The most common type of bankruptcy is Chapter 7. It also tends to be the most desirable form of bankruptcy. Often it is referred to as “straight bankruptcy.” It is the type of bankruptcy where usually you can get rid of all your unsecured debt in just a few months with minimal cost. There is typically no payment plan, just relief from your debt.
The best way to qualify for a Chapter 7 is to have annual income below the median for your household size in your state. If your income is a bit higher than that, you might still be able to qualify by passing a means test; but the means test is not all that easy. I would prefer to have your income below the median if we are going to do a Chapter 7. If it is much above the median, I would probably suggest a Chapter 13.
Meidan Income – A Moving Target
The US Trustee’s office has just announced the biggest increase in Minnesota median incomes for bankruptcy purposes that I can remember seeing. I calculate that the increases are around 8% for all the household sizes between one and four. Since these increases are supposedly based on a six month period, they seem to be thinking that median incomes in Minnesota have been increasing by 16% on an annual basis. I find that hard to believe, but I won’t complain.
Most years the median income numbers are adjusted on April 1st and again on November 1st. Sometimes they all go up, sometimes they all go down, sometimes the ups and downs are mixed, and sometimes they don’t change at all. Every state is different and is assigned their own set of numbers.
Latest Numbers for Minnesota
Here’s the exact Minnesota numbers as of the recent update copied from my Chapter 7 page:
One person: $ 71,643
Two people: $ 90,946
Three people: $ 114,267
Four people: $ 141,324
Add $9,900 for each individual in excess of4
For a household of one the increase is $5,309 per year. For a household of two it’s a $6,739 per year increase. It’s $8,467 for a household of three, and $$10, 472 for a household of four. If you thought you didn’t qualify for a Chapter 7 before, take another look. These numbers could make a big difference.
Call or text me at 952-544-6356. We can set up a time for a free telephone consultation to talk over the details of your case.
Youtube recommends that every channel should have a welcome video. The video designated as the welcome video will be the first thing a person sees when they go to a particular channel. The video should be a short statement of what the channel is about and what information can be found there. My channel has videos going back to 2007; but until now there was no welcome video. I just uploaded it a few days ago, and here it is:
Information you can find on my Youtube channel includes but is not limited to the following:
You will also find a lot of information about how to qualify for bankruptcy and what kind of bankruptcy you might qualify for.
It looks like my videos are attracting quite a bit of traffic. Youtube is peppering my videos with all sorts of commercials over which I have no control and from which I don’t get a cent. In order to get paid anything at all from the advertising revenue, they require a lot more subscribers than I currently have. So please do me a favor. If you find my channel helpful at all, PLEASE SUBSCRIBE.
Easier Qualifying for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in Minnesota
The primary requirement for being able to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy is to have your income below a certain level. Stated most simply, to qualify for Chapter 7 you want your income to be lower than the median income for your household size in your state. These levels are set by the Department of Justice, US Trustee’s Office; and new, higher numbers came out recently on April 1st. If your income is slightly above the median, there is a means test that you might be able to pass which would allow you to still file a Chapter 7. Doing the means test, however, can sometimes be an invitation to a close scrutiny of the case. Being below the median is best. Here are the April 2022 numbers and how much they just went up.
Minnesota Median Household Income April 2022
One person: $ 65,514 — Up $2,490
Two people: $ 86,358 — Up $3,875
Three people: $ 106,445 — Up $4,776
Four people: $ 125,753 — Up $5,533
Five people: $ 135,653 — Up $6,543
Six people: $ 145,553 — Up $7,443
More information at https://mn-bankruptcy.com/chapter7.html
Easier Protection for Your Stuff in Minnesota Chapter 7
As soon as you file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the court appoints a trustee whose job it is to find assets that can be used to pay all or part of your debt. You really want the trustee to not be able to find any assets, or certainly not much for assets. The way to keep your assets away from the trustee is to claim them as exempt. What you can claim as exempt and how much is obviously very important. In Minnesota you have a choice between a state exemption list and a federal exemption list. In this post I am only talking about the federal list. The federal exemptions just went up in every category. Here are a few typical items and how much they went up. These are just a few examples. It is not anywhere near a complete list.
