As blogged by the American Bankruptcy Institute and reported by Reuters, art expert Michael Plummer was hired by the Detroit Institute of Arts to evaluate the collection for purposes of selling it to raise money for the City of Detroit Chapter 9 bankruptcy proceeding. Mr. Plummer reported that the Detroit Institute of Arts collection may…
How Do the New US Department of Education Rules Affect the Loan Rehabilitation Program for FFEL and Direct Student Loans?
The new rehabilitation rules affect both FFEL and Direct Loans, including: 1. Direct Loan rehabilitation now requires a written agreement (this was true of FFEL before, but not Direct Loans); and, 2. There is a specified method for calculating reasonable and affordable payments using the 15% income based repayment (IBR) formula. Once you request rehabilitation,…
How Do I Get Information About My Mortgage in Michigan?
The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (“RESPA”) is a federal law that give you the right to get information about your mortgage loan through a Qualified Written Request addressed to the servicer. Under new rules effective January 2014, your servicer has to ackowledge your request within 5 days of recieving it and must respond within…
Bankruptcy Filings Fall 12 Percent for the First Half of 2014
As reported by the ABI, total bankruptcy filings totaled 479,362 nationwide during the first six months of 2014 (Jan. 1-June 30), a 12 percent decrease from the 544,561 total filings during the same period a year ago, according to data provided by Epiq Systems, Inc. The 460,870 total noncommercial filings for the first half of…
Who is Eligible to Participate in Public Service Loan Foregiveness?
Public Service Loan Forgiveness is a federal program that eliminates or forgives federal student loans for specific borrowers. You must be employed full time in an eligible public service or nonprofit job and must have made 120 eligible on-time payments within a 10 year period. Payments do not have to be consecutive – but only…
July 1, 2014 marks the date for important new changes to the federal student loan program. One of the most important chages relates to improvements in the student loan rehabilitation program. These new rules affect both FFEL and Direct Loans. Here is a summary of the new rules affecting the student loan rehabilitation program: 1. A…
“Cash Only” Advice is Dead Wrong – Even After You File for Bankruptcy in Michigan?
By Philip Tirone of 720creditscore.com. Many so-called experts say that you should adopt a cash-only policy and ignore credit cards. But here’s the truth… They are dead wrong. Avoiding credit won’t make life easier. In fact, it will make life a heck of a lot harder. It also won’t make your credit score improve. In fact,…