How many months of bank statements will i need for Chap 7?

[upontheventura]

What is the name of your state?NH
How much will the trustee want to take from my accounts? How do they decide that?. Should i cancel my savings account? How many months of statements will I need to give trustee? Thanks guys!

 

[AttorneyOney]

The basic rule is that all property of the debtor is part of the estate unless it is exempt. Exemption rules are different in every state, and are sometimes not indexed in an obvious way. The only way to get a good answer to your question is to ask a NH bankruptcy attorney. You can probably find web sites that claim to list exemptions by state, but they are not trustworthy. (Just for example, I went looking for Massachusetts exemptions just now and found a page that listed our homestead exemption at $100,000. It's been $300,000 for years, and it's about to jump to $500,000. The same site says that property held in tenancy by the entirety "may" be exempt, but there's case law to the contrary. Anyone relying on that web site could make a very costly mistake.)

 

[upontheventura]

Any idea of how many months of statements I will need? My consultation is in early October.

 

[Ladynred]

Walter,
I know which site you're talking about and even though they've recently redesigned the site they STILL have outdated info listed for exemptions. I have found this one to be more accurate and it IS updated regularly.

http://www.bankruptcyaction.com/maexemptions.htm

That one does list MA homestead at 300K and makes no mention of the 'tenancy by entirety' thing.

Several states have modified their exemptions recently but thebankruptcysite.com isn't updating - bad news.

 

[AttorneyOney]

Dear LIR: The site you mentioned comes closer to stating the homestead exemption rules, but it leaves out many of the fine points. The list of exemptions is also incomplete -- it leaves out the multitude of statutes, other than G.L. c. 234, sec. 25, that exempt various things. That rather proves my point, that only a locally experienced bankruptcy attorney can competently advise someone about the available exemptions. On top of that, a debtor can sometimes legally transform nonexempt assets into exempt ones before filing, and that also requires good legal advice.

To the OP: You can wait for the trustee to ask for statements before worrying about how many you'll have to produce. It's not like your case is going to be dismissed right at the 341 meeting if you don't successfully read his mind.