April 2022 Federal Exemptions
Household goods $14,875 - Up $1,475
Car $ 4,450 - Up $ 450
Tools of Trade $ 2,800 - Up $ 175
Cash value of
Life Insurance $14,875 - Up $1,475
Catch-all $15,425 - Up $1,525
More information at https://mn-bankruptcy.com/exemptions.html
There is now word on the street that a round of increases to the Minnesota state exemption list is being contemplated for July 1, 2022. Watch my blog for news about that.
Filing a bankruptcy is a big step. You don’t want to do much or go very far before you consult a lawyer. In preparing to file your case, there may be some financial moves you should make. I cannot emphasize more strongly that you should not make any major changes of any kind without consulting a lawyer first. Be sure that the lawyer knows bankruptcy law – many do not. I often suggest that whoever you talk with should belong to the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) . Any attorney who is serious about learning what they are doing in the field of consumer bankruptcy would be a member. You need someone to consult. You need somebody to plan with. You can’t afford to make a mistake at this phase of things. It’s time for you to hire (“retain”) a bankruptcy lawyer.
Things You Can’t Do Without Retaining an Attorney First
Once you retain a lawyer, that is once the attorney-client relationship is brought into existence by means of a retainer agreement, you have the ability to do several things you could not do before.
For one thing, you can refer calls from bill collectors to you lawyer. I like to keep the bill collectors in the dark about what we are up to. But sometimes they may start calling your mother, or one of your children, or your place of employment. Sometimes they manage to be such a nuisance that you really need them to stop. Once your case is filed they will be under a court order to stop. But what can you do before the case is filed? Here’s what. Answer the phone. Tell whoever it is that you have retained an attorney to do a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy and you have been advised to not speak with them. But then you give them your lawyer’s name and phone number and say they should call your lawyer. Normally that will be the last you hear from those people.
For another thing, you can set up a payment plan with the lawyer so you can get the attorney fee paid by the time the bankruptcy is ready to file. In Chapter 7 cases your attorney has to be paid before the case is filed. After the case is filed, if you owe money to your lawyer he or she is just another creditor who is forbidden from trying to collect from you. Since it usually takes a few weeks if not longer to prepare a case for filing, this is the perfect time to make payment arrangements for the attorney fee, court filing fee and perhaps also the credit report fee. In Chapter 13 cases the attorney fee can be paid as part of the Chapter 13 plan, but most attorneys still like to have a good part of their fee and costs paid before the case is filed.
And of course hiring a lawyer means you now have somebody to consult with and plan with as you go about the difficult job of planning and putting together your bankruptcy case.
Disclaimer
I am a debt relief agency. I help people file for bankruptcy relief under the federal bankruptcy code. This post is for general information purposes only and does not create an attorney-client relationship. It is not legal advice. Seek the advice of the attorney of your choice concerning the details of your case.
I’ll never forget a certain day a few years ago when I had a hearing downtown at the federal courthouse. When I arrived that day the hallway outside the hearing room was crowded and my clients were there waiting for me. First thing they said, to my surprise, was that they were sure glad they had hired me. Before my arrival they had overheard someone else complaining loudly to their lawyer about having the money in their checking account seized by their bank. My clients knew I had made sure that wasn’t going to happen to them. They were very grateful.
Your Bank May Have a “Right of Setoff”
If you owe money to your bank or credit union on the day you file a bankruptcy, they may seize the money in your checking and savings accounts and apply it toward what you owe. The first time I saw a bank do this I thought they were violating the automatic stay. The automatic stay is the court order addressed to all the creditors when a bankruptcy is filed. It tells them to stop all collection efforts. It turned out the bank was exercising what they call a right to setoff. This is one of the exceptions to the automatic stay. Apparently the reasoning is that they are considered to have the money in your accounts already, so they aren’t really taking anything new from you when they seize it. This is twisted logic in my opinion, but nobody is asking me.
