Consumer bankruptcies soar 40% in 2007 -- Personal responsibility, anyone?

I was watching the Suze Orman Show last night, listening to the story of a debt-burdened woman who filed for bankruptcy shortly before she received a large inheritance. Her rationale for the early filing was that she didn't want the creditors to take a big chunk of the money her father would leave her when he passed.

I couldn't believe that Suze Orman didn't rip into the woman's conduct. Stiffing your creditors to keep an inheritance is unethical at best, and borders on bankruptcy fraud -- Filing for bankruptcy when you know you will have the means to pay off your creditors in the near future.

What this woman did is not really substantially different from being $100 thousand in debt and then buying a lottery ticket and winning $100 thousand -- then filing for bankruptcy before cashing in the lottery ticket. Stiffing people when you can afford to pay them is immoral.