This is designed to help my clients fill information into their forms. This is not legal advice for somebody in New York, or anybody else, because the local rules, folkways, and practices, as well as the exemptions, are going to be different in New York. If you're not my client, for heaven's sake, don't read this and think you can be your own lawyer. My clients have the dubious benefit of talking to me and the clear benefit of asking questions of Heidi, the Bankruptcy Angel. And Nina the Unpronounceable, for that matter.
BEFORE YOU START TO FILL OUT YOUR FORMS FOR MY OFFICE, READ THIS ENTIRE POST COMPLETELY! THEN HAVE A CUP OF COFFEE, AND READ IT AGAIN. THEN ASSEMBLE THE INFORMATION YOU'LL NEED, AND THEN and only then YOU CAN START TO FILL OUT THE FORMS.
At my office, we use a commercial package to facilitate getting the information needed to file your bankruptcy from your brain and records and fingers into a set of schedules and lists and statements that can be filed with the Bankruptcy Court in Arizona.
That system is called Rapid Imports, and it also goes by the name "Stopmybills.com".
As my first instruction to you, DON'T HIT "SEND" UNTIL YOU HAVE FINISHED PUTTING ALL YOUR INFORMATION INTO THE SYSTEM. THAT WILL DELAY YOUR FILING AND CAUSE ALL SORTS OF PROBLEMS.
Here's the good news about it; your schedules will not contain a typo put there by a typist in the pool, working at minimum wage.
Here's the bad news: your schedules will have the information that you provide. No more. And since it's a crime (no kidding) to fail to list assets, or to fail to list creditors, you need to list 'em all. Now, if you don't list an asset or a transaction like the sale of a car, or you fail to list a creditor, you may very well not go to jail. You might get lucky and only lose your discharge, or have your case dismissed.
We don't want that, and neither do you. So get serious about the project. Note that you can save what you've input into stopmybills.com, and come back to it in another session, until you hit the dreaded "SEND", which you WON'T do until the information is complete and correct.
Let's talk first about why you need to get serious about filling out your forms accurately. On the one hand, if you want debt relief in Bankruptcy Court, that relief comes only after the filing of your petition with the accompanying lists and statements and schedules.
So if you want the Automatic Stay, and then the Bankruptcy Discharge, and to keep your Exemptions, which are the usual reasons that people want to file a Bankruptcy Petition, then you'll want to fill out the forms.
Start by collecting all your information so you have it next to you. Put together your list of assets and your list of debts and all the financial information you can find, so it'll be easy for you to find. I strongly suggest and advise that you pull three credit reports on yourself or selves, so you have a data "safety net". The credit report won't have all your debts, but once you have listed all the debts you remember, and that show up in your records, the credit report may alert you to debts you have forgotten. GET THREE CREDIT REPORTS BEFORE YOU START TO FILL OUT YOUR FORMS, GO IT?
AND DO NOT PRESS SEND UNTIL THE INFORMATION IN YOUR SCHEDULES IS COMPLETE. COMPLETE. ENTIRE. COMPLETE. REALLY!!!! Capeesh?
That means that you're going to list all your stuff, with values, and all your debts, with account numbers, and a lot more things than that, as well, including transactions, like the sale of your non-exempt car to Jimmy Smith and the amount you were paid for that car. Remember that your trustee will want to know where money coming in to you for the last year or so came from, and where it was spent.
When you start the process, you'll see fields for questions about general information; that will include name (include all names you've used over the past eight years), phone numbers, address, and mailing address if that's different from your residence.
Then you'll start filling in data concerning real estate (real estate includes bare land, and houses, and apartment houses, and any other property attached to the dirt) in which you have an interest. Note that you need to include the month and year you purchased your interest in the property.
You'll also need to enter your estimate of the value of the real property. One site you can use to get a guesstimate (they call it a Zestimate; I couldn't make this stuff up) is Zillow.com. It's free. Other sites you can use are housevalues.com, azmarketanalysis.com, or smartervalue.com. I don't care what estimate you use, as long as you have some reasonable basis for the value on your schedules. I suggest you print out the sources you used to find your values and stick 'em in a three-ring binder, so you can show them to the trustee if she asks. In fact, I don't just suggest it. I demand it!
You'll then need to input information about your personal property. The values there are going to be replacement values. Go look at e-Bay, or craigslist, or yard sales to see what it would cost to replace your 9-year old couch (the one that helped five kittens grow up, and the St. Bernard). Look for replacement values for items that are similar to the items you have.
