Who We Are/Our Qualifications
Brian Pybus
- A Certified Debt Arbitrator
- A national Credit Counsellor
- A number of years under contract to Workers’ Compensation
Board of BC (now Worksafe BC)
- Ten years as an officer with Revenue Canada (now Canada Revenue
Agency)
I suppose I've come full circle, from an environment of collections/investigation/compliance/enforcement
through to assisting those in financial trouble, initially as a
Counsellor and now as a Debt Arbitrator.
During this journey I've made a few interesting discoveries I'll
be happy to share with you.
First off, don't think you're alone with your financial plight,
because you're certainly not. There's a huge percentage of Canada's
population in the same situation. Financial difficulties cut right
across every socio-economic demographic: well-off and poor, up-scale
and 'tired' neighbourhoods, white-collar and blue-collar, university-educated
and high school grad, immigrant or born in Canada. Unless you're
independently wealthy, you - and the rest of us - are not immune
to financial catastrophe. It may be brought about by any number
of causes, many of them beyond our control: a layoff, a business
failure, a medical crisis, a dependency problem, a marital problem
or any of a hundred other crisis points. Debt is one of those taboo
subjects that few of us rarely discuss. Your neighbour or best friend
or workmate or sister could well be locked in a titanic struggle
just to stay above water, but you'd never know it because they won't
tell you. Likewise, you yourself may be in the same situation: who
would you choose to discuss it with?
Finding yourself in financial difficulty is not fun. In fact, it
often affects every other aspect of your life, and not in a good
way. One of the more damaging consequences is to someone's self-esteem.
One day, you've got a pretty ok job with a regular paycheque and
the next, there's nothing but you, a stack of bills, no savings
and a phone that doesn't stop ringing. I've seen the most self-confident
and self-assured people simply give up and crumble under such circumstances.
One of the things that always struck me is that if you're in financial
trouble, you learn very quickly you have few friends. The creditors
who so actively pursued you for your business are now suddenly unwilling
to help you, the collectors who are chasing you for money are not
particularly interested in your story, and just about anyone else
who might be of help has their hand out for money.
Debt is business, big business, and you - the debtor - pay the
freight. If you're up-to-date, you're paying interest, service charges,
and various other costs depending on the nature of the debt. If
you're in financial doo-doo, lots of other people will have an interest
in you: collection agents (who get a percentage, usually 25%-33%)
of what they can get you to pay, lawyers and bailiffs (if the situation
has gone really too far), credit counsellors (varying fees, but
could be as high as 15% of each payment), debt consolidators (a
higher interest rate, and much higher if you're considered a credit
risk - plus fees), bankruptcy trustees (fees). The benefit you get
from each of these 'white knights' is basic: any of these will resolve
your financial problem - either voluntarily through counselling
or bankruptcy, or involuntarily through collectors, lawyers and
so on. But in the end will you be in a better or a worse position?
Well, if you've been reading all the little bits on this website,
I think you can draw your own conclusion. And that brings us to
another observation I've made.
Over the years I've often wondered why issues around debt were
always treated as black-and-white, and why - when debtors found
themselves in trouble - did the relationship quickly descend into
an adversarial one. There had to be a middle ground where creditors
would recognize that, like life, finances are not so much black-and-white
but more like a whole lot of grey.
So all of this got me to thinking that there must be a better way.
Which brought me around to taking a look at debt settlement. Now
the idea of negotiating settlements between creditors and debtors
is hardly new. Debtors have successfully negotiated on their own,
and agencies such as debt counselling firms advertise that they
will negotiate settlements. Bankruptcy trustees sometimes put forth
proposals. And creditors will frequently offer delinquent debtors
a reduction in what's owed. However, most of these situations -
with the exception of bankruptcy proposals - were ultimately creditor-driven,
the reduced amount not nearly enough to make a critical difference
to the debtor's overall financial crisis. Then of course the debtor
often found him/herself in the uncomfortable position of being directly
engaged in negotiations. And at the end of the day, the debtor came
away with a slightly shameful sense of 'getting away' with something
he or she would not normally be entitled to. There was no element
of mutual respect, or of recognition that here was a person genuinely
in need who the creditor could reach out to and help in a meaningful
way.
By great good fortune I met up with Bonnie, the founder and owner
of K & G Debt & Credit Professionals. And it was from her
that I learned that there were others who not only recognized this
failure but were actually doing something positive about it. The
result is Professional Debt Arbitration, a process that respects
all parties, conducts mature negotiations resulting in mutually
agreeable settlements, and provides the debtor with not only a workable
solution but a better tomorrow.
In conclusion, let me leave you with the following to think about.
It's amazing how debt can so totally dominate our lives - determining
the decisions we make, affecting how we view ourselves and others,
and limiting our expectations. Debt
Arbitration offers the opportunity to get out from under an
overwhelming debt load and exchange worry and stress for a debt-free
future of unlimited possibilities. I love being able to help people
turn their lives around in a dramatic way - it really is a privilege.
Brian Pybus, CDA
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