Whenever I meet with people to discuss their financial pressures, inevitably the list of questions they ask includes their puzzlement over how the Trustee (and the firm itself) gets paid for the work they do and what extra fees the person will have to pay for us to assist them.
Having dealt with car dealers, mortgage brokers, the airlines and other service providers and professionals over many years, most people EXPECT hidden fees and additional add-on charges. They assume there will be a number of add-on fees and charges. And if they’ve dealt in the past with any of the non-profit credit counseling agencies or debt management firms, they will assume they will have one up-front payment to make to us for our advice, then a second payment to us when they file their paperwork and then a series of regular proposal or bankruptcy fee payments to make once the process gets underway.