You have finally decided that filing for personal bankruptcy is the right course for you to get back on the road to financial stability. The first thing you’ll want to do is gather all the bankruptcy paperwork and information your attorney will need to file on your behalf. Whether you declare Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy, or whether your hire an attorney or try to do it yourself there will certainly be a relatively big package of bankruptcy paperwork and legal documents to fill out in order to file with the court. (You can visit www.uscourts.gov to get and download a complete list of forms for either chapter 13 or Chapter 7 filings.) All of these forms are required by the court and enable the bankruptcy trustee as well as your financial creditors with details concerning your properties, financial obligations, revenue, as well as economic deals.

Bankruptcy Paperwork Accuracy

When filling out all of the forms associated with either a chapter 7 or chapter 13 it’s crucial to include all details and check the accuracy of the bankruptcy paperwork. Should you submit with an error, the bankruptcy documents can be fixed after the fact by “filing an amendment” with the court. However, this will require time and also in some cases court fees. Worse, mistakes might trigger the trustee as well as creditors to question the remainder of the info you have actually given. Additionally, if the trustee believes that you purposefully concealed assets or falsified information concerning your finances your bankruptcy case could summarily denied

All of these problems are easy to avoid by simply gathering your basic financial documents and info prior to filling out the forms. The best way to avoid any of these problems is to go through a bankruptcy attorney, follow the checklist they provide and with their experience allow them to fill out the forms. The following is a quick listing of the basic information you’ll need to gather.

Standard Personal Info

The forms will require that you provide your name, current home address and your social security number as well as the name and address of your employer. You’ll need to include the name of your spouse (if applicable) and the ages of all dependent children (if applicable). You will also have to include any and all aliases that you might have used in the past 8 years

Income

You’ll require evidence of your monthly or yearly, such as paystubs or a Verification of Employement. You’ll also need to provide your latest income tax return. Prior to submitting to the court you will be required to submit your income tax return as well as evidence of your earnings for the 60 days prior to filing. The actual bankruptcy forms will require that you include all earnings from all sources for the previous two years

Monthly Expenditures

The court requires that you list all of your current monthly financial obligations. Items like your rent or mortgage payment as well as any auto and insurance payments. You’ll need to average out your monthly utility and grocery costs. Also make sure to include expenditures that you might pay just one or two times a year, such as homeowners and medical insurance, real estate tax, or collage expenditures. You are also allowed include the cost of auto maintenance, fuel and repairs.

Personal Assets

The personal bankruptcy process does require you to provide a current list of all of your assets and their estimated value. This list will need to include all of the obvious items such as real estate, cars, boats recreational vehicles and smaller items such as furniture, jewelry, collectibles and other household items. Now when estimating the value of your assets it is easiest to go by current replacement value

All financial assets must be included. These would be 401k’s, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, vested interests in partnerships and corporations. Because the value of some of these assets can change on a daily or weekly basis just provide your best estimate of value at the time you fill out the form or when you have a discussion with your bankruptcy attorney

Financial Obligations

You have to make a listing of all your financial obligations, whether you able to repay them or otherwise. Each financial obligation listed will require the amount owed and the corresponding account and contact information

Assets Transfers

The court also requires you to list any and all financial transaction that occurred for several years prior to filing bankruptcy. These types of transactions would be transfers or sales of any real estate or liquidation of any stocks or bank accounts. This list would also include any major debt payoffs, large charity donations.

The most important aspect in filing for bankruptcy is accuracy. Being careless with your bankruptcy filing can cause the court to completely throw out the case. Many people are overwhelmed with the amount of paperwork and documentation in filing a bankruptcy and choose to go with an experienced bankruptcy attorney instead. If you are considering bankruptcy and feel overwhelmed with the scope of the paperwork call Kallabat & Associates today at (248) 647-6611