help. There’s no shame in getting help as another reason why I actually, um, I, typically like working with women, um, because I think women are smart enough to know that they need to get help when they need to get help. You know, they don’t have these same preconceived notions that men frequently have, you know, which is that they’ve got to go and do it on their own. Although I’m going to tell you, plenty of women do have those preconceived notions that they need to accomplish this on their own and every once in a while you’re going to be in a situation where you really just need to get help. You need to reach out to the people who care for you and the people who were in a position to help you and say, you know what Ron Drescher: I’m having this problem. You know, what are some possible solutions so know your facts and it’s not necessarily the earth times. Get help know your facts. Make the brave decision. Katherine: How do we get on the list be alerted when the book is available. Ron Drescher: Feel free to send an email to info@drescherlaw.com, d, r e s, c h e r l a w.com. Uh, and, and so that’s the best way to get advanced notice. And also, you know what, if, if you want to rummage around on my website, drescherlaw.com, some of the information will be there. Um, feel free to order my, my book of file bankruptcy and get rich. That’s, um, maybe, maybe you want to read single mom’s guide first and then file bankruptcy and get rich. Some information will overlap, but that’s also a book that, that a lot of people have found useful. Katherine: Awesome. Well thank you so much for coming by sharing with me and the audience what you’ve been working on, what’s going to help us, and we’re looking forward to your next visit. So until then, have a super day. Ron Drescher: Thanks a lot. I always enjoy coming here and talking with you. Katherine: Awesome, until next time. Schedule An Appointment

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The post The Hidden “Gotchas” in Bankruptcy – Interview April 2018 appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.

Welcome back to This Needs to Be Said, Attorney Drescher. How are you? Ron Drescher: I’m doing well but I hate to have everybody take notes. They can just listen and check my website or your website later. Katherine: The teacher has spoken. Pay attention. Pens down. So you’re talking about real estate bankruptcy. Give me a definition in layman’s terms. What does that mean for me or could mean for me? Ron Drescher: That could mean a lot of things. What it means today is if you’re in a situation where you can’t pay the mortgage or you have fallen behind on the mortgage, these days lenders offer you lots of alternatives that we call Loss Mitigation Alternatives. But what most people think of is loan modifications or short sales or deeds in lieu of foreclosure. Katherine: I’ve heard of those. Ron Drescher: And so I want to talk to you about how those fit in with bankruptcy and a dash of a very scary concept in tax law that also plays into everything. So you can decide, which of these make the best sense and when to do them.

I want to branch out into two … There are two different roads to go down. One is the road you go down if you want to keep your home and the other is the road to go down if you’d just as soon not keep your home. Schedule An Appointment Katherine: Okay, okay. Ron Drescher: So let’s go down the road where you would just as soon not keep your home. Katherine: Okay. Ron Drescher: And if you don’t want to keep your home, the routine thing, the normal thing is sell the house, pay down the … get a buyer. Pay the mortgage off. If you have any spare money you get to keep it and you get to move on with your life. But that’s not the kind of situation we’re talking about. The kind of situation we’re talking about is you can’t sell it for enough to pay off the mortgage. When that happens, you’re looking at two different alternatives.

You’re looking at a deed in lieu of foreclosure or a short sale. In lieu of foreclosure happens when you are just going to say to the lender, “Here. Take the property back. Take the home back and relieve me of the debt.” And frequently, they will agree to do that.

The alternative is a short sale where you say to the lender, “Okay, look, I’m going to sell the property for less than what I owe you and you’ll agree to let that sale go through and then whatever is left on the mortgage, you’ll either forgive or we’ll work out something to pay it back.” Those are the two options if you don’t want to keep the house. Now the problem with both of those options is, first of all, if you have to pay the money back, that’s … I don’t know, I guess it depends. If you only have to pay back a small amount of money and you can afford it, a short sale is a great option for you and you don’t have to consider bankruptcy.

But let’s say that’s not your situation and let’s say you’re going to sell the house for way less than the mortgage pay off. Then you may really want to consider a bankruptcy because that gets rid of that deficiency. Some people say to me, “Wait a second, if I can do a short sale, and the lender will forgive the difference between what I sell it for and what the mortgage is, isn’t that great? Doesn’t that mean I don’t have to file bankruptcy?”

