In 2019, more than 700,000 Australians held a funeral insurance policy. Providers market these products as offering ‘peace of mind’, playing on consumers’ perception that funeral costs are very high. Yet these products can result in substantial financial loss. To date, Aboriginal and...

While the majority of those who declare bankruptcy do so voluntarily, a significant proportion are forced into bankruptcy as a result of legal action. This paper interrogates data obtained from the Australian Financial Security Authority to explore the attributes of debtors who go bankrupt...

Bankruptcy has always been a source of significant stigma. The first Elizabethan statutes regarded bankruptcy as a quasi-criminal state, punishable by public shaming, imprisonment and, in some cases, death. More modern regimes have recognised that bankruptcy serves important economic objectives,...

Bankruptcy is widely regarded as a means of rehabilitation for debtors in severe financial hardship. To date, however, there have been few attempts to study its long term impact on individuals' finances, health, social relationships and general quality of life. The authors address this gap in...

This paper examines recent trends in Australian personal bankruptcy by analysing a large data set obtained from the regulator, the Australian Financial Security Authority. It demonstrates a marked decline in Australian bankruptcy rates, since a peak in 2009, and a consistent rise in levels of...

Recent scholarship has identified a shift in the demographic profile of Australians declaring bankruptcy. In the context of a marked increase in overall rates of personal insolvency, bankruptcy has become increasingly prevalent among ‘middle class' Australians. Against this background, the...

A poor credit history can preclude an individual from obtaining loans, credit cards and even access to basic utilities. Credit repair companies claim to assist people in this situation, by deleting adverse information from their credit histories. As financial hardship becomes more widespread,...

This article presents an empirical analysis of an innovative financial counselling service offered to self-represented debtors in the Bankruptcy List of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia in 2014 and 2015. This pilot service offered on-site financial counselling to debtors who attended the...

This study is the first empirically based analysis of business bankruptcy to be conducted in Australia. It aims to identify key differences between debtors who declare business bankruptcy and those who declare non-business or “personal” bankruptcy, and to explore the extent to which there...