Locked in Pension Fund for Consumer Proposal
I am thinking that I may need to either fiel bankruptcy or a credit proposal. My wife`s business is in big trouble from teh economic meltdown. She will likely have to go bankrupt and we have many shared debts. I owe total about $60k that includes joint with her.
B/c she has lost her income from the business as well we have very little money now. I have decent income (50k) and she has like 6K now so her surplus income will be very little (2 kids) = $100/mth for her.
I DO NOT want to go bankrupt but cannot handle the cc debts as well as the rest.
I have from a former job $25k in OMERS. Could I seek to have that money withdrawn through hardship to pay the consumer proposal right up front. I think the most I could offer under a Consumer Proposal would be at best 20 cents on the dollar. Using the surplus income model, if I also had to file bankruptcy (not her fault but her failing business is going to drag us both down possibly), my surplus would be another $200 a month. For 60 months, I could offer $300/mth which would be $18k. I will do anything to avoid bankruptcy!!! So could I say – take $25k from my OMERS and I can at least avoid bankruptcy for one member of our family going forward?
Posted from: Ontario
It’s to your credit that yo are considering withdrawing funds from a locked-in pension to offer to your creditors, but frankly, I think it’s a bad idea. The reason the funds are locked is so that they will be available when you retire – withdrawing them for any other purpose defeats the process.
That being said, I think you can offer a reasonable proposal without this lump sum – contact a trustee in your area and go and see them. Based on what you’ve posted I think they will be able to find a way to keep you from filing for bankruptcy.