Well, my concern in that situation is a pretty nasty tax concept called Discharge of Indebtedness Income. And that’s a very, in my opinion, mean-spirited provision of the tax code. Katherine: Now what does that mean in layman’s terms, Attorney Drescher? Ron Drescher: Alright, what that means is if a creditor says, “You don’t owe me this money,” the IRS will say, “Well, you have to pay tax on the amount of money that that creditor said you didn’t have to pay anymore.” You discharged the indebtedness and now you have to pay tax on it, which is a terrible thing. Because- Katherine: You discharge … Let me make sure I understand because I’m listening- Ron Drescher: Sure. Katherine: I owed money I was able to discharge it through bankruptcy, is that what you’re saying? Ron Drescher: No, not through bankruptcy. Schedule An Appointment Katherine: Okay, but my agreement with the lender, I made an agreement with them to discharge it and then I pay … Am I following right? Ron Drescher: Yes, you are following exactly right. Katherine: Okay, so I make an agreement with them on what … we’re going to wipe the slate clean and I don’t owe you, but I’ve got to pay taxes on what I owe you. So what if it’s $100,000 or $50,000 or $20,000? Ron Drescher: That’s right. Katherine: That’s a lot of tax. Whatever it is. Ron Drescher: That’s a lot of money. And it really defeats the purpose. And for a while, during the time immediately after the real estate crisis, Congress was passing laws that said well if you have money that was on a home loan that was forgiven, you’re not going to have to pay taxes on that money. So it won’t apply to your principle residence, but they haven’t renewed that law and under the new tax law, nobody knows if they’re going to. In fact, the last couple of years, before the new administration came in, they didn’t renew that law until the very end of the year. So you didn’t know if they were going to report that discharge debt to the IRS and that you would have to pay tax on it. So it’s a very nasty gotcha that could happen if you do a short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure and you get forgiven that debt.

But there’s a huge, huge exception to that rule, which is that if you discharge the debt in bankruptcy, you don’t pay tax on it. So because otherwise, bankruptcy would be a terrible thing. So you don’t pay tax on debt that is discharged in bankruptcy. So here’s the rule, instead of doing a short sale, do a bankruptcy first then do the short sale. Now you might say to me, “Why bother with the short sale if you discharged the debt? Just let the lender take the property back and let them foreclose.”

That is not a terrible strategy, by the way, but if you’re going to want to get into another home, sooner rather than later, and believe it or not most people who let go of their homes, they do. They want to get into another home that they’re going to be able to afford this time. They don’t want to make the same mistake this time that they made last time. They want to be a little bit smarter about it but they do want to get into another home. When you apply for a loan for the new home, they’re going to want to know how long it’s been since you owned a home that was your primary residence and if it’s been less than two years, you’re not going to get that loan.

So it makes sense for you to continue to try to do that short sale, not so you can be relieved of the debt but so you can get out from the house so that that two year time period starts ticking sooner. Katherine: Okay, I see. Ron Drescher: So if you want to get into another house after a house that you’re in rapidly declines in value, you can’t afford to pay the mortgage, the right thing to do is file bankruptcy first, then try to do the deed in lieu of foreclosure or the short sale. That’s very important because that way you protect all your bases. So that’s the first half.

Does that all make sense to you so far? Katherine: Yes, and I was able to follow along and maybe this has nothing to do with the topic, specifically, but if I … I want to back up to something you said earlier, if I have made an agreement with the company that I owe money to, the mortgage company and they said, “Okay, we’re going to wipe the slate clean, but you’re going to have to pay taxes.” Why was that a good idea? I mean this person is in the financial situation, how would them paying taxes on what is owed better? Or why was that even factored in? Ron Drescher: You mean why does that law exist? Katherine: Yes. Ron Drescher: You know, it doesn’t really make sense, but you know what? It doesn’t make sense that people who really can’t afford it pay a lot more, a lot higher interest rates than the people who can afford it. It’s one of those non-intuitive laws that you just have to know is out there.

So now we’re going to go down the other road, and the other road is the loan modification road, what you need to do if you want to try to keep your house. This is another potential gotcha because what you’re going to do is you’re in default under that home loan. And that’s another thing, they won’t give you a loan modification unless you’re in default for at least 90 days. Because they might say, “Well, listen, you’re paying it as agreed, why should I give you relief from the loan?” So you have to fall behind. Sometimes people call that a strategic default but in my experience it’s just that people are really suffering hardship and they just can’t afford to make the mortgage payments.