They May Freeze Your Account Even if They Don’t Have a Setoff
Lawyers I know have repeated told me that one of the banks in our community has been known to sometimes freeze a person’s account when they find out that customer has filed a bankruptcy. They apparently do this even when their customer does NOT owe them anything. What it is said they do is freeze the account and then send a letter to the bankruptcy trustee asking what they should do with the money. If the customer has managed to claim the contents of the bank account as exempt, the trustee will probably say to let the person have their money. But in the mean time the account could be frozen for a week or ten days. Obviously this could be very inconvenient if not tragic. I have never understood why they do this. It has not happened to any clients of mine because I always advise staying away from that particular bank, I tell them to open a new account somewhere else and get the old accounts closed before we file.
Consult your lawyer about this issue. Every situation is different. Some institutions are worse than others. Many might not bother seizing or freezing your money if your balance is low. The lawyers I know often debate how low of a balance it takes to avoid this problem. Nobody knows for sure. The safest thing to do is just change banks before you file your bankruptcy.
Call Dave at 952-544-6356 for a free telephone consultation
I am a debt relief agency. I help people file for relief under the federal bankruptcy code. This post is for general information purposes only. It is not legal advice. It does not create an attorney-client relationship. Consult the attorney of your choice concerning the details of your case.
This is the second in a series of seven blog posts about my top seven things that you should do if you are preparing to file a bankruptcy. This also applies even if you are just considering filing a bankruptcy – either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13. What I want to talk about it getting your credit reports. I wouldn’t dare want to file somebody’s bankruptcy without reviewing at least one credit report. There are three major reporting agencies which each produce their own reports – Experian, Equifax and Trans Union. Usually all three reports are about the same, but not always.
Easiest way: Authorize Your Lawyer Get Your Credit Reports
While you can get your reports on your own, your best choice is to have your lawyer get them for you. For $37 per person I can get a report that pulls information from all three credit reporting bureaus. We will have to provide your email address and social security number. After that we will have to answer three questions to which only you would have the answers. Then I can download your comprehensive credit report info directly into my bankruptcy software. And I will print a copy of the report for you. As a bonus it provides your credit score along with a prediction of what filing bankruptcy will do to your credit score. Somewhat surprisingly, the prediction is usually for an improvement in the score.
The Hard Way: Get the Reports Yourself
If you want to get the reports on your own, the best place to go and the only place I recommend is https://annualcreditreport.com. There is a federal law that requires the three major reporting agencies to make a report available to each individual once a year. This site was created by the agencies to satisfy this requirement. Unlike the other resources I am aware of, this web site is really free. All the other sites will want you to subscribe or sign up for something. The one exception at annualcreditreport.com is if you ask for your credit score. Don’t do that. It looks like they want to get something in exchange for that, and I don’t need the credit score. I just want to know who the creditors are.
It helps me if you can download each report as a pdf document and then print it on paper as well. If you don’t have a printer, send me the pdf and I’ll print it. There is often a problem in printing these reports where the printer cuts off the top, bottom or side of the pages. If that happens the report is often missing so much that it is not useable. Problems like this can be avoided of course if you just have me get the reports instead.
The Bankruptcy Must List All Your Debts
I can’t emphasize enough how important it is that we list all your debts. Failure to list a debt could result in that debt not being discharged. Unlisted debts aren’t discharged in Chapter 7 cases where there are assets for the creditors. Unlisted debts are also not discharged in Chapter 13 cases. In those situations the creditor could have filed a claim and gotten their share of the payments or assets. But they can’t file a claim if they are never notified. So the discharge doesn’t apply to them.
Creditors can be added for a while after the case is filed, but it is obviously much better to get them all listed to begin with.
Sometimes certain debts don’t show on your credit reports. An example of this is medical bills. The medical people have a confidentiality requirement and don’t want to just tell the world that you owe them money. Typically medical bills don’t show up on credit reports unless they have been sent to a collection agency. In order to report to a credit bureau, the creditor has to have a membership in that bureau. Many small businesses do not have or can’t afford to have that, and debts owing to those businesses won’t be on the reports either. Please keep in mind that even if the debt doesn’t show on the reports, it is still your responsibility to make sure all your debts are listed in the case. You have to give this info to your lawyer. Your lawyer isn’t a psychic.
