The Insolvency Support Center

Every person is unique, but when you face a challenge like insolvency, you are never alone.  Countless men and women have faced the exact same crisis and have survived and thrived.  The following guide is designed to help you navigate your journey with the best information and resources that helped other survivors when they faced the same challenge. 

TSC has scoured the Internet and assembled links to the very best insolvency resources: articles, blogs, forums and tools that can help you make better decisions and take action to overcome the range of physical, emotional and other challenges that you face.

As you’ll see, we always welcome your ideas and suggestions to make this Insolvency Guide even more helpful to survivors like you.   

JUST FOUND OUT 

Survivors Say: Best Resources for Disorder

• Debt Relief USA: Compare Debt Consolidation Services
• Association of Insolvency & Restructuring Advisors 
• Investopedia: What Does Insolvency Mean?
  

The Big Picture

Facing insolvency, whether it is personal or business, essentially means you are no longer in a position to meet your financial obligations. Although essentially dealing with the same issues, there are some distinctions between insolvency and bankruptcy. Basically, insolvency reflects that condition of your finances while bankruptcy refers to the law providing protection from your creditors and debt. You make be insolvent but not in bankruptcy. Of course, declaring yourself insolvent will not necessarily provide you relief from your creditors. However, there are positive steps you can take to lift yourself out of these dire straights.

Article Alley: Perfect Advice for Insolvency

Unchecked, insolvency can lead to major upheaval for you and your family’s lives. The biggest risk would be losing your house. However, in these tough economic times more and more people are facing foreclosure. That means there are more experiences to share and help to be found. There is no shame with being caught in a financial crisis. The big shame would be in not utilizing help that is available to you. 

Loan Shak: Facing Foreclosure? Consider Insolvency

Your Insolvency

There can be many causes to why a business becomes insolvent. As a business owner, the buck stops with you. There are certain amounts of legal remedies that can be pursued when faced with insolvency in your company. The key is to be proactive and decisive.

Association of Insolvency & Restructuring Advisors: Deepening Insolvency Liability from the Financial Advisor's Perspective

Handling insolvency and bankruptcy means you’ll be facing a preponderance of legal matters. Before turning to professional counseling, it’s important to become informed about your options. This doesn’t mean you need to be an expert economist, but a little information will go along way towards helping you make the big decisions about your financial future.

Knol: Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law 

Your World

Once you have accepted the fact that your need help with your insolvency, you’ll find there is a wide range of professional assistance available to you. Finding a lawyer to represent your interests should not be intimidating. You want to find someone who understands your needs and is empathetic to your concerns.

Attorney Find: Talk to a Bankruptcy Attorney Today

It shouldn’t cost you anything to meet a lawyer for a consultation. You should consider “shopping around” to find the perfect fit. This is going to be someone who you’ll be trusting with extremely sensitive and important matters. It is a relationship you need to foster. If you can not find a lawyer through a personal recommendation, then do not hesitate to search through the internet resources available.

Lawyers.com: Ask a Lawyer

Insolvency Myths

• If I become insolvent I won’t be able to file for personal bankruptcy
• I will lose all my assets when I become insolvent
• I will never be able to improve my credit score
• The forms are too complicated to understand unless you are a lawyer

Information and Recommended Links for Survivors

• Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smit: Bankruptcy and Insolvency
• Ezine Articles: Tips on Dealing with Bankruptcy
• Directory M Articles: Bankruptcy and Insolvency Taxation 

Types of Remedies

Fixing Your Credit Report

Most insolvency and bankruptcy claims lead to a lower credit score. While your score might remain low for the duration of your terms, you can reapply to upgrade your credit report once you have met your obligations.

A. Farber & Partner Inc.: Fixing Your Credit Rating

Arranging a Foreclosure

Although not ideal, arranging a foreclosure on your business assets might actually be a proactive way to protect them. The alternative is having an outside creditor take over your properties with you surrendering total control. There are ways around that.

Fix Company: Insolvency

Reworking Your Credit

So much of insolvency has to do with paying off your credit card debt. Although at times they can seem heartless and greedy, credit card companies are often helpful when it comes to making repayment arrangements. It is far better to deal with this issues up front then hiding from the creditors.

Credit Land: Bankruptcy - Repair Credit After Declaring Insolvency

Insurance & Work Matters

Health Insurance

Finding yourself insolvent often means cutting corners. One area where you shouldn’t cut is health insurance, especially with a family involved. There are low cost health insurance plans available across the country. Knowing your family is covered will give you peace of mind.

Health Insurance: How to Find and Keep Affordable Insurance

Auto Insurance

You do not want to compound your financial woes by getting caught without automobile insurance. As with health insurance, there are a variety of affordable packages available. It is much wiser to continue to make insurance payments then being caught without protection.

Geico: Auto Insurance

Nationwide: Get an Auto Quote

Resources to Find Insolvency Help

You should not be at all embarrassed to find yourself caught up in insolvency. Many people and businesses are finding themselves in the exact same situation. As we have been told by the government, things are going to get worse before they are going to get better. That doesn’t mean you should hide your hand in the sand. Getting the right advice at the first signs of trouble might help save you from the worst possible outcome.

