Filing for bankruptcy can often be stressful and requires you to keep track of a large amount of paperwork. Part of an attorney’s job is to help keep your information organized and update you on what the court needs to see so your bankruptcy goes as smoothly as possible. In our office, we start this process by requesting credit reports as they often have a full or almost full listing of your debts. However preparing a list of your assets for bankruptcy is something that your attorney will be relying solely on you for.

Part of the bankruptcy process is listing all of your assets. All of your property (i.e., your car and home) is used to create an “estate.” Your estate has specific items that can or cannot be taken from you to satisfy your obligations to creditors, these are considered “exempt assets”.

It is very important to make sure you list all assets, including “exempt assets”, you have when you file for bankruptcy. This includes any partial interests you have, like a joint bank accounts or timeshares, and even assets that are out of the country. Assets in other countries are not exempt from a US bankruptcy. The deliberate omission of assets from your bankruptcy petition constitutes perjury. In plain terms, perjury means lying to or deceiving the court, and it’s a federal crime.

Leaving off an asset is not just a mistake, it is an expensive and time consuming one. If you simply forgot to list an asset for one reason or another, the court may give you an opportunity to correct the omission by filing an amendment to the debtor’s bankruptcy schedules. There is a fee for filing amendments to your schedules and the court can deny a motion to amend your schedule if it finds the information insufficient or incomplete. The court could also issue an order requiring more information, and set a hearing to review why the asset was missing from your original filing.

If an asset was not listed and you receive a discharge, but later realizes you were supposed to list an asset, the bankruptcy trustee may reopen your bankruptcy case. The Bankruptcy trustee will investigate the value of the non-disclosed assets and whether you were attempting to intentionally defraud creditors by not listing an asset. If the Trustee determines you intentionally did not list an asset you may be subject to penalties that may include a revocation of your bankruptcy discharge, a fine of up to $500,000 or even imprisonment for up to 5 years in extreme cases.

If you have questions or concerns about a bankruptcy, call Limitless Law PLLC at (360) 685-0145 or use the “Ask an Attorney” link on our website to contact us today!

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