So you’re behind. So, let’s say you’re behind 90 days. The lender is going to start foreclosure on that property. So depending on the state you’re living in, it could take a year, it could take nine months, it could take 60 days. In the meantime, you are applying to that lender to get a loan modification and what the loan modification will do, amongst some other things, is going to take all the money that you owe on that loan, all the arrears, and it’s going to add it to the principle balance. So that you’re starting from scratch but with a slightly higher loan and they’ll give you the best interest rate they can and hopefully that’s going to make it possible for you to stay in your home.

Now, the problem is … And that’s a great outcome. And that is a desired outcome and if you can do it, you should do it and not file bankruptcy. The problem is that while my clients are applying for these loan modifications to cure the default, the lender is moving forward with the foreclosure process. So there’s a two prong approach. There’s the foreclosure approach and the loan modification approach. And the left hand almost never knows what the right hand is doing. Schedule An Appointment Katherine: Wow. Ron Drescher: So as a result, people are calling the loan servicing line, they’re on the phone to the lender all the time and the lender says, “Yep, we’ve got your application, we’ve got all the documents. Everything looks good and we’re just going to send it to underwriting to consider it.” In the meantime, they’re getting a notice from the lawyer for the lender that says we’re going to foreclose on your house in 10 days. And you know what? A lot of my clients disregard that notice because they think that they’re going to get that loan modification and it’s going to be all right.

But once they go through with the foreclosure sale, that loan modification is gone. It’s dead. They’re going to close that file and you’ll never have a chance to get a loan modification and you’ve lost the house. Katherine: Wow. Ron Drescher: Yes, that’s right. So what you need to do, you need to pay very close attention to what’s going on with that foreclosure. What you need to do is you need to file that Chapter 13 to stop that foreclosure. Then while you’re in the 13, you’re going to try to get that loan modification. You get that loan modification, they approve it then you’ve got a few options. One option is, depending upon the rest of your debt situation, you can convert to a Chapter Seven and just discharge all of your other debt. Another option is if you don’t have a lot of other debt problems and your only real problem was this mortgage, you get that modification, you make the trial payments, the modification becomes fixed, you dismiss your Chapter 13 case.

A third option is, depending upon what other kind of debt you have, you stay in Chapter 13 and you just go ahead and you move forward with all the benefits that Chapter 13 offers. And that’s a discussion for a different time. You know, Chapter Seven or Chapter 13, that’s a different option but if you’re going to be going forward with a loan modification, you need to be prepared to file that Chapter 13. And even though you’re in a Chapter 13, the lender will still consider your loan modification application.

If they deny the loan modification, you’re not necessarily totally out of luck, because Chapter 13 does give you the opportunity to catch up and pay that defaulted loan amount over the life of your plan with is 36-60 months, but a lot of times my clients really can’t afford that. So a loan modification is a better alternative for them than a Chapter 13, but sometimes a Chapter 13 is your last best chance of holding on to that house. Katherine: Okay, okay. It’s always good to talk with you. I’m trying to soak it up and I want to know … People want to contact you to get their specific situation heard, give me a summary of what you shared here today. I know we have options but are you suggesting that one may be better than the other? Or what? Because if I do one thing that doesn’t benefit me, you shared that that could mess me up, period. I won’t ever be able … Was it a loan modification? A mortgage- Ron Drescher: Well, you want to decide going in, do I want to keep this house or do I want to get out from under this house. That’s your first question and that’s not a legal question. That’s your life. I mean, a lot of people take heroic measures to try to hold on to their homes and many, many times it’s just not worth it. It’s so expensive and it just cripples the rest of their life to try to hold on to, and a lot of people recognize that and they say, “Okay, I’m not going to take those heroic measures, I’m going to try to get out from under that house.” Schedule An Appointment Katherine: Okay. Ron Drescher: And that’s a financial consideration that you make regardless of bankruptcy. What I’m saying is once you make that decision, do the bankruptcy first. And then proceed with either the short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure, if you want to let go of the house. Or you proceed with the loan modification if you want to stay in the house. But do the bankruptcy to protect yourself from things like from the foreclosure or from that really nasty tax law. Katherine: Okay, alright. Well that clears it up because I know it’s how you do it. It’s not necessarily what you do. It’s the order in which you do it. So you need a strategy it sounds like. Ron Drescher: Yes, that’s right. Timing is everything. Katherine: Alright, well, Attorney Drescher, you were here to help people who are in need of putting together a strategy to reset their lives. And when you were talking about the real estate, you talked about a primary residence so this sounds like this could be for someone who has, maybe rental properties? Ron Drescher: Rental properties are a different discussion completely. Katherine: Oh, okay. Alright. Wanted to clarify. Because you talked about a principle residence so I wanted to know if that meant multiple properties. Ron Drescher: Yeah, just the principle residence. Katherine: Different conversation. Ron Drescher: That’s right. Katherine: Alright. Well tell people how to get in touch with you outside of This Needs to Be Said so they can talk with you about their individual situation because we know that one size does not fit all. And they can find out what strategy they need to get their lives back on track. Ron Drescher: You know what? The best thing to do is contact us on our website, www.drescherlaw.com, D-R-E-S-C-H-E-R-L-A-W dot com. Gives you a link to call. Or you know what? You can order my book. We have a book, File Bankruptcy and Get Rich that has over 1,500 copies in print and feel free to contact us to try to get a copy of that. I think that’s a great way to get in touch with us. Katherine: Awesome. What’s your website? Ron Drescher: Drescherlaw.com. Katherine: Drescherlaw.com. Thank you so much, Attorney Drescher, and until next time, have a wonderful day and thank you for sharing your knowledge again with the This Needs to Be Said audience. Ron Drescher: Wonderful. Thank you. It’s always great to be here. Schedule An Appointment

