Lansing Bankruptcy Planning

In my recent post I discussed the importance of pre planning your bankruptcy. When I filed bankruptcy in Lansing the best thing I did was preplan. It is so important to not only figure out which chapter of bankruptcy to file, it is also important to understand where you are at for your median income in relation to the size of your family and the chapter of bankrutcy you are planning to file and qualify for. This is what I considered when filing Bankruptcy in Lansing.

The reason why it is important to figure out if you are below or above the median income level for your household is the ability to aide in your decision on which chapter you will be filing but also if you have the risk of being auditied. If you plan on filing for bankruptcy you should:

1) Print 2 years of credit card statements

2) Get two years of utilities statements.

If you have already spoken to a bankruptcy attorney in Michigan, they will most likely tell you that you only need 3 months worth of statments along with some other various documents. Granted, this is most likely the only thing you will need....

Unless...

You are audited.

There are two types of trustees that operate in bankruptcy courts, the local trustee and the US Trustee. If the US trustee audits your account they will want a couple of years worth of statements. Now if you have already intiated your bakruptcy planning and then filed. You may have a problem getting Credit Card Statements back for two years. You may not be worried about being audited. However, audits can be random and if you get hit with a random bankruptcy audit you want to be prepared. I also like to think about quotas that need to be filled. For example, would the trustee pick my case to audit because my case looks easy? I do not know if there are quotas. However, I wouldn't want to roll the dice and be caught short.

If you are caustious person you either shred your credit card statements or you dispose of any documents containing credit card numbers or account numbers in a secure and responsible way.

So, If you are audited how do you inted to retrieve two years worth of credit card statments if you have shredded them? Well, if you pay your bills online you can most likely pull the account statments from the previous two years.

Here lies the problem... you are already stressed because you have to file bankruptcy, then you get notified you are being audited. In normal bankruptcy preplanning phases your attorney told you to stop paying your credit cards( or should have). You would now be saving the money or putting money aside to pay them off your attorney. The money saved from not paying your credit cards is used to pay on the property you intend to reaffirm or vehicle(s) you plan on reaffirming. Unfortunately, as soon as you stopped paying your credit cards your online accounts have locked you out.

Although I have not experienced this.. I assume the credit card companies will not be very helpful in trying to help you obtain 2 years worth of credit card statments so you can file bankruptcy on the credit card company. I am sure there will be an bankruptcy attorney or two that will tell you, that you don't need documents stretching back that far. However, if they want to see 2 years worth of tax documents it's a good bet that if you get audited during your bankruptcy they will want to see those statements going back for two years.

In the end filing bankruptcy is stressful. You don't want to add stress to an already stressful situation. Plan for bankruptcy and act on your plan. It is by far better to have too much documentation than to come up short and have your 341 delayed because you are missing some credit card statments or utility bills. These are only some of the lessons I have watched, read and learned from people claiming bankruptcy in Lansing.

Bankruptcy Preplan

Preplanning your Bankruptcy


Filing for Bankruptcy in MidMichigan or more specifically filing Bankruptcy in the"Lansing, Michigan" area I am not able to stress how important it is to create or define a"Pre Bankruptcy" plan. Is this something preplanning your bankruptcy illegal or underhanded? Absolutely not, pre planning bankruptcy whether it be Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy is an important factor in becoming informed on what the State of Michgan says regarding bankruptcy and what the Federal Government says about filing bankruptcy. Pre planning for filing bankruptcy in Lansing is no different than pre planning for bankruptcy in Okemos, Williamston, Dewitt or even Holt or other Bankruptcy districts in Michigan. Bankrutcy just requires planning in order to make it as smooth as possible to obtain your desired outcome when you actually decide to file for bankruptcy.


Why should I preplan my bankrutcy? Well, if you have used your credit cards, taken a loan or sold property 30-90 days before filing you may be required to pay the amount of money back to the creditors or worse yet, you may get nailed for fradulent activity. For example, you decide to buy youself a 60' flat screen tv on your your "Best Buy Credit Card" and next month you file for bankruptcy. You'll very likely either have to pay the credit card or sell the T.V.( although not typical). It is more likely you would be required to reaffirm the debt.


Preplanning also lets you know if you will be able to file chapter 7 or chapter 13 before you ever step into an attorneys office or ever contact your lawyer about filing bankruptcy. Just like you look for low rates or have done a credit card comparison you need to do the same with bankruptcy If you don't know what a "means tests" is then you definately have to start your planning for bankruptcy. Nothing could be worse if you have $20K-$80,000 of credit card debt and you try to file and come to find out you don't qualify for a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and have to file under Chapter 13 bankruptcy rather than Chapter 7 bankruptcy which wipes all of your debts clean. Preplannig would let you know you should stop using your credit cards 90 days before filing bankruptcy. In addition to wating to file you would know that you may want to wait even longer if you have taken out a home equity line of credit(HELOC) to pay bills. Lack of pre planning could cause you to pay money to other creditors because you were responsible and continued to paid off some creditors with your HELOC.

The problem with making payments? You have just given preference to one creditor over another. The bankruptcy courts frowns uppon this. A perfect example is you paid back 8,000.00 to a family member because you owed them money. Guess what, you just made a preferetial payment to one creditor over another. Yes, your family member is considered a creditor.

Although this post describes the importance of "Pre planning" for your bankruptcy if you live in Lansing, Michigan or any of the surounding areas such as Grand Ledge, Charlotte, Bath or any of those other small towns and your considering filing for bankruptcy it is vital to conduct pre planning before you file your bankruptcy in any state or city whether it be Mid michigan or Lansing, Michigan.