Financial Outcomes for Debt Settlement Programs: Estimates for 2011–2020 - Will Dobbie

January 15, 2021, Paper: "Debt settlement programs are designed to facilitate the less-than-full-balance resolution of portfolios of unsecured debt owed by individuals who are experiencing significant financial difficulty and who lack the resources to satisfy, in full, their current debt obligations. This report examines the financial outcomes of individuals enrolling in a debt settlement program using detailed data for a sample population of approximately 450,000 individuals and over 3,100,000 accounts. We measure outcomes for individuals up to March 2020, just before the onset of the recent economic and health crises. We also examine the methodology, analyses, and results described in a series of reports by Hemming Morse, LLP (Greg Regan) that also examine the financial outcomes of individuals enrolling in a debt settlement program to determine whether the data support the Regan reports’ analyses and conclusions."