The post Real Estate and Bankruptcy – Interview March 2018 appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.

Welcome back to This Needs To Be Said. Ron, how are you? Ron Drescher: Thanks Katherine, I’m doing great. How are you doing? Happy New Year. Katherine: Happy New Year to you as well. I’m doing wonderful and looking for great things to come out of 2018.

I am excited to get the information just at the consumers will be as they’re listening to us talk today. I got pen and paper out. I get excited every time I get the chance to talk with you, because you’re not just talking to someone who is at the end. You’re helping us along the way to look at our financial future.

You have published a book. I want you to mention that book before we get started today, because we’ve talked about it before and I want to ring the bell to the This Needs To Be Said audience, and remind them of that book. Then we’re going to go into what you’re wanting to help us with our financial rehabilitation on today. Ron Drescher: Sure. The book you’re talking about is called File Bankruptcy and Get Rich, which is certainly an ear catching title. But it is expressed in a very sincere way. The feeling for the book is, all right you’ve got these debts and the debts are dragging you down. They’re stopping you from getting ahead financially.

So what would happen if we took away the debts and then you were able to save the money that you were paying towards creditors and invest it in fairly conservative investment vehicles like a Vanguard S&T fund or something like that.

What would it look like at the end of a certain period of time, like five years, 10 years, 20 years, where instead of paying minimum balances on a credit card, you are now paying yourself in an IRA or a 410K or just a straight investment fund? What would that look like? Where would you be in those five, 10, 15, 20 years if you were able to get out from under the debt?

That’s the premise of File Bankruptcy and Get Rich. We had over 1500 people read that book, and get a lot of benefit from it. At a certain point I thought, “You know, my readers, my clients, people out there, they need more help.” They need some specific strategies for saving money so that they can then invest the money, and then get ahead.

There’s a great book called “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by a fellow named Robert Kiyosaki, who basically said that it’s not how much money you make, it’s how much money you keep that dictates how well you will do over the course of your life. With that truth in mind. I felt like it was important that I tell the world that as a bankruptcy lawyer who’s in the middle of the world of financial rehabilitation, that there are sound, innovative, and unexpected strategies for saving money so that you can fulfill the promise of File Bankruptcy and Get Rich.

That’s a project that I’m going to start for 2018 as hopefully well into the future. Schedule An Appointment Katherine: The first one Ron is, isn’t it a bad idea for a bankruptcy lawyer to keep people out of debt? I’m saying that tongue and cheek. I do really want to know what brought you to the point … You do work with a lot of people, like you said that are in financial crises. That is what they come to you for. I need help.

What triggered it for you and said, “You know, this is something I need to add to my business. This is another way for me to serve people?” What brought that to your attention? Ron Drescher: What a wonderful question, because there is a story behind it. Katherine: I love stories. Ron Drescher: Time after, time after time, I have clients that come in to me and they’ve got an expensive car loan. It’s not necessarily an expensive car, but it’s an expensive car loan. They’ve got bad credit, so they’re paying exorbitant interest, plus they’ve traded in a car that was already worth less than what they owed on the car.

