Summit residents can often be counted among the many that are surprised when news of a high-profile, high net-worth individual announces that he or she is filing for personal bankruptcy. That news is often that much more shocking when the individual is someone perceived to be successful in his or her various business ventures. Questions often come up about how one who seemingly worked so hard to achieve his or her success could see it vanish so quickly, and if such an apparently successful business man or woman could fall on financial hardships, how much easier would it be for a everyone else, who may never even approach attaining similar financial resources, to experience the same challenges.
The answer may seem surprising to some, although it really shouldn’t be. The super-rich are subject to the same sorts of financial hardships as everyone else, perhaps even more so in that so much of their individual wealth is often tied up in the market. Combine that fact with the poor financial decisions that everyone falls into every now and then, and it becomes clearer to see how someone with such assets can go broke so quickly.
Take the recent case of an Indiana attorney and real estate developer: the failure of his development firm due to the recent housing crash, coupled with penalties associated with a felony conviction for wire fraud caused a downward financial spiral that saw his income cut by nearly two-thirds and left him with only $1.3 million in assets to deal with over $13 million in liabilities. Needless to say, Chapter 7 bankruptcy became his only option.
While one may never see the same kind of personal wealth that this man once held, he or she can certainly experience the same sort of financial struggles. Ultimately, he or she may also be in a position where bankruptcy may be the only option. A bankruptcy attorney may help one in determining if that is truly the case.
Source: Indianapolis Business Journal “Local attorney, developer Page files bankruptcy” Scott Olson, Jan. 08, 2014
