Debt, Kanye, and Assets

Kanye West recently announced (rather confusingly) that he had $53,000,000.00 of "personal debt", and the debt burden was crushing him.

But what does this really mean?  First off, many people confuse debt with being insolvent.  If you owe $500 and only own $100 worth of stuff, you're insolvent - the debts outweigh the assets.   Most people can take a gander at Kanye (and the furs and the houses and all the music rights - some estimates peg him at about $145M) and suspect he has more assets than a mere $53M in debt.  

What does the debt mean?  Well, he has bills to pay, like the rest of us.  And having that much debt might mean he is so leveraged, that he can't borrow money to fund new projects or ventures.

Now, as for his bankruptcy options... 

First off, Mr. West won't be able to file a Chapter 13.  The debt limits prevent him.

If he wanted to, Mr. West could file a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  His creditors would get to vote on a repayment plan, and it would be a long and involved process.  

A Chapter 7 might be possible, if his income is low enough.  A Chapter 7 would make a trustee very happy, because the trustee would get paid based on selling assets to pay back creditors.   So all Kanye's copyrights and other intellectual property might end up on an auction block.

My advice to Mr. West?  Get to work on your next album.