Specifically, if your end table was a personal possession of King Louis IVX and has a market value of $9,000,000.00, don't get cute and list it as though it's an end table from Wal-Mart and worth $3.67 because of the stains left by the, you know, kittens. And don't list your Wal-Mart end table at a value as though it was a personal possession of King Louis IVX. Go for accurate.
I'll try to provide guidance as we move through the list of categories. In some categories (checking, savings, or other financial accounts, excluding IRAs), you'll be completely detailed. Ditto with cars and motorcycles. But clothing generally gets lumped ("used clothes and costume jewelry, value $500", because unless you're the singer known as Cher, your used clothes are not worth more than $500 maximum, and the trustees all know that). Furniture gets listed piece by piece, because the exemption gives you $4,000 for furniture, but it has to be specific pieces of furniture.
The categories:
1) Checking, savings, and other financial accounts (excluding IRAs): like I said, the more detail, the better. On the date of filing, you'll probably only have $300 (the exempt amount for a couple in Arizona) in one checking account). You will have used the rest of the money that was in there to buy food, for instance, or make a payment on your mortgage, using debit cards, prior to filing.
2) Security deposits that have not been returned to you.
3) Household furnishings; this is the category where I want you to list all your furniture, PIECE BY PIECE, because the trustee needs to see whether the items are exempt! Note that everybody has five televisions, and the first one and the second one are exempt for hubbie and wifie in Arizona. But you'll also figure out when you check e-Bay or craigslist that your twenty year old black and white analog television is worth very, very little indeed. In the vast number of cases, the trustee has exactly no interest in your three non-exempt old televisions.
---Yes, I said list all your furniture!!! With used-furniture replacement values. One of you gets a $4,000 exemption in Arizona, and the other gets another $4,000 exemption. But list 'em! And by the way, the trustees generally don't have the slightest interest in your third couch, either, unless a king or queen previously owned it. Ditto your non-exempt footstool.
4)Books, music, collectibles, or other art: here, count all your books, cds, and dvds; see what ten of your used cds are worth on e-bay or craigslist, and do the same for your used books and used dvds. Then give us the value of your home library. Generally everything will exempt. If you have posters framed on your walls, do a similar analysis. If you have original artwork on your walls, that your bought when you thought you were rich, go on the internet and figure out, as best you can, what it's worth, and list it. If it's worth a big chunk of money, you might want to consider whether it's worth trying to sell it for fair market value and use the money to buy food. If you sell it, or anything else significant prior to filing, that'll need to be reported on this form, and you'll need to be able to show how you spent the money if the trustee asks you. And she probably will.
5)Clothing--as I said, we usually suggest that unless you're Cher, you list clothing and costume jewelry, $500; that's much more than it's worth, of course, but if the trustee wants to take your clothes and sell them...oh, well, that's just silly. She won't want to try to sell your used clothes.
6)Furs and Jewelry - list your watches separately (the Arizona exemption is one for each of you, up to a value of $100), list wedding/engagement rings separately, and list all of your other non-costume jewelry, which is not exempt in Arizona, separately. Before you go nutty as a fruitcake about your wedding ring, read my discussion of wedding rings and whether you get to keep them. The short answer is simple here in Arizona. You keep them if you want to keep them, and you're willing to do what it takes to keep them. See the post.
7)Firearms or other hobby equipment; just itemize them with a description. Do not list "gun", however, because the trustee can't tell what that's worth and whether it is exempt. List "Smith and Wesson .38 hammerless snubnose revolver, stainless, 25 years old, value $250", or whatever else is a correct description. Ditto with exercise equipment; the trustee needs to be able to tell whether your weight set is from Sears and made of plastic and concrete or is an Olympic standard weight set worth $15,000.
8)Interest in Insurance Policies; the trustee wants to know what the face amount of the policy is, and whether there is any cash surrender value. List 'em all, of course.
9)Annuities: if you have one, list it. If you don't know what it is, you don't have one.
10)interest in education IRAs; list 'em.
11)interest in other IRAs and Pensions. Most of these are exempt.
12)Stock or interests in any business; if you own any stock, no matter whether it's worth very little, you list it!
13)Interests in partnerships or joint ventures: you got 'em, you gotta list 'em!
14)Government or Corporate Bonds: if you have these, why didn't you sell them to pay your attorney's fees? But list 'em if you got 'em. If you sell them to buy food or to make a mortgage payment, make sure you list that transfer.
15)Alimony or support that you are entitled to but have not received: list it.
16)Any other debts owed to you. Even if you didn't ever expect to collect the debt. Even if you think it can't be collected, list it!