Disclaimer
This post is for general information purposes and is not legal advice. It does not create an attorney-client relationship. Small details in your case can make a big difference. Consult the attorney of your choice concerning the details of your case. I practice in Minnesota. Laws and practices may be a lot different in your state.
Call Dave – It’s Free
Call Dave for a free telephone consultation. 962-544-6356.
This is the first in a series of seven posts about my top seven things that you should do if you are considering bankruptcy or preparing to file – either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13.
Item 1 on my list is that you should gather the financial records that your attorney will need to process your case. These will include payroll check stubs, bank statements, mortgage records, and tax returns. You should also be gathering together your monthly statements for all your debts. Include any nasty letters you may be receiving from lawyers or collection agencies. Don’t just gather the records you have, but also start keeping records of all your financial transactions. Keep track of your expenses. Keep all your receipts. If there is legal action against you, keep all the paperwork from that. There is a human tendency to want to throw away paperwork that contains bad news. Don’t do it. Keep it and give it to your lawyer.
Income Information
Your attorney will want to see at least six months of income information. Typically this would be pay stubs from any employment you have had during the most recent six months. He or she will also need to know about unemployment benefits, disability benefits, social security benefits, retirement income and any other income source for that six months. If you are self employed or operating a small business, create a cash in – cash out statement. This is a listing of funds received and business expenses paid over that the most recent six months. I prefer to it broken down by month. For a self employed person, “income” usually will be the difference between the cash in and the cash out.
Bank Statements
The trustee in your bankruptcy case will always ask to see at least 30 days of bank statements. Maybe they will ask to see as many as six months of bank statements. This would be a printout or statements for any bank accounts you may have. It always has to include the balance on the day the case is filed. If there are red flags in your bank statements, you want your lawyer to see them before somebody else does. Most of the time I start by asking to see my client’s most recent bank statement. Then I may ask for more depending on what I see.
Keep Your Receipts
If you do a lot of your financial business with cash, it is best to keep very careful records of what you are doing with the cash. Keep your receipts. Keep records for everything you do. You might or might not be asked to produce the receipts, but you should have them ready in case the trustee wants to see them.
Tax Returns
The bankruptcy trustee will require that you produce your most recent state and federal tax returns. I will want to see at least the last two years of your tax returns. There are income questions on the bankruptcy petition that go back two years. The best place for me to get your income information is from the tax returns. If you have unfiled tax returns, I will ask that you get your tax filing up to date before we file the bankruptcy. We have to list all your assets and all your debts. If you owe taxes that’s obviously a debt, and if you have a refund coming that’s an asset. Either way I need to know what that is.
Bills, Nasty Letters and Legal Actions
Even if we eventually get a credit report, there are many things that do not show on those reports. Or the reports might be wrong. So I want to see the statements and letters you have been receiving from your creditors. If there is a lawsuit or a threat of one, I want to see all the paperwork you have about that as well.
Documentation of Assets
If you own your home, find your deed from when you bought the place. Best too if you find a copy of the mortgage you signed at that time. If you have refinanced, find the papers about that too. Usually you get a big folder of stuff when you buy a house or refinance. Just bring that folder to your lawyer and he or she will pick out the needed documents. If you own a car, trailer, camper, or motorcycle, find the title certificates. If you have a boat or an ATV that is registered with the state, find your registration card or papers – your lawyer will need them.
Maintain ongoing records
Finally keep in mind that preparing a bankruptcy is an ongoing process. You are never realy done gathering records. As your attorney works with you to prepare the case, which could take several weeks, continue to keep records. When anything new turns up, be sure you give it to your lawyer.
Disclaimer
I am a debt relief agency. I help people file for relief under the federal bankruptcy code. This pose is for general information purposes only and is not legal advice. It does not create an attorney client relationship.
Call Dave – It’s Free
Call Dave for a free telephone consultation. 962-544-6356.
