With a large number of Americans filing for bankruptcy these days, one of the hardest things for these individuals to do is to let go of all the stuff. Many people that ran their credit cards up to the tilt feel that items they bought on credit belong to them. For some reason they have the belief that just because they possess the property, they own it. The bottom line is, if you didn't pay for it, the items don't belong to you unless they were a gift. In this day and age of entitlement many people believe that it's owed to them for some crazy reason.
The twist comes when an individual is filing bankruptcy. Many of these people don't want to disclose all of their property. They think that if they disclose it to the bankruptcy court, the trustee will come and take it. These same individuals are also wary of disclosing their financial situation to their bankruptcy attorney. If they can't disclose all of their financial information to their bankruptcy attorney, the attorney won't be able to help them. By not fully disclosing the individuals entire financial picture to the bankruptcy court they might face the wrath of the bankruptcy judge.
There are many things in a bankruptcy filing that can happen to a debtor for not disclosing property to the court. If an individual decides to try and hide property from the bankruptcy trustee, they just might lose that property. A common mistake made by those filing bankruptcy is forgetting an old savings account. Other items that are commonly forgotten is vacation pay, pension benefits and interest from a life insurance policy. Many of these things have a cash value and the trustee might take them to be divided amongst the creditors all because they weren't listed and are not protected under bankruptcy exemption laws.
Filing bankruptcy requires the debtor to be truthful about their entire financial situation. It's best to disclose everything to the bankruptcy attorney and let them deal with the issue of protecting the property. That of course is why they get paid the big bucks.
Many attorneys complain that their clients have a misconception that they can pick and choose which creditors that they want to include in their bankruptcy filing. Any creditor that is not listed means that the debt will not be discharged and no longer can be discharged in another bankruptcy filing. When it comes to filing bankruptcy, more is better when listing creditors. Just because you list a creditor and they're included in the bankruptcy, doesn't mean you can't pay them back on your own.
People don't understand that nowadays with technology bankruptcy trustees have many ways of finding out information about the debtors. When a debtor decides to not disclose all of their property to the bankruptcy attorney, it might end up nonexempt and in this case lose it. If the client had disclosed it to the bankruptcy attorney, the attorney might have advised the person on delaying filing for bankruptcy or not to file at all if they want to keep that property.
A number of people filing for bankruptcy don't understand the seriousness of hiding assets from the court. The least of these is just having your bankruptcy discharge denied or even worse possible jail time for trying to defraud the court. A bankruptcy attorney will try and work in the best interest for their client and get the maximum benefit out of the bankruptcy filing. It's foolish to not trust the attorney you hired to protect your assets.
The author started FilingBankruptcyNow.Com which is a website that helps individuals with debt problems by putting them in touch with a local bankruptcy attorney that specializes in filing bankruptcy under Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Check our website for more answers to bankruptcy questions and ideas on how to have a debt free future.
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