17)Future interests, life estates, special rights or powers: if you don't know what these are, you probably don't have them. If you have them, list them!
18)Death benefit plans, life insurance policies or trusts; list 'em if you got 'em.
19)Unliquidated claims; that means that if you have a claim against somebody and you can't tell exactly how much the claim is worth, it'll go here. For instance, if you have a wrongful death claim against somebody, and you can't precisely calculate the amount of those damages, that'll go in here.
20)Patents, copyrights, or other intellectual property; list it if you have it. Value it as precisely as you can. If you've been trying to sell your patent for a decade, it may not be worth a lot. But estimate the value as closely as you can.
21)Licenses, franchises, or general intangibles. List if you got.
22)Customer list from any business you operated in the last eight years. Getting a value for this will be interesting. Note that if you owned a corporation, the customer list is probably owned by the corporation, and not by you. You own the stock in the corporation.
23)Automobiles, trucks, trailers, or other vehicles. The online bluebook may help you; trustees in Arizona are generally looking for high private party values, not trade-in values. There are a ton of other sites you may use if you have trouble with the bluebook, including carquotes.com and edmunds.com.
24)Boats and boat motors and boat accessories: list if you got.
25)Aircraft or accessories. Don't ask me where to find the value for a used wooden Fokker Propeller. I don't know either.
26)Animals. Note that most animals are either exempt or worthless. Trustees generally don't want to take custody of assets that eat or require care. Horses are generally a big issue. If you have horses, find out how much they're actually worth, however you do it, and convince me and Heidi that you're correct before we file.
27)Any other personal property that isn't listed above. Note that if you have a big collection of hand tools that you use in your job, those need to be inventoried and valued at replacement value. There is a $2,500 tools of the trade exemption in Arizona, and we can double that if you're married.
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NOW WE GET TO THE DEBTS SECTION!
YOU NEED TO LIST ALL YOUR CREDITORS. WHEN I SAY ALL, I REALLY, REALLY MEAN ALL. INCLUDING YOUR RELATIVES, WHO YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR BANKRUPTCY. OR THAT GUY WHO'S SUING YOU, WHO YOU THINK ISN'T ENTITLED TO A DIME. IF YOU DON'T LIST 'EM, THEY WON'T GO AWAY. AND THEN AFTER THE BANKRUPTCY, YOU'LL GET SUED BY SOMEBODY YOU DIDN'T LIST, AND IT WILL BE YOUR FAULT. NO KIDDING. AND IT'S EVEN A CRIME TO FRAUDULENTLY AND INTENTIONALLY FAIL TO LIST CREDITORS.
Here's a practice pointer; pull three credit reports on yourself, and those credit reports will act as a safety net for you. They aren't going to list all your debts. But if you have forgotten about a creditor, the credit reports are a safety net for you. For that matter, if you pull a credit report and see that somebody stole your identity and racked up debt, you're better off listing those debts as disputed than failing to list them and trying to prove after your bankruptcy that you didn't owe them.
I'm begging you now.
I don't want any of my clients to be sued after a bankruptcy, because there's little I can do to help you. It happened to a lovely couple who were clients of mine. They were sued for $100,000 on a note just after their Discharge was entered. I asked what happened, and they told me, "We forgot about that one!"
Do NOT let that happen to you!!!!
What address should you use for your creditors? All of them!!
I'd rather have one creditor with five different addresses than for you to leave out the correct address.
IN SPECIFIC, INCLUDE THE ADDRESSES FOR EVERY CREDITOR THAT SEND YOU MAIL WITHIN 90 DAYS OF FILING. AND THERE ARE USUALLY TWO OR THREE ADDRESSES ON EVERY BILL! LIST THEM ALL!
You must list the account numbers for each of the creditors.
If there is a collection agency for a creditor, you should separately list that collection agency, and note that they may be using their own internal account number.
As to who is responsible for the debt, the general rule is that if you incurred the debt while you were married, it's a joint debt. If you weren't married at the time the debt was incurred, indicate that it was incurred by either husband or wife, as the case may be.
The date incurred usually relates to when you opened the credit account, and that date may show up on your credit report.
As to the amount due, that's the least important number you are going to be listing. The amount due is a moving target, because the creditor is constantly adding interest and fees.
The type of debt relates to why you owe the money, and the answer may be house, or car, or credit card, or medical bill or general unsecured debt if it's a credit card and you can't remember what you purchased.
List any collection agency that sent you a letter as an assignee of the original creditor.
List any law firm that contacted you or sued you as an assignee of the original creditor.
