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Economic readings out this month suggests people are doing all right, but are they? That's a big question. 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck according to the latest debt.com survey, and that's despite their budgeting that they are doing. And legal shields consumers stress legal index, which tracks consumers seeking legal assistance for foreclosure, bankruptcy, consumer finance issues, what have you rising nearly six points in July. That's the highest reading since November 2020. So, to discuss how people are feeling, we have Matt Layton, who's the Legal Shield SVP of Consumer Analytics. Matt, great to have you here with us. So, why do you think we're seeing this jump in people looking for legal assistance right now?

Hey, great to great to be here and thank you for having having me on. And you you hit it right on, right? We saw the largest jump in several years and really the highest single month since the beginning of our of our index. And really we're looking at consumer finance issues, right? People are calling us for legal assistance for consumer finance, bankruptcy, foreclosure. We've seen a big big jump in that in July.

And so with that in mind, and we're taking a look at the the reading for the legal stress index here, where where are more people trying to deploy those legal services towards, especially as they're trying to tackle debt?

Right. So, I mean, the legal needs of millions of everyday Americans I think gives us a unique insight into their economic stress. So really it's those issues around consumer finance. Do I pay my pay my rent now or later? Should I make my mortgage payment? What happens if I'm if I'm late? What happens if I don't pay my car car car bill? The the the consumers are feeling the stress of long-term increased rates of inflation and the interest rates. And we're seeing that in the in the requests for legal services we we see on a monthly basis.

You know, it's interesting too because the consumer reaching out for legal services would also suggest that similar to what we were seeing within the debt.com survey and data that they put out that people are trying to get ahead of where they might run into some issues. Do you think there's a massive shift in the mindset of how consumers coming out of the pandemic and coming out of revenge travel and now getting into a little bit more of, okay, we need to budget, we need to plan out our financial future. That there's a shift in that mindset to correctly set themselves up for being able to navigate some of the issues that they're foreseeing?

Sure. We like to say people don't call a lawyer for a good time. They call because they've got a problem and they're looking to improve their situation. And that's exactly what we're seeing. Over 150,000 times a month consumers are calling our provider lawyers for help for legal issues. And specifically in July we saw a large increase in those types of issues again around consumer finance, bankruptcy, foreclosure.

And so with that in mind here, how could the housing market that we're seeing right now, because the anticipation is that if we see mortgage rates continue to trend lower, then that could mean even more, and for good reason, even more demand for legal services as people try to work through long contracts in order to make sure that they're getting to and through closing and settlement on those homes. What are you anticipating there?

Sure, especially in terms of the the the new agreements between the commissions paid to to to realtors. So, like you said, positive and and and negative. Interest rates are still high, especially some of those mortgage rates in the last several years. So people are going to continue to be concerned about paying those those those mortgage rates. But as we see interest rates come come down, we do expect to see a larger volume of calls regarding real estate closings and real estate transactions and how the consumer can get the get the best deal for themselves.

Matt, really valuable insights here. Thanks so much for taking the time here with us. Matt Layton, Legal Shield senior vice president of consumer analytics. Appreciate it.

Thank you.