What is the exact definition of "insolvency"

[OhioFiler]

I'm not sure where you get insolvency is the key term for the determination of fraud.

[chrisdfw]

Insolvency is not a requirement for bankruptcy and is defined in several ways in different places.

Sometimes it means you are no longer able to pay your bills as they become due.

For the IRS it means your debts exceed your assets (even if you have income to pay your bills)

it just depends.

[swampwiz]

This seems to be the key term for the determination of fraud.

In my situation, I used to earn $60/hr with my skills. When I started to seriously look for work again after a nice sabbatical made possible by nice gains in my investments, I thought that I would be able to get work again at even the low rate of $45/hr, which would be more than enough to support the long term debt service of $2400/mo + a house note of about $1200/mo. In my situation, the house note would be at 2.7%, and if I did not buy the house, I would owe an extra $92K (the amount that was given to me to buy a home through a Hurricane Katrina grant from the state), so I figured that whatever would happen, it was *vitally* important that I get that home. And with the ability to get a low interest 2nd mortgage, I could have paid down a bunch of those debts, making my debt service even less - perhaps a total debt load of under $2K. I was also going to contract out the home myself, doing some of the work, like the electrical (legal for the homeowner to do in that parish {county} ), giving me even more equity to be made liquid by the 2nd mortgage.

I also believed that my stock investment (mutual fund), bought at some low points - a fund in which I had some investment at $30 that went down to $9.5 (one buy) and then down to $5.3 (another buy), and then down to $3.8 (ran out of credit to buy), and then back up to around $11 now - would come to fruition so long as I could survive without spending it down - which after I ran out of credit, I needed to do, starting in April, with an average "burn rate" of about $4K/mo (the debt service was a bit higher as I still had a car note of $380/mo {just now paid off on the regular schedule}, and the debt service for the other accounts was a little higher because the principals were higher.)

Even though no job offer was made after numerous expression of interest and even several interviews (although I think in retrospect that some of those interviews were fake interviews by Asian Indians who were trying to justify that they couldn't find an American worker with the exact requirements for their position), I continued to believe that I would eventually find work at my level. Unfortunately, the clock has run out, and I need to declare BK. I could probably find work at $25/hr, and if I didn't have the crushing debt burden, it would be OK. (P.S., it's hugely ironic that the banks that are outsourcing their jobs to these Indians who won't hire Americans have helped put me in the position of declaring BK on them because I can't find work. )

So I am wondering if someone in my position would be considered insolvent. From one point of view, it seems that someone could be considered insolvent as soon as his debt would exceed his liquid, real estate and vehicle assets. OTOH, as long as someone reasonably figures that he could earn enough to service such debts in excess of his assets, he would not be insolvent. Then the question becomes what is a reasonable expectation of future income? I would think that since I had earned such in the past, that I would earn such in the future (even though I had gone through a sabbatical period that was unexpectedly lengthened by the horrors of a hurricane flood, and I expected that my investments would continue to grow in any case, rather than go down the tubes like they did.)