Archive for June, 2009

According to a recent Scientific American article, at least 62% of all U.S. family bankruptcies filed in 2007 were caused by medical problems and expenses. This is up from 2005 where about half of all individuals filing for personal bankruptcy cited medical expenses as one of the major causes. In 1981 only 8% of families filing for bankruptcy cited medical problems as the reason.

The study, conducted by Harvard researchers, found that of those filing, over 75% had medical insurance at the start of their illness Continue reading Leading causes of Bankruptcies

Many people seem to consider their business credit cards are viewed differently by the bureaus than their personal cards. If you have a business credit card with one of the big card issuers be sure to treat is as well as you do your personal cards.  Even though they are presented as business cards, the card issuers still report you to the credit bureau as though it is a personal card. And the Credit Bureaus consider it a personal card too.

On the business card account, if you don’t pay off your card every month you will get a ding.  Continue reading The Mysteries of Credit Scores

Following up on last week’s Obama financial privacy recommendation to the Supreme Court, some consumer groups were disappointed that the brief did not include stronger support for States’ rights versus Federal preemption.

While we understand the concern that strong Federal preemption could weaken some State consumer protections, we actually see the Obama view as very positive. We founded “Californians For Privacy Now” to address a lack of Federal will to act on financial privacy rights following the 9/11 attacks. Just before the attacks, a Federal financial privacy law looked very promising Continue reading Disappointment with Obama’s Financial Privacy Thinking Misses the Point

In this economic downturn unfortunately this is happening more and more. There are two types of bankruptcy that a company may file – Chapter 11 or Chapter 7. Depending upon which they file, it affects the safety of your job and therefore your benefits.

Chapter 11 allows the company to restructure. Many large corporations have done this such as the Tribune Company (the publisher of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times), United Airlines and of course, GM.

Chapter 7 is the complete shut down of a company. As a result of this all future benefits to the employee are terminated. If you have a 401(k) with this company the 401(k) will be liquidated and the assets will be distributed. You can then roll these funds over into an IRA to avoid tax penalties.

Chapter 11 more than likely means that your position may be retained; however you could be facing financial cutbacks such as reduction in salary and even benefits.

With regard to a Chapter 11 filing, it is important to know your legal rights as there are laws that protect you:

- Your pension plan can be dissolved – a court decides whether the company can continue to cover the plan.  Unfortunately the pension plan can be dissolved, however The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation guarantees up to $51,000 per person per year in 2008 for people retiring at age 65. You can visit their website to learn more. 

- Your 401(k) assets – these have to be held in a trust account and cannot to accessed by your employer or creditors.  However, as mentioned earlier, one of the cut backs you may experience is the ceasing of matched contributions.

- Your health benefits may be reduced – if you are let go you can use the coverage from your employer for 18 months through COBRA. However, look around for alternates as there are less expensive options out there – some people have said that Costco has a good option. There are websites you can visit to do some comparison shopping.

Support of California Financial Information Privacy Act from the Obama administration
Great news! The Obama administration just came out in support of the California Financial Information Privacy Act, which the American Banker’s Association was trying to overturn in the US Supreme Court. This was an issue we worked on for many years both as a ballot initiative and as legislation.

This is great news for California and American consumers as it dramatically helps ensure that the strongest financial privacy law in the country not only Continue reading The strongest financial privacy law in the country is a model for our nation