James Stackpoole
James Stackpoole is a personal finance writer who covers lending, contracts, and everyday legal documents. He focuses on making complex financial topics approachable for borrowers and lenders navigating agreements outside of traditional institutions.
Articles by James Stackpoole
Can You Change the Terms of a Promissory Note After Signing?
Life changes after a loan is made. The borrower loses a job. The lender needs the money back sooner than expected. Both parties agree the interest rate was too high. Whatever the reason, one or both parties want to adjust the terms of a promissory note that's already been signed, and the question is whether that's even possible and how to do it without creating a legal mess...
Can a Minor Sign a Promissory Note?
It comes up more often than you'd think. A parent co-signs a loan for a teenager buying a car. A grandparent lends money to an 17-year-old heading to college. A young entrepreneur borrows startup funds before their 18th birthday. In each case, someone is wondering whether a promissory note signed by a person under 18 is actually enforceable, or whether the whole document can be unwound the moment the minor decides they don't want to honor it...
Can a Promissory Note Be Counted Against Your Inheritance?
Your parent lent money to your sibling five years ago. Your sibling never paid it back. Your parent just died. Now you're sitting across from an estate attorney trying to understand why the numbers don't add up, and whether that outstanding loan simply evaporates or whether it affects what your sibling receives from the estate...
How to Write a Promissory Note for a Family Loan in Texas
Family loans in Texas work the same way they do everywhere else: someone needs money, someone who loves them has it, and the two of them figure out an arrangement that keeps the relationship intact while getting the borrower what they need. What makes Texas worth paying attention to specifically is the state's usury law, its four-year statute of limitations on written contracts, and a few practical realities that affect how a promissory note should be structured for a loan made between Texas family members...
My Friend Owes Me Money and Won't Pay: Can a Promissory Note Still Help?
The money is already gone. The agreement was verbal, or maybe there were a few texts about it, but nothing was ever signed. Now your friend isn't paying, isn't responding, or is actively denying the loan existed. You're wondering whether a promissory note can still do anything for you at this point, or whether the window for documentation closed the moment the money left your account...
How Unpaid Family Loans Affect What You Inherit
Your parent lent $45,000 to your brother eight years ago. Your brother never paid it back. Your parent just died. Now you're sitting across from an estate attorney trying to understand why your inheritance share looks the way it does, and whether that $45,000 is simply gone or whether it affects what your brother receives from the estate...
What To Do If You Lost Your Promissory Note
You need the note and it's gone. Maybe it was lost in a move, destroyed in a flood, or simply buried somewhere in a decade's worth of paperwork you haven't touched since the loan was made. Whatever happened to it, you're now in a situation where a document that was supposed to protect you has disappeared, and you're trying to figure out what that actually means for your ability to collect or confirm the debt is settled. Losing a promissory note is a real problem. It's not an insurmountable one...
How a Promissory Note Protects You From a Bad Business Partner
Business partnerships go sideways more often than people expect. What starts as a shared vision and mutual trust can deteriorate into disputes about money, responsibilities, and who owes what to whom. When one partner has lent money to the other or to the business, and the repayment stops, the question of whether you documented that loan suddenly becomes the most important financial question you face...
Promissory Notes Between Business Partners: What to Include
Most business partnerships start with enthusiasm and goodwill. The legal paperwork feels like a formality, and asking a partner to sign a promissory note before money changes hands can feel like signaling distrust before the business has even gotten off the ground. That instinct is understandable and consistently expensive for the people who follow it...
How to Write a Promissory Note for a Business Loan
Business loans between private parties happen more often than people think. A friend invests in your startup. A family member bridges a cash flow gap. A business partner covers payroll during a slow month with the understanding that the company will pay them back. These arrangements are real loans with real stakes, and the document you use to formalize them matters significantly more than it would for a personal loan between individuals...
Demand Promissory Notes: More Flexible, More Risk, and When to Use One
Most promissory notes work on a fixed schedule. The borrower owes a set amount, payments come due on predictable dates, and both parties know exactly when the loan will be retired. A demand promissory note works differently. There is no fixed repayment schedule. The lender can call the full balance due at any time, and the borrower is obligated to pay when that demand is made...
What to Do the Moment a Friend Says "Don't Worry, I'll Pay You Back"
It happens fast. A friend needs money, the situation feels urgent, and before you have had time to think it through you hear the words that have preceded countless lost friendships and unrecovered loans: "Don't worry, I'll pay you back." Maybe you have already said yes. Here is exactly what to do in that moment, and why doing it right protects both the money and the friendship...
Your Options When a Family Member Doesn't Pay Back a Loan
Lending money to a family member is one of the more emotionally complicated financial decisions a person can make. You wanted to help. You probably did not expect to end up here. But the loan is outstanding, payments have stopped or never started, and you are now trying to figure out how to recover what you are owed without blowing up a relationship or spending the next decade in resentment. Your options depend heavily on whether you have documentation, how much is owed, and how much of the relationship you want to preserve. Here is an honest look at all of them...
How to Record Payments on a Promissory Note
Here is how to track payments on a promissory note properly from the first installment to the last...
What Happens If You Lend Money Without a Promissory Note?
Here is what actually happens when you lend money without a promissory note, at every stage of the process...
What to Do If You Inherit a Promissory Note
Here is what you need to know if you find yourself on the receiving end of an inherited promissory note...
Promissory Notes and the SBA: What Borrowers Need to Know
If you have applied for an SBA loan, you have probably encountered a stack of paperwork that felt overwhelming. Buried somewhere in that stack is a promissory note, and while it may look like just another form to sign, it is one of the most important documents in the entire transaction. Understanding what you are agreeing to before you sign can save you from surprises down the road...
Promissory Notes as Investments: What Private Lenders Should Know
Here is what private lenders need to understand before treating a promissory note as an investment...
How a Promissory Note Protects You When a Borrower Defaults
You did something generous. You lent money to someone who needed it, put the terms in writing, and got a signature. Now they are not paying, not returning calls, and the repayment date has come and gone. It is a frustrating situation, but it is one where having a signed promissory note makes an enormous difference in what options you have available...
Promissory Notes and Taxes: What Lenders and Borrowers Need to Know
Most people think of promissory notes as a borrowing and lending tool, which they are. But what often gets overlooked is the tax side of the equation. Whether you are the one handing over money or the one receiving it, a promissory note can have real implications come tax time. Ignoring those implications does not make them go away...
How to Collect on an Unpaid Promissory Note
You did everything right. You put the loan in writing, got it signed, and kept a copy. Now the due date has come and gone, and the borrower has gone quiet. So what do you do when someone does not pay back a promissory note?