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If you have debt issues and are in the Tampa Bay area, the Tampa Division of the Middle District of Florida is headquartered in downtown Tampa, Florida. It serves Hardee, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Sarasota counties.

If you are in any of these counties, and are running into debt related problems, we may have a solution for you.  This includes pretty much every kind of debt, even including student loans.  There are solutions out there, and we try to avoid political minefields whenever possible – and look for real solutions available now!

We do charge for student loan related Strategy Conferences as we can often fix the problem right during the conference, and we have free consultations for other kinds of debt.  See what options exist.  Real options.  Consults are available by phone or Zoom.  While we have a physical office in Tampa, we find that most everyone finds it far more convenient and efficient to do these virtually.

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arkovich_law-narrowSo what exactly does a Chapter 13 do with regard to debt that is co-signed by someone who did not file bankruptcy?  What about debt that survives a bankruptcy such as many (but not all) student loans?

First off, a co-debtor stay is imposed immediately when a Chapter 13 is filed.  That means any collection action, including phone calls, are supposed to cease immediately for the co-borrower even though he or she did not file their own bankruptcy.

Second, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan payments appear to toll the statute of limitations whether or not the trustee makes the payments once a creditor files its proof of claim that survives any debtor objections.

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Christie_1A few things I was thinking of today.  First, we received notice from Nelnet of a client approval for Total and Permanent Disability.  This particular client was pretty healthy, but was of advanced age of 76.  I’m pretty sure no employer would be interested at age 76.  He’s been retired for 13 years from a defense contractor and the military prior to that.  Since he flew jets for the military, that was an easy sell for the TPD program.  The fact that the program he used to work on for the defense contractor has long since gone away, plus he no longer has a security clearance and the vast majority of his skills are likely outdated, we leaned on the SSI’s verbage for advanced age.

Under the Social Security Administration’s website at ssa.gov, the Code of Federal Regulations Section 404.1563 states under (e) that they consider that for a person of advanced age (age 55 or older), age will significantly impact a person’s ability to adjust to other work.

I’d rather not compare our client to an old dog, but you know that saying that an old dog can’t learn new tricks.  Well, it kind of applies here.  We sent some of these regs and arguments to our doctor and obtained the physician certification shortly thereafter.  Today, we received the official notice that our client’s six figure loan balance was forgiven.

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arkovich_law-narrowThe Federal Reserve is meeting today and widely expected to start to reduce interest rates.  I last heard that there was a 55% likelihood for a .50 cut.  Frankly, I’d expect a .25 cut.  But if they want to reach a goal of 100 basis points cut by year end, they almost have to do a .50 cut today.

So one big question: how much and how quickly will that trickle down to ordinary consumer debt?

A lot of people would like to avoid bankruptcy.  I get it.   The Wall Street Journal published an article yesterday that while consumer credit debt is up 11% over last year, other sources of credit are drying up and no reasonable alternatives exist.

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Christie_1So you may have heard by now that all consolidation applications are being processed by Aidvantage.  The online system is completely frozen.  And that most people are being placed into forbearance while the system is frozen.  Just last week, the Department of Ed asked one of the courts for clarification of its injunction order and was told that no clarification would be forthcoming.  So we wait.  The U.S. Supreme Court will have to rule on all this.

It’s important to still move forward however.  If SAVE survives the court challenges, you want to have your Parent Plus loans in place ready to be placed into SAVE.  Even if SAVE doesn’t survive, perhaps one of the other IDR plans is better than ICR.  How do you move forward with the online system stuck, and only one servicer processing paper consolidation applications?

The key is to use snail mail – send half to Aidvantage, wait 45 days until the consolidation is done.  Then send the second half to Aidvantage to consolidate using snail mail.  Wait 45 days.  Then recombine all the Parent Plus loans in a final consolidation application sent to – you guessed it – Aidvantage.

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Christie_1Here’s a review posted recently about our student loan videos:

  • I wish the views on this channel were much higher. Christie is both thorough and concise. It’s the best channel on YouTube regarding student loans.

I know that it’s more confusing than normal now with all the litigation and holds put on federal student loans right now.  Processing of IDRs have been slowed considerably – and while you wait, your loans are placed into forbearance.  This forbearance may ultimately count toward IDR but it’s a mixed bag whether it will count if you ask now.

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arkovich_law-narrowBankruptcy is all about full disclosure.  Tell the trustee or court whatever assets you have and in return you receive a full discharge of most debt.  The reason I say most debt is because there are rules re: IRS debt, student loan debt and secured debt such as vehicles, 401k loans, etc.

One thing that is often overlooked is potential consumer claims that a debtor may have in bankruptcy.  Things like claims against credit furnishers, debt collectors etc.  Not only should you disclose these potential claims in order to receive the discharge in bankruptcy, but by failing to disclose the claims you will face hurdles in pursuing them later.

Often a bankruptcy trustee doesn’t want to pursue the claim and simply abandons it.  Then you are free to pursue either during the bankruptcy or thereafter.  You also may have unused exemptions to protect such a claim in case you want to raise it later.

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Christie_1I had this ready to go last week, but just noticed it didn’t go out as planned.

Still reviewing the impact of this Order, but it appears to block ED from implementation or action under the 2023 IDR regs that created SAVE and several other improvements to IDR while the appeal is pending.

ED has issued a statement that borrowers presently enrolled in SAVE will be placed in an interest-free forbearance while the appeal is pending.

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Christie_1Despite lots of changes in the landscape allowing the discharge of both federal and private student loan debt under the right circumstances, many people still believe that student debt survives a bankruptcy.

Private loans follow very different rules then federal as you probably know.

One thing I haven’t written much about are private loans for these vocational schools such as those for coding, helicopter, cosmetology etc.  If the school is NOT on the federal Title IV list for the years of attendance, those are dischargeable in a bankruptcy.

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Christie_1Are you having trouble with your federal student loan servicer who is asking for  income documentation?  You can avoid all that for now, by simply self-certifying your income.  You can self certify through February 29, 2024 and here is how:

https://studentaid.gov/help-center/answers/article/report-income-in-the-income-driven-repayment-application

https://studentaid.gov/help-center/answers/article/report-income-in-the-income-driven-repayment-application

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