So the new car company, the new car lender, rolls that old loan into the new car loan and they’re paying way more than the car that they just bought. That’s a trap that I see over and over again. Paying $500-$600-$800 a month for a car loan for people who really can’t afford that. What I advised them to do is a strategy of surrendering the car. Saving money, some cash. Then going to a car auction. There are car auctions in every city of every state around the country. And buying a car at auction.

As I give that advice, it dawned on me that I should really learn as much as I could about car auctions. I went out and I did a lot of research. There’s a lot of positives and a lot of negatives about buying cars at auction. I compiled all of the information of my research and I started writing articles and blogs about buying cars at auction.

I’ve been working on that and I said, “You know what? That’s really just the tip of the iceberg.” That’s just one strategy that my clients and other people in the situation like my clients, can use to save money so that they’re not behind the eight ball so much. And they’re not struggling so much from paycheck to paycheck, from month to month. They can actually get a little bit of relief in their lives.

I’ve taken on the mission to understand all of the different ways. There are all these websites out there that promise to save you money. Dealdash.com. Buying on eBay can really save money there. Is there a different in the retailers online? Do you really save money at Walmart? Is it worth it?

Is it worth going to Groupons? Is there a strategy to coupon clipping? That kind of thing. Then I decided, “You know what? I’m a bankruptcy lawyer. People know that I have experience consulting clients who are in financial distress and who have problems making their ends meet.”

Who’s better positioned than a bankruptcy lawyer to advise someone how to try to get ahead in their lives?” So I said, “You know what? Let’s have this series be the bankruptcy lawyer’s guide to saving money.” People who are searching for this information can know that I’m a trusted source, because I’ve been there, done that, seen all the horror stories, seen the success stories, and I have access to the information that they can really use. Katherine: I’m smiling and nodding my head. While this is a radio interview, you can’t see all of that. Of course, it’s hindsight for the person who’s filing bankruptcy. We could’ve done these things or I wouldn’t have known to do these things until I met with you.

My second question for you, because I told you I had two in the beginning. Good, honest people. Is this something that good, honest people will find themselves needing to use, or is this for people who are always looking to get away with something? Ron Drescher: One out of every 50 people that meet with, are people who I call angles-guy. He’s an angles-guy. He’s always looking at the angles to try to get ahead. That’s one out of 50. That means that the other 49 people are good, honest, hardworking, well intentioned people, who like you said at the beginning of the show. People when they take on debt, they have a plan.

They’re working. They have started up a business. They are married and they’re a two income family. They’re healthy and the plan is to pay down this debt. But then something goes wrong. They get sick. Their business doesn’t perform as well. They get laid off. They get divorced.

Then the plan collapses and where are they? They are in crisis. They’re in crisis because their plan didn’t work out for reasons, pretty often outside of their control. That’s what I see

So yeah. I think that the strategies that I’m going to be exploring and the techniques that I already discussed with my clients for managing their crisis and getting out of debt, will work for good and honest people, and is really perfectly applicable for them. Schedule An Appointment Katherine: Awesome. I wanted to definitely let our This Needs To Be Said audience know, when I asked that question of Attorney Drescher, we were in preparation for the show. In reading over some of a blog that he’s preparing, that’s what came up. Good, honest people, they just want to do the right thing. You made an agreement with someone and you want to pay them back, and it doesn’t happen. There’s shame and embarrassment. You feel bad that you can’t pay people back and it seems like you just don’t have a good enough story or reason to tell a person why I don’t have this money for you. Why I can’t give you back what I promised you.

He named a lot of the reasons, the big reasons why people aren’t able to keep that promise. Not because they don’t like you or they’re being malicious. Things changed in their lives since the beginning of their plan, which could happen. By following his advice, by working with him, you can now put yourself in a better position.

I would say, Ron, I would dare say, you’re putting people in a better position of keeping their promises, because they’re going to places like the car auction and they know how to do that and to get transportation., because that’s what we want. We want nice cars. We want transportation that is going to get us everywhere we want to go, not just point A to point B.

You teach us things like that, then it’s easier for me to keep a short term agreement than a long term one because life happens and sometimes we don’t have enough saved up to catch all of the storms that may come. That’s what I believe I’m hearing from you on today.

