A fundamental requirement in bankruptcy law is the determination of the ownership of property.  This applies to both real estate and personal property.  In chapter 7 cases, the ability to exempt property from administration by a bankruptcy trustee can make the difference between retaining or surrendering property.  In chapter 13 cases, the ability to exempt property can have a direct relationship to the amount of the monthly chapter 13 payment.  But who owns property can become surprisingly complicated.  Here are a few guidelines regarding property ownership.

One of the most common questions we field this time of year is whether tax debt is dischargeable. So many people are under the impression that tax debt can never be discharged in a bankruptcy, but that is not always the case! As with many things in bankruptcy, and life, the answer is not a simple yes or no, but it is possible to discharge taxes. Read more to find out if your tax debt might be discharged in a bankruptcy.

There is no shortage of companies and law firms that market to Minnesotans who are suffering with debt. I cringe when I see commercials of companies pedaling solutions to Minnesotans suffering debt through some sort of debt consolidation plan that makes solving the debt problem too good to be true. And often, it is too good to be true. You have no idea how many good Minnesotans get sucked into these plans, many of which front end their fees to make sure they get paid regardless of your success in the supposed plan.

Do you find this headline to be peculiar? I don’t. In fact, we believe this 100% at Kain & Scott. This is not some marketing gimmick at all. We honor the courage it takes Minnesotans to reach out for help. How do we honor the courage it takes to reach out to Kain & Scott? In everything we do from the moment you reach out to Kain & Scott until we are finished putting you through our FREE 90 Day Credit Repair Program and beyond. You see, we are never done with clients at Kain & Scott. Our guests sometimes need things from us years after we represented them in a case. No problem is what you will always hear from us.

Doesn’t it sound strange to read this? I think it does. Wouldn’t it make sense if you wanted to file a bankruptcy in Minnesota to hire a Minnesota law firm? I think it makes perfect sense. I feel bad for Minnesotans who are solicited by out of state companies or “law firms” to file bankruptcy in Minnesota. You say wait, how does that work? Well, it starts with being very careful when you first communicate with someone about bankruptcy. It turns out, there are companies who solicit you to file bankruptcy in Minnesota by “signing you up” and then referring you back to a Minnesota bankruptcy attorney?

The world is not a perfect place. I am glad it isn’t. Otherwise, life would be very boring indeed! In a perfect world, your credit reports would magically be perfect after filing bankruptcy and receiving a discharge. That does not always occur.

There are not too many global events that can affect us all like the Coronavirus can. You may not be personally afraid of the virus but if you are 75 years old and in a retirement home you may be scared to death. We have a collective responsibility to care for one another despite the cost in terms of money.  The Coronavirus has been no fun for anyone. We have literally thousands of scientists all over the world in search for a vaccine. I believe we will 100% have a vaccine for the Coronavirus, the question is when?

What is life like after bankruptcy in Minnesota? Rarely does this topic get discussed in a blog format. There are all kinds of blogs discussing what to do before bankruptcy, which firm to use, and what bankruptcy is and how it works but very little is written about what really happens to you after bankruptcy is over.

If you think I am kidding I am not. One of the best gifts you can give yourself is the gift of mental and physical health. There is no better way to protect your mental and physical health than to shed unwanted debt and repair your credit as fast as you can.

There are things you should never do on the day you file bankruptcy. The date you file bankruptcy is a snapshot of your life that is disclosed to your creditors along with the bankruptcy trustee. From that date, we glean what are your assets and what are your debts. We also see from that date backwards what kind of payments you made to creditors and what kind of transactions you made.

When I was in law school, they always told us the lawyer who tries to represent herself has a fool for a client. Same holds true for non-lawyers trying to represent themselves—especially in a mine laden area of law like bankruptcy. Let me ask you a question--- do you think a heart surgeon would do heart surgery on themselves? Of course not. Do you think a non-heart surgeon would do heart surgery on themselves? Of course not.

The Bankruptcy Code provides that filing bankruptcy automatically creates a new legal entity called the bankruptcy “estate.”  The estate separates what property is owned by the individual after bankruptcy from what property is to be sold to pay creditors.  

When I was younger, I remember thinking to myself how much can I save if I do this myself? Sometimes, it made sense and often times it was a major mistake. For example, I remember one time thinking I can change oil in my go-cart right? Wrong! I am not making this up. I was in the process of changing oil on the go-cart when I turned the oil plug just a little too tight. I ended up stripping the oil plug threads. This little snafu cost me several hundred dollars. An oil change would have cost me 20-25 bucks max.

When I hire professionals, I want the professionals who are not necessarily the “cheapest”, but I want to hire professionals that 1) know what they are doing, 2) treat me like a rock star, and 3) I never have communication problems with. How hard is this to do with bankruptcy lawyers in Minnesota? Harder than you think. The Google reviews are littered with reviews of either bad lawyering or bad communication from the lawyer and his/her staff. This is not right.

I feel terrible for people suffering from overwhelming debt. Every single one of us wants to pay our bills. I have never met a single person who did not want to pay their bills. Paying our bills is not the question. It is the lack of an ability to pay our bills that we are really discussing. And what it all comes down to is this very relevant question: Should you protect your family over your creditors or not?

In a word? Wonderful! Why? How can that be? What about my credit? What about my assets in bankruptcy? What about my pride? What if monkeys fly out of my butt? The reason I raise all these questions for you is I have high anxiety. There would be a never ending stream of questions and “what ifs” if I were considering filing bankruptcy. So, we totally understand how you feel right now. All of our current and former clients felt the same way. But what they found is that life on the other side of bankruptcy is wonderful.