At our working (usually our second) meeting, you will need to bring in certain
basic information regarding yourself and your financial situation in order to file
your bankruptcy. Here's what we need:
1. Your most recent paystub, including year to date figures, if you are presently
employed. If you are not currently employed, we will need to know your current source
and amount of monthly income, including your year-to-date income figure.
2. A copy of your 2016 and 2017 tax returns. We will need to obtain certain information
from the returns and the bankruptcy trustee requires that we furnish him or her a copy
of the returns in their entirety. If you did not file taxes in 2016 or 2017, we will still need
to know your total income for that year.
3. Your addresses for the past three years and the periods you lived at each address.
4. The name of the banks or credit unions where you have accounts and the current
balances. We can only protect $400 per person ($800 per joint filing couple) in cash,
bank deposits and other intangibles. We will need to be sure that your accounts are
under those limits on the day of filing.
5. All debts that you have bills or other paperwork for. Your bankruptcy fee includes
obtaining multiple credit reports that will tell us about most of your debts. Some debts do
not appear on credit reports including many medical bills, so it is important to give us
the bills you have. If you know of debts you do not have bills or paperwork for, tell us
about them so that we may be sure they are either on the credit report or seek further
information to properly list them on your bankruptcy.
Please also be aware that we MUST list every debt you have on your bankruptcy
schedule even if you wish to reaffirm a debt and continue paying the creditor. This
includes house payments, car payments and other secured debts even if you wish to
keep the property.
6. The name of the company and account balance for any retirement plans you have,
including 401k, IRA, 403b or other pension plans. Retirement funds are 100% protected
under Indiana law, but we must list them on your bankruptcy schedules.
7.Documentation describing any life insurance policies you have that have cash
surrender values. Term insurance policies do not have cash values, but whole-life plans
do. If the beneficiary of a whole-life policy is a spouse, child or genuine dependent, the
surrender value is 100% protected. If the beneficiary is anyone else, it is not protected
and we will need to discuss the matter to determine how protect these funds, if possible.
If we are dealing with substantial amounts of unprotected funds, this may delay filing
until our efforts to protect them are complete.
8. The names and complete addresses of any co-debtors, co-borrowers or anyone else
who is also responsible for any of your debts.
9. Any information you may have about any pending lawsuits. If you have been sued by
anyone and the case is still open or was within the past year, we will need to list it on
your bankruptcy schedules. We can usually look these cases up to obtain further
details, but it is important that you let us know to search for them - especially if they are
in a different county than that in which you reside.
10. How much you paid for your license plates. We can use this as a deduction against
income in our computations.
What we will need for our working meeting to file your case...
Sees Law Group
The name to know for
Bankruptcy in Northeast
Indiana!
Call toll-free: (855) 278-0205