Am I following along correctly? Ron Drescher: I think that’s exactly right. Katherine: All right. I’m looking forward to the series and what all you’re going to bring to me, my This Needs To Be Said audience, and all of your potential customers.

I do have another question for you, because I’ve read many articles. Step 1-2-3. How to do this. You can do it this way. It’s easy as, but the thing that I found that I have to have my mindset right in order to be able to receive and follow any step plan that someone puts out for me.

Talk to me about the mindset of the people that are going to receive the information that we share during the interview. How is it going to help them to really stick to the plan, because part of our problem, as consumers, is not sticking to the plan for whatever reason? Ron Drescher: First of all, there are a few things.

One of the things that’s really important is to reduce your tasks to very, very small bites. Something that you can manage on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, so that you’re not overwhelmed by it.

I don’t like New Year’s resolutions. I’m always against them, because you get into February and you’ve abandoned the New Year’s resolution and end up feeling worse about yourself, which has defeated the whole point of the resolution. What I believe in is learning through very manageable habits, how to accomplish something.

Let’s say you want to go coupon hunting. You’ve got a big stack of coupons that arrive in your mail or that you pick up at the grocery store. You’re putting it aside and you say, “I’m going to spend two hours every week going through these coupons.”

I would say, “Don’t do that.” Don’t do that. Do five minutes every three days. That way you know … I mean five minutes. You can do five minutes. You can do five minutes while you’re sitting waiting for your hard boiled eggs to boil. Take five minute increments every three days and look through the stack.

Then when you go shopping you know you’re going to have 10 coupons, instead of putting everything aside for a week and then something’s going to come up and you’re not going to have those two hours. Then you’ve lost the week.

I think that’s the most important thing in the mindset of achievement, is to break your goal tasks down to very small, manageable bites. That’s a way to stay on plan, to stay on task. Katherine: Now, I know our time is running out, and we’ve been talking this entire time, but my last question for you is why should we listen to you, an attorney, who practices bankruptcy law? Ron Drescher: Bankruptcy lawyers are on the frontline of financial rehabilitation. We help people who come to us in crisis, whose finances have collapsed or are in the process of collapsing. We help them through the difficult bankruptcy process, so that they emerge in a much better place.

We see people who are in crisis. We see and deal with people all the time, who need financial rehabilitation. So why wouldn’t you want to listen in to a person who is in that world, who is on the frontlines of that world, giving their best possible advice on how to succeed once they’ve emerged. Katherine: Absolutely. I think that you would be the perfect resource for someone. If the people in the This Needs To Be Said audience have not experienced anything, then we’re not talking to you, but for those who have, and I know that there’s somebody out there who has experienced some form of crisis, felt like you were alone, did not have anybody to turn to other than our friends who may have not had our similar situation, that were giving us well meaning, bad advice. This is the person that you want to have as a resource. And It’s not bad. Bankruptcy is not a bad word. We want you to be comfortable with looking at anything in your financial life that will lead you towards the road of bankruptcy, you want to listen to this guy, because he’s not only talking to those who need to pick up the phone right now, or shoot him an email and say, “Help me.” He’s talking to the people who are seeing things unravel. You’re seeing your situation get tricky.

We’re going to talk more in future conversations about the car buying at auctions, so if you are tied up in a bank loan or car loan right now, he may be sharing with you some tips on what to do to put yourself in a better position. As well as other things.

Yes, we touched on coupon shopping. For those who coupon shop, I know you gasped, “No. What do you mean? Don’t commit so much time?” We’re going to talk more about all of those things, because he wants to help you have a better financial future, believe it or not, coming from a bankruptcy attorney. And because he’s seen so many horror stories, he’s the best person to tell you what financial decisions to make that will keep you out of those horror stories for yourself.

Attorney Drescher, tell everyone how to get in touch with you, and also how to get a copy of your book. Ron Drescher: The easiest way to get a copy of our book is to go on Drescherlaw.com. That’s www. D-R-E-S-C-H-E-R-L-A-W .com, or you can always call my office at 443-438-1966. You’ll speak to our office and we’ll be happy to send out a copy of the book. Katherine: Awesome. Until next time. Thank you so much for stopping by This Needs To Be Said. Ron Drescher: Well, thank you Katherine. I always enjoy it. Schedule An Appointment

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