| Volume 111 Number 8 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
Not all charities are created equal. As noted in one of today's news items, some charities merely use a good cause to line the pockets of their executives. What can you do? Do your homework on the charities to which you plan to give. This link is to an article about agencies that rank charities on such important factors such as how much of the donations actually go to helping people, and would have warned people away from contributions to the Cancer Fund of America. Click here for more.
FTC and 50 States Sue Sham Charities
The FTC and Attorneys General of 50 states have sued the family that controls the Cancer Fund of America, Cancer Support Services, Children’s Cancer Fund of America and the Breast Cancer Society for fraud. The complaint alleges that the charities were shams that used almost all of $187 million raised to pay either professional fundraisers or them selves, with almost nothing going to actual charitable work. Proposed settlements with certain family members will shut down three of the charities, but no settlement has been reached with James Reynolds, Sr. the patriarch of the family and President of the Cancer Fund of America. Click here for more.
Your Money
Travelers overseas who use credit cards are finding that foreign transaction fees are falling or disappearing, and that many news cards have chips that improve the card's security and make them less vulnerable to fraud. Before you travel out of the country, check out your credit card's foreign transaction fees. You might be able to do better. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Debtor who converts from a Chapter 13 to a Chapter 7 is entitled to return of post petition wages not distributed by the Chapter 13 trustee. The United States Supreme Court held that absent a bad-faith conversion, 11 U.S.C. 348(f) limits a converted Chapter 7 estate to property belonging to the debtor “as of the date” of the original Chapter 13 filing. By excluding post-petition wages from the converted Chapter 7 estate, the statute removes those earnings from the pool of assets to be liquidated and distributed to creditors. Allowing a terminated Chapter 13 trustee to disburse those earnings to the same creditors would be incompatible with that statutory design. When a case is converted, the Chapter 13 trustee is stripped of authority to distribute “payment[s] in accordance with the plan.” Harris v. Viegelahn Click here for more.