It’s no secret that debt can be a huge burden. Debt can keep you from reaching your goals and achieving financial freedom. In this blog post, we will discuss some of the most common mistakes people make when trying to pay off their debt. We’ll also provide tips on how to avoid these mistakes and...Continue reading

Class Action Lawsuit  By PAUL MURPHY. Paul Murphy is a 20-year financial veteran and Managing Partner at 4 Pillars. What Is A Class Action Lawsuit? A class action lawsuit is a specific type of litigation that involves many people filing a legal action against a single defendant.  Generally, class action lawsuits are used when the amount...Continue reading

How to Live a Debt-Free Retirement Retirement is the perfect time to spend your hard-earned savings. But it will be difficult to do so if you start this new chapter of your life with debt. Unfortunately, retiring with debt is actually quite common, with 4 out of 10 Canadians doing so. Though retirees carry less...Continue reading

Amortization  By PAUL MURPHY. Paul Murphy is a 20-year financial veteran and Managing Partner at 4 Pillars. What Is Amortization? Amortization is the length of time where you’ve agreed to have the loan paid in full. In general, the longer the amortization period, the lower your monthly payments. While most Canadians opt for long amortization...Continue reading

As I wrote previously, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) was established in 2001 by Financial Consumer Agency of Canada Act to: “ensure that financial institutions, external complaints bodies and payment card network operators are supervised by an agency of the Government of Canada so as to contribute to the protection of consumers of...Continue reading

To put it simply – If you are facing an overwhelming amount of debt that you are unable to repay, filing a consumer proposal might be a good option for you to consider. You should, however, review all options available and compare the pros and the cons of each. It can be tricky to get...Continue reading

For millions of Canadians, the pandemic brought economic hardship. The worst is over. Now Canadians face a hard trek back to financial recovery. As Canada’s largest independent debt restructuring firm with over 60 offices in Canada, we have a unique view of Canadians in financial crises.  We’ve created this special guide to help you put...Continue reading

As a debt restructuring specialist, I spend all my days working with and for Canadian consumer debtors facing insolvency. When you approach insolvency, you are basically seeking to negotiate with your creditors to relieve or eliminate your debt, and our job is to help our clients understand this process and make the best decisions possible...Continue reading

20-year financial veteran Paul Murphy breaks down a common question from our clients: should you use things like consumer proposals bankruptcy or debt consolidation or preserve your credit score? I recently sat down with David Moffatt from 4 Pillars’ Halifax office and Ryan Brown from 4 Pillars’ Muskoka & Parry Sound offices on our 4 Pillars’ podcast Beating the Debt Game....Continue reading

20-year financial veteran Paul Murphy breaks down how the major credit bureaus work, showing how your credit score is calculated in Canada.  Five major factors go into how your credit score is calculated in Canada. 1. Your payment history 2 . Amount of utilization 3. Length of time of credit history 4. New credit 5. Maturity...Continue reading