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When you file for bankruptcy you have to list all of your creditors, including those you intend to keep. For example, even though you may want to keep your home and keep paying your mortgage, the mortgage company will have to be listed in the case and receive notice of the filing. If you are thinking about filing bankruptcy or already have, you may be wondering how your mortgage company receiving notice of your filing will impact your mortgage.

Will I be able to keep my house when I file for bankruptcy? It’s a common concern that you may wonder about as you are making preparations to file for bankruptcy. It could be that you are facing a daunting foreclosure and want to file for bankruptcy in order to save your house. Or, you could have a perfect record with your mortgage company because you have always made your mortgage payments on time, and you do not want the bankruptcy to affect that and cause you to lose your house. These are all valid concerns that many people who file for bankruptcy have.

After filing for bankruptcy, you will be able to keep your house, regardless of whether you file a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, so long as you keep making your mortgage payments on time. If you are paying your mortgage company on time, then you can rest assured that you will be able to keep your house during the bankruptcy. You see, when you file for bankruptcy, your attorney who is helping you file your case, will apply one of two different laws to protect all of your assets – federal law or state law. The type of law that is applied to your case depends in part on whether you own a house with a significant amount of equity, or whether you are renting a house or an apartment. Federal law will be applied to protect your house and all of your assets, if the equity in your house falls within the threshold value allowed by the homestead federal statute. If the equity in your house exceeds that value, then Minnesota state law will be applied instead. The reason that federal law is usually favored, is because federal law has a wildcard provision that protects up to $13,900 worth of assets. This provision provides greater protection is protecting all of your assets. Therefore, your house is protected, whether federal or state law is applied, so long as you continue to make your mortgage payments.

If you have not filed your taxes for the upcoming tax season, and you are thinking about filing for bankruptcy, you may wonder if you can file your taxes and keep the refund, if you are entitled to receive a refund. Whether you are able to keep your tax refund, depends in part on the type of bankruptcy that you file. It also depends on the value of your total assets and your particular financial circumstance. There are two types of bankruptcies in the bankruptcy world.

Many people wonder how filing for bankruptcy will impact their bank accounts. In many cases, people have checking and savings accounts with banks, and also have debts owed to the bank such as credit cards, personal loans, car loans, and home mortgage loans.

If a person does not have any debts with the bank, they can continue to maintain and use their bank accounts, as the bank is not a creditor impacted by the bankruptcy. However, if the “debtor” (person filing for bankruptcy) owes debt directly to the bank, the bank will be considered a creditor in the bankruptcy case, and whether the bank decides to close the debtor’s bank account or allow them to continue using the bank’s services depends on the amount of debt owed to the bank and the type of debt owed to the bank. 

One of the biggest concerns people often have when considering whether to file for bankruptcy, is the effect it will have on their credit score. The main effect bankruptcy initially has on your credit score immediately upon filing for bankruptcy, depends in large part on how high your credit score was prior to filing.

In most chapter 7 and chapter 13 cases, there is only one hearing you will need to attend.

Are you an estate planning lawyer in Minnesota? I am not. I am the managing partner at LifeBack Law Firm, Minnesota’s largest bankruptcy law firm. And I am writing this article to highlight some issues we bankruptcy lawyers see often; including pitfalls and how to avoid them. When you meet with your estate planning clients, I suspect the subject of bankruptcy does not come up often. In other words, how is what you are doing with the client, in terms of estate planning, impacting a non-client heir who needs to file bankruptcy? 

If you receive an inheritance before filing bankruptcy, whether it’s cash or physical property, then those items may become part of your bankruptcy.  

Bankruptcy filing stops creditor collection efforts from continuing. It will stop calls, letters, statements, judgments, garnishments, and more. The protection you receive from bankruptcy comes from the automatic stay. 

You may think that your credit union is the same as a typical bank, and in many respects, it is; but, there are some differences. For example, your credit union is a nonprofit, whereas a bank like Huntington Bank, is for profit.

Two common questions I get when I speak to clients are – what happens to my credit and how do I repair it after I file my bankruptcy? Bad news first, your credit will suffer negatively when you file. Now the good news, filing bankruptcy is often the fastest way to repair credit and obtain better financing.

Many people who file bankruptcy rely upon the support of regular child support or alimony payments to meet their basic needs, and many are owed large amounts of past due child support or alimony from the other parent. Bankruptcy law generally protects a debtor’s right to receive these domestic support benefits but this right is not absolute. When a debtor in Minnesota files bankruptcy, they may choose to use either “Federal exemptions” (those provided in the Federal Bankruptcy Code) or “State exemptions” (those provided for under the Minnesota Statutes and other applicable Federal law) to “exempt,” or legally protect their property from being taken to pay creditors. This is important because debtors in a chapter 7 bankruptcy case may have to surrender money or property that is not exempt to the trustee to pay their creditors. It is also important in a chapter 13 case, as the more property that is not exempt, the higher their monthly payment, because they are required to pay to their unsecured creditors, at minimum, the value of the nonexempt property.

When you file bankruptcy your creditors will receive a notice of filing. This goes out to all of the creditors listed in your bankruptcy case. On this notice of filing there are certain deadlines listed that your creditors, the trustee, and you will need to abide by. The following are the deadlines listed on the notice of filing:

In a legal “Trust,” money, or other property, that is owned by a “Beneficiary,” is controlled by a “Trustee” (not to be confused with a bankruptcy trustee), whose responsibility it is to distribute the property to the Beneficiary in accordance with the terms of a written “Trust Agreement.” The person who creates the legal trust, via the Trust Agreement, is called the “Settlor,” and there can be multiple Settlors, Trustees, and Beneficiaries.

“Timing is everything.” We have all heard the old adage. We have agreed with it at some point in our lives and rolled our eyes at it during others. Regardless of how one feels about the phrase, it certainly rings true when deciding at what point one should take the plunge and file for bankruptcy. By filing at the wrong time you may be taking needless risks with your money and assets by filing too late or not gaining all the benefits you could be by filing too early.