This is the sixth in a series of posts about the top seven things I recommend you avoid if you are considering a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
Paying extra on your mortgage or car loan might ordinarily be a prudent thing to do. You might even have been advised to do so by a financial adviser or guru. But if you are thinking about a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, or even a Chapter 13, this is probably a bad idea. You are not sure to have trouble with your case if you have been making some extra payments, but the risk that something might go wrong is probably higher because of this. In the old and clanking gears of my legal mind, I can see three ways you could have a problem with this.
The assumption that I am making in this discussion is that you have a car or a homestead which is going to be exempt in your bankruptcy case, and there has been some action by you which increases the amount of the equity in the exempt car or exempt home.
Intent to Defraud, Hinder or Delay a Creditor
I’m talking here about the provisions of 522(o) of the bankruptcy code. It has an intent element. It only applies to your homestead, not your car; and it only applies if you have put extra money into your homestead with the intent to hinder, delay or defraud a creditor. If you are only making a few small extra payments on your mortgage, I would expect it would be very difficult to prove this intent element. But if you are putting a relatively large amount into the house, either by paying the mortgage or by doing a home improvement, you need to have your lawyer screen for a possible problem with this.
To the extent that your trustee can prove that 522(o) applies to a portion of your homestead, that portion is not exempt. That portion will be an asset that the trustee in a Chapter 7 can claim for the creditors. If you can’t figure out any other way, a sale of your home might be required to make this equity available.
Examples I see in the case law include using money from the sale of stock and using money form a large tax refund. Of the various reasons I can see that you might run into trouble for making an extra payment on your mortgage, this is the least likely one on the list. Still I am concerned about the possibility – it’s my job to be concerned.
Fraudulent Transfer – Effort to Hide Assets from Creditors
This is a more likely source of trouble. If you have money or another asset which you take and use to make an extra payment on your mortgage or car loan, a bankruptcy trustee might claim that this is the same as if you gave it to your brother to hold for you so that creditors would not get it. It can be considered hiding money from your creditors. The legal term for this is “fraudulent transfer.”
I have a whole list of questions which I ask potential clients to try and screen for fraudulent transfer problems. There’s a lot more ways this can come up than just extra payments on mortgages or car loans. In Minnesota we have two distinct fraudulent transfer statutes that we have to be concerned about. One provision is in the bankruptcy code itself – this one seems to have no intent element, and the lookback is two years. The other provision is the state fraudulent transfer statute – which looks back six years but at least has an intent element: intent to hinder or delay or defraud creditors.
You are most likely to have a fraudulent transfer problem involving something that happened shortly before the bankruptcy case was filed. Events from more than two years back might not be as much of a problem.
With Homes or Cars that are Upside Down, your Payment could be a “Preference.”
You might want to take a look back at my blog post about item 3 on my list of things to avoid – large payments to unsecured creditors. The bankruptcy code makes some attempt to treat all the unsecured creditors equally, and this involves clawing back large payments which favor one unsecured creditor over another.
So what’s this got to do with a mortgage or car loan? Those are secured, not unsecured. Well if you are upside down on your loan, meaning that you owe more than the security is worth, the loan might be considered unsecured or partially unsecured. In this event the trustee might try to claw back from the creditor ALL the payments made in the 90 days before the bankruptcy is filed. If you’ve been paying extra, it just makes it that much more tempting.
Once the trustee has taken the payments back from the creditor, the creditor will very likely add that amount back in to what you owe. And if you want to keep the car or keep the house, you will eventually probably have to pay it. If this problem arises, you might want to try making a deal with the trustee where you pay in the money so he or she doesn’t go after the creditor.
Conclusion
These are problems that I am always trying to find in advance before filing a case. In many cases I see something that could be a problem, but probably won’t be. Other times it looks pretty serious. If you have been paying extra on your car or home, make sure you give all the details to your lawyer. Your lawyer should be able to advise you how much of a problem it might be.
Disclaimer
This post is for general information purposes and is not legal advice. It does not create an attorney-client relationship. Small details in your case can make a big difference. Consult the attorney of your choice concerning the details of your case. I practice in Minnesota. Laws and practices may be a lot different in your state.
