Crushing Debt

In this week's episode, we interview attorney Kelly Petry. Kelly and I discuss issues with Student Loans.

Kelly and I discuss whether student loans are dischargeable in bankruptcy court, how student loans are treated in bankruptcy court, and some things that we can do in bankruptcy court to address the debtor's student loans.

In certain circumstances, student loans are dischargeable. In Tampa, we utilize the Brunner Test to determine whether a student loan can be eliminated by the bankruptcy court. However, there is a very high standard to discharge a student loan in bankruptcy court.

The Brunner factors are: (1) debtor cannot maintain a minimal standard of living if forced to repay the loans, (2) there are additional circumstances that show the debtor's financial condition is going to persist for the foreseeable future, and (3) that the debtor has tried to repay the student loan.

While the standard is high, there have been some inroads and Congress is currently trying to determine if they can provide additional assistance to people trying to repay their student loans.

To contact Kelly, please call her at 813-873-0713.

If you have questions, please email me at [email protected], or www.yesnerlaw.com. Please also share this podcast episode if you found it valuable!

Student loan debt is becoming unduly burdensome. Student loan debt is quickly becoming the biggest area of debt for borrowers who are having trouble making their monthly obligations.

Christie and her firm can help people eliminate or negotiate student loan debt that was taken out by a parent or co-borrower for the student, or for schools that have closed. In addition, outside of bankruptcy court, there are other options to help students eliminate, reduce or negotiate their student loans. Of course, if the borrower can prove "undue hardship" those cases may be dischargeable in bankruptcy court, but that is a high standard and rare.

As you will hear there are many other avenues available to help people negotiate or eliminate their student loan debts, under various federal programs.

We appreciate Christie being on the podcast. We have referred her clients who have been very happy with her services.

Christie offers free consultations and phone consultations. To reach her, please call 813-258-2808 or www.ChristieArkovich.com, www.TampaBankruptcyLawyer.com. Check out her student loan survival package on her website!

If you have questions for me, or other topics that you would like to hear on the podcast, please contact me at [email protected] or www.YesnerLaw.com.

In Episode 49 of the Podcast, I discuss the case Bartram v. US Bank National Association, which was decided by the Florida Supreme Court in November 2016.

Bartram is a significant decision in Florida because the FL Supreme Court holds that the bank can file a second foreclosure case, after dismissing its first foreclosure case, even if the date that the borrowers stopped making payments is beyond Florida's five-year statute of limitations.

For whatever reason, some banks decide to dismiss foreclosure cases when those cases have a technical deficiency (ownership of the promissory note for example). If it took the bank too long to fix that issue, so that the date of default became more than five years old, some courts in Florida held that the bank could not foreclose again (because the default date was more than 5 years old). Bartram reversed that line of thinking and, because it was decided by the Supreme Court of the State of Florida, that is now the "law of the land" in Florida.

The Court did say that any payments that were past due more than 5 years are uncollectible as being beyond the 5-year statute of limitations, but the foreclosure itself could proceed as long as the bank alleged a default date that was within the five years - meaning the bank would simply waive any late payments that are more than five years past due and continue their foreclosure. Already we've seen a slight increase in foreclosure filed under these circumstances.

To learn more, please visit our website at www.yesnerlaw.com. Or if you have questions, please email me directly at [email protected].

Also note we are changing the name and branding of the Podcast to Crushing Debt. You'll hear the name change in Episodes 53 and beyond. We've updated the logo with this episode and would appreciate any feedback!

In this Episode of the podcast, we have our friend Tiffanie Kellog back for an interview. Tiffanie has a new book out, Knock the Socks off your Audience, to go along with her first book 4 1/2 Networking Mistakes and its accompanying workbook, Networking for Results.

In this episode of the podcast, Tiffanie turns the tables and interviews me on what makes a good referral for Yesner Law, using some of the techniques she writes about in her books.

You can find and order Tiffanie's books on Amazon.

If you want to contact me, you can email me at [email protected] or visit the website at www.yesnerlaw.com.

Please leave a review or comment if you enjoy the content.

In this week's episode of the Podcast, we again interview our friend Loren Pincus. In addition to being a personal injury and criminal law attorney, Loren is also a sports agent for Minor League Baseball.

