Apr 22
adminArticles Annual Salary, Auto Insurance, Electora, Healthcare Reform, Liability Auto, Liability Coverage, Liability Insurance, Loss Of Earnings, Mandates, Medical Treatment, Money Prices, New Laws, New Vehicles, Personal Injury Protection, Recession, Three States, Traffic Accident, Vehicle Insurance, Voluntary Activities, Wrong Person
Looking around the US, all but three states mandate drivers to carry liability insurance. Some states have no-fault schemes. Others add in a requirement to buy a personal injury protection policy. As the healthcare reform bill was signed into law, many asked whether all insurance mandates were unconstitutional. This is a fun debating topic which sounds possible but will get nowhere. States have always had the right to impose conditions on people’s voluntary activities. If you want to drive, you have to carry liability insurance to pay compensation to anyone else you may injure. A more interesting question is the amount of the minimum requirements imposed by your state’s lawmakers.
Most of these minimums have not been changed for thirty and more years. For example, in 1972, Maryland set $20,000 for a person injured subject to a maximum of $40,000 for losses arising out of a single traffic accident. This was intended to cover medical treatment, loss of earnings while recovering, and so on. In 1972, the average annual salary was $12,000 and most hospitals charged no more than a few hundred dollars for treatment. Most new vehicles cost less than $4,000 to put on the road. You could easily buy a new home for less than $30,000. Looking back now, you wonder how we managed on so little money. Prices have risen fast for medical treatment. Injure the wrong person and the claim against you for loss of earnings is going to be frightening. Why should this matter?The liability coverage only pays out the minimum. You get to pick up the bill for all the other losses. So any savings or property you have may be taken to satisfy a judgment against you.
Should states increase their minimums? Many are thinking about doing so, but the politics of actually making new laws is difficult. During the recession, people are under financial pressure. Forcing them to spend more on vehicle insurance is not going to be popular among the poorer sections of the electorate. For the middle classes, there is the option to buy more coverage including an uninsured and underinsured policy. This is the American way. Those who have money can use it to protect themselves against losses. Those who are poor must take life as it comes.
In Maryland, the legislators have just increased the minimums to $30,000/60,000. This is curiously unreal. An increase to match the rate of inflation since 1972 should make the minimums $100,000/200,000. But, the political situation does not permit the lawmakers to restore the value of the minimums overnight. The answer was annual increases to inflation-proof the amounts. We would have arrived at $100,000 without anyone being too upset about it. But we have grown used to accepting the cheapest solutions even though millions of people across America actually lose money because of it. Why millions of people? These are all the victims of bad driving who never recover anything more than the minimums and suffer major financial losses as a result. This is injustice on a massive scale. And it will never be cured because it would cost too much to make the necessary increases. The only people who come out of this smiling are the investors in the auto insurance industry. Their profits and dividends have been rising steadily despite the recession. To protect yourself, always get auto insurance quotes from this site to find the most affordable coverage. Insurance may be mandated but you don’t have to pay excessive premiums.
Apr 01
adminStudent Loan Bankruptcy Court, Bankruptcy Loan, Bankruptcy Loans, Debts Bankruptcy, Dischargeable Debts, Gainful Employment, New Bankruptcy Laws, New Laws, Provisions, Rare Cases, Reason, States Of America, Student Loan, Student Loans, Undue Hardship, United States Of America
Bankruptcy student loan, as the term suggests, describes the situation when a person is not able to pay off the student loan that he or she owes. Here, it is very important for you to understand that the student loan is some of those loans that are non-dischargeable as per the bankruptcy laws in the United States of America. The non-dischargeable debts means that even if you have been declared as bankrupt because of any reason, the student loan will not be discharged or exempted – neither completely nor partially. However, there are some specific cases, in which the bankruptcy court may declare the student loans as dischargeable debts.
What Are The Situations In Which The Student Loans May Be Treated As dischargeable Debts?
There is only one situation in which even the student loans may become dischargeable debt. This is the case when you can prove in the court that there will be undue hardship on you and your family if the student loans are not declared as dischargeable. Of course, this is not an easy cake to do. For example, in order to prove this, you may have to prove that you are physically challenged in a way that you cannot do any kind of work. What is more, even proving that you are physically challenged may not be enough. You will also have to prove that there is no hope in the near future for the recovery or getting a gainful employment. Other than such rare cases, the bankruptcy student loan can never be declared as dischargeable debts.
Changes Brought By the New Bankruptcy Laws
The new bankruptcy laws have come into effect from October 2005 and it has changed the provisions regarding the bankruptcy for student loans. For example, before the introduction of the new laws, the privately funded student loans, which were not guaranteed, had been considered as dischargeable debts, but now, even such student loans are treated as non-dischargeable. Now, these loans are also treated as similar to the student loans, guaranteed by the federal government or nonprofit institutions.
Is Student Loan Major Part Of Your Overall Debts?
If the student loan contributes the major part of your overall debts, filing bankruptcy is not recommended to you. You had better look for some other alternative, such as student loan debt consolidations etc. even if you file for bankruptcy in such a case; the chances are that your bankruptcy claim will be rejected by the court. What is more, even if you are declared as bankrupt, you will get no debt relief, as you will still be responsible to pay off the loan on your loan. No exemptions of any kind will be allowed to you.
Jan 25
adminHome Loan Advance Fee, Advance Fees, Business Advance, Business People, California Law, Florida Law, Foreclosure, Guarantee, Loan Business, Loan Modification, Money Loan, New Business, New Laws, Prohibitions
You have probably figured it out by now, a lot of people are making big money in the loan modification business. One of the reasons for this is that there are not a lot of laws out there that regulate the loan modification business. Some people are just getting into this new business may not be aware that new laws are being passed that affect one important part of this business, namely the charging of an advance fee.
In this article, I am going to provide you with some information regarding the types of new laws we are seeing that affect our industry. To those of us in the loan modification business, advance fees are important as as the collection of these fees help us guarantee that we will be paid for the services we are providing.
When helping a client with a loan modification where we are unable to collect an advance fee, we get concerned that even if we are successful in negotiating a great modification for the client, we might not get paid for our services because the client does not have the money available to pay us once the loan mod has been approved.
We are now seeing states that are starting to come out with new laws restricting advance fees. Florida and California for example have new laws that restrict advance fees charged by foreclosure consultants or foreclosure rescue consultants. The California law is already in place with further restrictions going into effect in 2009. The Florida law goes into effect on October 1, 2008.
The new Florida law has two main prohibitions that apply to most loan modifications.
You cannot engage in or initiate foreclosure related rescue services without first entering a written agreement with the homeowner.
You cannot charge or receive or even collect a fee for your loan modification services before completing or performing all services contained in your written agreement.
There’s still plenty of money to be made in the loan modification business. You just need to be alert to the changing laws that are being implemented that affect the loan mod industry.
To learn more tips about starting a loan modification business, download this.
RSS