My clients were nurses at a local hospital. They’re immigrants and English isn’t their first language. They worked hard and bought a house. One day, Read more >>
Blog
Bankruptcy Didn’t Make Sense: Nothing Left to Lose & Loving It
I had a bankruptcy client a few years ago. He owned two office buildings with mortgages totaling more than the buildings’ values. They were going to be foreclosed, triggering personal Read more »
Tea Party Isn’t A “Social Welfare Organization,” So No Tax-Free Status
A few months ago, the US saw the political theater of Congress outraged at the IRS’s alleged targeting of Tea Party political organizations for scrutiny on whether they qualified for Read more »
The “Audit” That Isn’t An Audit
IRS has sent out tens of thousands of letters to small businesses asking them to explain the difference between the businesses’ receipts reported on the tax returns and reported by third parties Read more >>
Asset Protection & Pre-Bankruptcy Planning
A well-to-do friend called me for some planning. He invited me to his beautiful, five-bedroom home in the hills above Westlake Village. We sat at poolside as he described his predicament. Read more >>
Arsonist Can Discharge Fire Fighting Costs in Bankruptcy
Living in semi-arid California, I’ve gotten used to seeing large columns of smoke on hot, windy days. Most recently, I could see the Springs Fire burning between Camarillo and Malibu from a distance, Fortunately, it did little damage Read more >>
Bankruptcy, Humility & Happiness
I have a bankruptcy client who had been a high-earning executive with an ad agency. But he lost his job, savings and even retirement nest egg in the real estate crash. He now lives in a rental in the Valley Read more >>
How I Help Doctors Get Financially Well
It used to be that a medical degree was a ticket to a relatively secure life: in exchange for spending years achieving at school and amassing formidable learning, and just showing up at your practice for 50 or more hours a week Read more >>
Bankruptcy Is a Form Of Redemption, Not Failure
I like to say that I am involved in “capitalist recycling.” In a capitalist, free-market society, there are people who win and there are people who lose. Those people who do not win and cannot function economically because of crushing debt Read more >>
What Doctors Taught Me About My Job and My Clients
In the last three years, my wife and I have lost three of our four parents: two parents died of lung cancer, one of Parkinson’s Disease. In each case, I was Read more »