Debt Work Out: Debtor Links

The Emotional Roller-coaster

Surviving insolvency doesn’t mean turning your finances around and becoming a millionaire overnight. It means reorganizing your finances and debt so that you’ll be able to manage them more efficiently. The goal is to maintain your quality of life and protect your family and assets.  Some people find that dealing with insolvency on an emotional level is more of a hardship than the actual financial burden. Many survivors panic and break down under the stress of battling insolvency. To avoid this, it's important to continue living your life normally, participating in the same daily activities you've always done. Support groups are also important to maintaining a healthy emotional state. Other than that, educating yourself on the reality of insolvency and exposing yourself to books and stories written by those who have dealt with insolvency in their past can help give you and your loved ones hope while dealing with his crisis.

Books Survivors Recommend

• Surviving Personal Bankruptcy
  
• Personal Bankruptcy Laws for Dummies
  
• How To Settle Your Debts
  
• Solve Your Money Troubles: Get Debt Collectors Off Your Back & Regain Financial Freedom 

What Survivors Wish They’d Known

Communicating with Your Bankruptcy and Insolvency Lawyers

• Bring a complete list of all your credit cards, auto loans, mortgage and other monthly payments. Also, have a list of all of your assets large or small.
• Don't be afraid to ask any questions you feel you need the answer to, even if you may be scared of the answer. Ignorance won't help you fight insolvency - emotionally or financially.
• Take notes during your meeting so you’ll have a record and be able to do any follow-up research. Don't be afraid to ask for clarification on anything.

Dealing with Insolvency: Information and Recommended Links for Co-Survivors       

How you can help

• Assist your friend or family member with their day-to-day duties or chores, but be sure to find a good balance so as not to throw off their pattern of living, which may increase their stress as they may feel they are becoming a burden.
• Preserve your friend or family member's daily activities. It's normal to feel protective but excluding them from activities or decisions contributes to feelings of helplessness.
• Involve your friend or family member with others. Don't focus exclusively on their financial woes when interacting with them. Talk to them about yourself or make plans to visit friends and loved ones. A survivor involved with others has a better chance of avoiding feelings of abandonment.

What to say   

• "I will support you however I can until you can turn things around."
• "If you want to talk about any of this, I’m always available."
• “You’re not alone. A lot of folks across the country are in the same kind of trouble.”

What not to say

• "How could you let things get so bad?"
• "This is because you waste money on frivolous things."
• "You’ll never get out of this mess."

Things you can do for a survivor every day

Offering day-to-day support is a great gift to give a family member struggling with insolvency. If the survivor isn't a family member, help out them out by inviting them over to dinner and giving them something to do to take their minds off their troubles. Making a evening at home watching a movie is a perfect and affordable way to help out.

How to build a support network

• Set up your TSC Co-Survivor Profile
• Create a support group for your friend or family member.
• Interact and provide updates

How to help a survivor deal with day-to-day challenges

Staying informed about current laws regarding insolvency issues. 

Bizhelp: Bankruptcy

After recovery, assess and share with others how you feel emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Recovering from an insolvency crisis is almost as shocking as falling onto hard times in the first place. By telling your story, you can not only put into perspective your thoughts and feelings but you can provide hope to others who are going through a similar journey themselves, whether it be with insolvency, bankruptcy or a completely different financial crisis.

Handling the Emotional Effects of Insolvency    

The effects of dealing with insolvency can lead to stress and high anxiety but that doesn’t mean there aren’t actions to take to prevent the emotional extremes that come with this type of crisis.

Kodam & Associates: Bankruptcy Information Center

Often businesses are formed between partners. This means decisions made about insolvency have to be made together. Being up front and honest with your business partner will go a long way towards helping you achieve recovery.

eHow: How to Discuss Bankruptcy with a Business Partner

As with any crisis, admitting you have a problem is the first step. Often people will try to hide their financial woes from their loves ones. This is counter productive. Reaching out and declaring your troubles is a positive first step towards recovery.

Ezine Articles: The Science of Surviving and Getting Out of Bankruptcy

The best way to survive insolvency is to appreciate the others who have gone through the process already and achieved success. Check out this personal story of survival.

Article Base: Financial Recovery and Bankruptcy Survival   

Give back

What helped you while you were dealing with the insolvency, going through the mountain of bills, restructuring your finances and realized that you had made it through the worst? Take a look back at your journey and share with other what helped you and what you wished you would have known/done during your insolvency experience. You can create a profile, reach out to other survivors, join support circles or share your story by following the links at TheSurvivorsClub.org.

Even if you have met with an advisor and worked out a repayment plan with your creditors, you could end up missing a payment or coming up short. Although a setback, it isn’t the end of the world. You may incur a certain amount of penalties and additional interest. You still need to deal with this as soon as it occurs and not let it accumulate.
   
Total Bankruptcy: New Foreclosure Defenses - Will They Work For You? 

Just because there is a lot of help out there doesn’t mean it is all legitimate. Be wary of "get rich quick" schemes and credit counseling services that sound too good to be true.  Read any agreement carefully to avoid being duped.

Moran Law: On the Bankruptcy Soapbox - Dealing with Debt