Loren has a few clients who may get called up to the big leagues, moving Loren to the big leagues as an agent himself. While Loren is a fantastic attorney, you can hear in his voice that being a baseball agent is his true passion.

This was one of my most interesting interviews and one I enjoyed the most. Loren talks about what it takes to be a sports agent, particularly in Minor and Major League Baseball.

You can learn more about Loren at www.GreenLineSportsManagement.com, or follow him on twitter @Greenlinesm.

If you have any questions, you can email me at [email protected] or visit our website at www.YesnerLaw.com.

When a small business owner files bankruptcy, their company becomes an asset of the bankruptcy case. Therefore, the business owner needs to evaluate the value of the business.

Some business owners want to say that their small business is worth nothing because if they don't work, the company doesn't make money and is worth nothing. However, the bankruptcy judges and trustees in Tampa will not accept that argument, because the business has value. What would a competitor pay to buy the business? What is the value of the assets of the business? What are its receivables? What are its revenues? Its profits?

In this episode of the podcast, we review all of these different valuation techniques in connection with business owners who want to file personal bankruptcy.

If you have questions that you think would make a great future episode, please let me know at [email protected]. You can also visit our website at www.yesnerlaw.com.

In this week's episode, I have a conversation with Tyler Sheff of The Cash Flow Guys. Tyler is a real estate investor, coach, consultant, podcast host, and most importantly a friend and mentor to me personally.

Tyler is one of the real estate investors that does it right. He always looks for a win-win scenario and coaches his students in the right way to buy and invest in real estate (i.e. without taking advantage of anyone).

Tyler refers customers, clients and investors to Yesner Law and we very much appreciate the referral relationship we've created with The Cash Flow Guys.

We recently acquired equipment that allows us to conduct podcast interviews by skype and Tyler was kind enough to be a guinea pig. This episode is the result. We hope you enjoy the content, and visit Tyler's website for more information.

I can always be reached at [email protected] and www.yesnerlaw.com.

Typically, people dealing with foreclosure, bankruptcy or short sales are concerned about the impact those things may have on their credit.

We focus on taking the mystery out of your credit score, so that you can focus on eliminating the potential liability to the creditor. However, understanding what makes up a credit score will help when facing foreclosure, bankruptcy or short sales, even though credit does recover quickly.

The five factors are:

• Payment History - 35%
• Credit Utilization - 30%
• Length of Credit History - 15%
• Credit Mix - 10%
• New Credit - 10%

We discuss these factors in detail in this week's episode of the podcast.

If you have questions we can answer in future episodes, please contact us at [email protected] or www.yesnerlaw.com.

In this week's episode of the Podcast, we interview attorney Loren Pincus, with the firm Yanchuck, Berman, Wadley, Zervos & Thomas. Loren focuses on Criminal Law and Personal Injury Law.

What should you do if you're involved in a car accident? In this week's episode, Loren answers this question, as well as other questions like Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist Coverage, Bodily Injury Coverage, PIP Coverage, and Florida's recent law change that requires someone involved in a car accident to see a doctor within 10 days of the accident.

You can reach Loren by email at [email protected], or visit the firm's website , Loren's Facebook Page, or Twitter. You can also call Loren's cell at 727-599-1579.

We hope you enjoy this episode and if you have questions that would make good future episodes, please contact me at [email protected], or visit my website.

Bankruptcy Chapter 6.5 is a term of my creation and it references a situation where a homeowner files Chapter 13 bankruptcy to save their home through a mediated loan modification, but then dismisses the bankruptcy once the modification is completed - thus completing half of a Chapter 13 reorganization (13 divided by 2 equals 6.5).

Recently, I posted a blog article and related podcast that asked the question "Why is Bankruptcy so Odd?" In that article, I never discussed Chapter 6.5. You won't find Chapter 6.5 in any bankruptcy law book, code book, or rule book. You won't even find it amongst any slang around the courthouse (unless, of course, this podcast episode and its related blog go viral).

Today's episode covers when this might be a good strategy for someone in bankruptcy or foreclosure, and also covers why this strategy exists in the first place - it has to do mostly with the way payments are accepted and applied by the Chapter 13 Trustees here in Tampa, Florida.

We hope you enjoy this episode. If you have any questions, or if you have topics that you think would make a great future topic, please contact me at by email at [email protected], or visit the Yesner Law website.