Bankruptcy

If I'm an Insurance Agent, Can I File a Bankruptcy? If I'm a Lawyer, Can I file a Bankruptcy?

By Joseph McDaniel, Esq.

But those aren't really the questions you mean to ask.

You really mean to ask, are there terrible consequences?

And the answer is, as it so often is, maybe.

If you're a lawyer, and you didn't steal from your clients, and you just have a bunch of debt, oh, well. If you did steal from your clients, you are in deep kim-chee, and you need an ethics lawyer, not a bankruptcy lawyer. Although you may also need a bankruptcy lawyer for your non-stealing-from-clients debts.

If you sell insurance, you may slide right through the bankruptcy. Or not.

The issue that always worries me is this: do you have a book of business that the trustee can sell in order to generate funds to pay your creditors?

Think about that for a minute.

You've worked years trying to build up your book of business, and now the trustee might want to swipe it and sell it?

Maybe.

I recently did an emergency filing for a nice insurance guy. He guaranteed and swore to me that he had no book of business, as some insurance guys do, because he was merely an independent contractor, servicing a book, and that the Insurance Company itself owned the book.

I said, I'll file for you, but only if you KNOW that, not believe it. Contact your insurance company and get that confirmation from them. You are not the only guy who sells for Giganto Insurance Megalith, Inc., who has ever filed a bankruptcy.

And believe me, the insurance company has considered and addressed the issue.

So he asked, and he confirmed, and I filed for him.

NOTHING HERE CONSTITUTES LEGAL ADVICE RE A CHAPTER 7, CHAPTER 13, CHAPTER 11, OR CHAPTER 12. FIND AN ARIZONA BANKRUPTCY LAWYER WHO IS BOARD CERTIFIED IN BANKRUPTCY LAW, AV RATED, AVVO 10 RATED, ON SUPERLAWYERS, OR JUST VERY EXPERIENCED AND A FORMER CHAIR OF SOME BANKRUPTCY SECTION OR COMMITTEE. NOTHING HERE MAY BE USED AS LEGAL ADVICE IN CONNECTION WITH ANY BANKRUPTCY, WHETHER THAT BANKRUPTCY IS IN PHOENIX, GLENDALE, TEMPE, MESA, SCOTTSDALE, OR ANYWHERE ELSE.

Full post as published by Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney Blog on June 03, 2009 (boomark / email).