Why Your Median Income is Important if you are Thinking of Bankruptcy
If your income is below the median for your household size in your state, you can file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy without having to take and pass the means test. I expected that with the Covid epidemic in progress the income numbers would be dropping substantially. At least for the state of Minnesota, this is not what has just happened. They actually went up. Quite a bit up in fact, as of November 1st 2020. This means that many people who may not have been able to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy earlier will be able to do so now.
Twice a year the Department of Justice updates it’s official median income tables. Numbers are assigned on a state by state and a household size basis, supposedly based on figures from the Census Bureau. A new set of numbers is out for November 1, 2020. The numbers went up at a rate higher than usual. This is a happy surprise.
Are These Numbers For Real?
I can’t help but wonder if somebody is messing with the numbers. Frankly, they don’t look right to me based on what I have been seeing. But I should not be looking a gift horse in the mouth. This helps my clients. It will be a lot easier to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Minnesota after November 1, 2020 than it was before. Another benefit is that if for some reason you need to file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, having an income below median means that your payment plan can run only three years instead of the usual five years.
Here are the Minnesota median income numbers effective November 1, 2020:
One person:
$ 61,811 – an increase of $3,761 since April 2020
Two people:
$ 81,478 – an increase of $3,776 since April 2020
Three people:
$100,430 – an increase of $2,773 since April of 2020
Four people:
$118,646 – an increase of $4,320 since April of 2020
Five people
$127,646 – an increase of $4,320 since April of 2020
Six people:
$136,646 – an increase of $4,320 since April of 2020
Add $9,000 for each individual in excess of 6
Call 952-544-6356 to Find Out How This Helps You
When it comes to eligibility for filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy, or for Chapter 13 if that’s what you need, things are looking up. Now is a good time to contact me for a free telephone consultation to discuss how this helps you.
This post is for general information purposes only and is not legal advice. It does not create an attorney-client relationship. Seek the advice of the attorney of your choice concerning the details of your case. I am a debt relief agency. I help people file for relief under the federal bankruptcy code.
Eligibility for bankruptcy is based primarily on household income. How that is calculated might surprise you.
If you are contemplating bankruptcy and marriage, in most situations it would be best to do the bankruptcy first. Get things cleaned up before you start your new life. If you wait until after you are married, almost all your spouse’s income will be added to yours for purposes of determining eligibility for bankruptcy. This will happen even if your spouse does not file bankruptcy jointly with you.
If you file your bankruptcy while you are still single, however, the only income that will count is yours. For bankruptcy purposes what is thought of as your income might be more than you would expect. Included in your income will be any contributions to your living expenses you regularly receive from others.
What others you might ask? Well, a good example would be a roommate or roommates with whom you share expenses. If your roommate is paying half the rent where you live, that half of the rent will be or will probably be considered additional income of yours. But then you get to claim a larger household size and the expenses of a larger household, which means it tends to all balance out. You will not have all your roommate’s income added to yours, but only your roommate’s contribution to your living expenses.
Contributions to your living expenses can come from all sorts of different sources: your adult children, your parent, your significant other, or some friend or relative. If the person making the contribution lives with you, as I mentioned above, you could typically include that person in your household size.
BUT if you have a spouse in your home, almost all that person’s income will be treated as yours – even if you file your bankruptcy individually. In many cases this can put a serious damper on your eligibility.
Every case is different and there are certainly exceptions to what I am saying here. If both you and your partner are in need of a bankruptcy, there is a possibility that you would be better off getting married and then doing one joint bankruptcy instead of two individual bankruptcy cases while you are single. This can be very tricky. If you and your partner both need to file bankruptcy, before getting married have your lawyer run the numbers both ways and follow the advice you receive.
One more word. Getting married or getting divorced solely for the purpose of getting a better deal from the bankruptcy court could be considered bankruptcy fraud, and that could be a felony. Don’t even think about it. The bankruptcy statute contains a good faith requirement. Don’t be getting married or divorced unless that is something that you needed to do for non-bankruptcy purposes.
I am a debt relief agency. I help people file for relief under the federal bankruptcy code. This is for general information purposes only and is not legal advice. It does not create an attorney-client relationship. Seek the advice of the attorney of your choice concerning the details of your case. I practice in Minnesota. Rules, laws and practices may be different in your state.
