Insights
Research and perspective on distressed consumer credit.
Bankruptcy receivables, portfolio markets, servicing strategy, and the rules around them.
The Paper Trail · Monthly Market Brief
The Succession Squeeze
The credit cycle is forcing operators out — and the buyers can't get financed
A credit squeeze is pushing buy-here-pay-here operators toward the exit just as the natural buyers — the long-time employee, the dealer two blocks over — can't get the financing to take over. Two jaws of the same vise, with demographics only the tailwind. Here are the four ways out.
Consumer Bankruptcy Monitor · Quarterly Edition
Consumer bankruptcy filings rose 12.0%, led by Chapter 7
Chapter 7 grew 14.6% and Chapter 13 7.6%, so Chapter 13’s share of consumer filings fell to 36.8%.
Every quarter: where filings are growing by district and county, what Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 filers owe and earn, how often filers keep their collateral, and how cases end. With a profile for each of the 93 bankruptcy court districts.
Guides & Reference
Guide · October 2026
Getting Full Value for Your BHPH Charge-Offs
What buyers actually look for — and the documentation habits that turn written-off balances into saleable assets.
Many BHPH dealers don't know their charge-offs can be sold at all — and what a buyer will pay is often determined months or years before the dealer ever decides to sell. Here's the four-step repo closeout that preserves value, from the team that buys these receivables.
Guide · September 2026
Chapter 7 Servicing for Credit Unions
A Chapter 7 has no multi-year plan — but a secured lender still has collateral to work, and a discharge doesn't touch your lien. Here's what the servicing looks like.
Most consumer filings are Chapter 7, and NCUA still directs charge-off within 60 days. There's no plan to monitor — instead a short, event-driven window where the member's intentions, reaffirmation, redemption, surrender, and recovery all have to be worked before the case closes. Here's the work.
Reference · August 2026
Bankruptcy Court Fees: The 2023 Miscellaneous Fee Schedule Explained
A plain-English reference to the federal bankruptcy court fees — filing, motions, conversions, and records — with the amounts a creditor actually pays.
Bankruptcy court fees are set nationally under 28 U.S.C. § 1930 and are the same in every district. Here's the current schedule — filing fees, motion fees, conversion fees, and records charges — with a note on which ones a creditor working a portfolio actually pays.
Guide · August 2026
When to Service vs. Sell a Bankruptcy Portfolio
A hold-or-sell framework for credit unions and banks weighing a Chapter 13 receivables portfolio.
The hold-or-sell call on a bankruptcy portfolio isn't about how distressed it looks — it's about what it will actually recover, serviced to completion, versus what it will fetch sold today. Here's how to run that comparison.
Guide · August 2026
Chapter 13 Servicing for Credit Unions
What it takes to recover a bankrupt member's loan over the life of a Chapter 13 plan — and why most credit unions outsource it.
NCUA directs a credit union to charge off a loan in bankruptcy within 60 days — but a Chapter 13 plan repays over three to five years. Recovering that gap takes claim filing, trustee reconciliation, and plan monitoring most credit unions aren't staffed to do. Here's what the work involves.
Commissioning work
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