What Information Your Attorney Needs Before Bankruptcy
What Information Your Attorney Needs before Bankruptcy
Good afternoon everybody, Edward Kelley here, your Oklahoma bankruptcy lawyer with another three minutes to financial freedom. Today we’re going to talk about a question I get a lot. What do I need to know about you? Meaning, what do I, as the attorney, need to know about you, the client, before we file for bankruptcy? Well, we’re going to cover a lot of ground we already have, but from a little different angle.
So the answer is, I don’t necessarily need to know anything personally, but I do need to know your financial situation. A, your income. How much do you make gross, meaning before deductions, per year? And how much does everyone in your family make, and how many people live in your family, for purposes of qualification? As you know, for Chapter 7, you’ve got to be under certain levels of income based on how many people are in your household. For example, right now, for one person, upper 40,000. Add about 10,000 on top of that for every additional family member. And of course, you’ve got to include all the household income. Now, if you’re renting and there’s other people living there, but they’re not part of your household, you don’t include them. So there’s a lot of ways that can play out, but that’s absolutely something I need to know.
Other thing I need to know are, what are your assets? And believe me, when you call me, and I’ll give you my number at the end, I’m going to ask you all of this. Do you own your house? Do you own your vehicles? Do you have RV, trailer, motorcycles? Do you have savings? Do you have stocks and bonds? I’ll go through all this with you, but I’m going to have to know that. And then I’m going to have to know your transfer history. And by that, I mean, what have you bought? What have you sold? What have you given away? What are you holding for other people? This is what the court is interested in. And lastly, I’m going to need to know, what kind of debts do you have? Are they unsecured? Secured, meaning do they have collateral or not? Are they IRS debt? Are they tax debt of any kind, like state taxes? Are they student loans? Are they child support? Are they credit cards? Are they medical bills? So I’m going to need a complete financial picture.
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I’m always there to listen. So, you know, I know a lot of times bankruptcy can be incredibly stressful and be tough to get through. And I’m there to talk to, but I’m also, for some people who, you know, are private people, I don’t need to know, you know, all about your personal life if you want to keep that to yourself. Mainly, I just need to know how much money do you make? What do you own? What kind of debts have you got? And what kind of transfer history do you have? So I hope this has been helpful. Another three minutes to financial freedom. We’ll be back tomorrow with more. As always, you can reach me at oklahomacitybankruptcyattorney.pro.