CO-DEBTORS: ALSO LIST co-debtors as creditors. They may very well have a right to sue you if you defaulted on the debt.
YOU WON'T HAVE ENOUGH ROOM TO ENTER ALL THE ADDRESSES FOR ALL THE LAWYERS AND COLLECTION COMPANIES OF SOME CREDITORS; LIST THE LAWYERS AND COLLECTION AGENCIES AS "COLLECTION AGENCY FOR _________________" OR ATTORNEY FOR ______________"
The exact amount you owe to creditors is the least important number on your schedules; do the best you can to estimate this moving target, but it's always changing, and everybody knows that.
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Dependents: you'll be listing everyone who is your dependent. That is partly because of the means test. From the perspective of the means test, the more dependents, the better. Note that unless you listed the individual as a dependent on your income tax return as a dependent, you may not be able to benefit from them on the means test analysis.
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Income: You will be required to disclose all the income you and your spouse have received for the last six months for means test purposes. Note that you will also need to scan and email your last six months of pay stubs to Heidi, the Bankruptcy Angel, so she can check your numbers. If you received other income in the last six months, list it.
You will also be filling out information including your occupation, employer's name, employer's address, how long you've been employed, and a current pay stub.
You will also need to fill out information about amounts you earned in two prior years, both from your employment and from other sources.
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Expenses: You are going to be listing all your normal monthly living expenses. Make sure you list as well expenses that you only pay on a annual, quarterly or semi-annual basis. This is an extensive section. You'll need your checkbook or check registers, and a calculator to help you with this.
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FINANCIAL AFFAIRS:
You'll be listing the following sorts of information:
----payments to any unsecured creditor totaling more than $600 in the last 90 days
----debts repaid to relatives, partners, close friends, or other insiders within the last 12 months, so the trustee can sue them for what's called an "insider preference";
----lawsuits you've been involved in over the last 12 months (note that in Arizona, if you file a Chapter 7, any suit you have in a car accident case belongs to the bankruptcy estate for the benefit of your creditors);
----property taken by a creditor or money garnished within the last 12 months;
----property that was repossessed or foreclosed on or that was returned voluntarily to the seller within the last 12 months;
----rights signed over to a creditor within the last four months;
----you'll report whether a fiduciary took custody of your property within the last year;
----you'll report losses due to fire, flood, theft, other disaster, or gambling within 12 months;
----you'll report money paid for debt counseling or to any attorney (including me) within 12 months;
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READ THIS--READ THIS--READ THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!
DO NOT PRESS COMPLETE UNTIL YOU ARE REALLY, REALLY DONE FILLING OUT THE FORMS!!!!!
OUR OFFICE GETS AN EMAIL that tells us you are done filling out forms. After that, do NOT try to enter additional information, BECAUSE IT WON'T WORK!! Email Heidi at my office and tell her about the additional information or corrections that must be entered.
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Sit back and relax. You've done a buncha work and you deserve a break today. Relax as much as you can.
DO NOT EXPECT THAT YOU WILL GET AN IMMEDIATE, BREATHLESS CALL FROM MY OFFICE CONGRATULATING YOU! This was a ton of thankless work. Welcome to my world.
Feel free to email me and Heidi and let us know that you're done with Phase One, and that you'd like to file in a month, prior to the trustee's sale on your house, or after you've gotten your tax refund and spent it on food so your children don't starve, and AFTER you've done the "Spend Down", and have spent your most recent paycheck on your mortgage, food, car payment, or whatever you spend your check on.
Do not plan to punch "send" and to file the next day. It ain't happenin'. There are people in line ahead of you, and we have to review the darn thing to make sure it's fairly safe to file for you!!!!
We now have to do the real work of reviewing it and seeing how much you'll lose to the trustee as non-exempt property, or how much you'll be buying back from the trustee. We'll also need to see what crazy, obvious mistakes you made (like listing car washes as an expense, but not listing a car, for instance).
BEFORE YOU START TO FILL OUT YOUR FORMS FOR MY OFFICE, READ THIS ENTIRE POST COMPLETELY! THEN HAVE A CUP OF COFFEE, AND READ IT AGAIN. THEN ASSEMBLE THE INFORMATION YOU'LL NEED, AND THEN and only then YOU CAN START TO FILL OUT THE FORMS.
At my office, we use a commercial package to facilitate getting the information needed to file your bankruptcy from your brain and records and fingers into a set of schedules and lists and statements that can be filed with the Bankruptcy Court in Arizona.
That system is called Rapid Imports, and it also goes by the name "Stopmybills.com".
As my first instruction to you, DON'T HIT "SEND" UNTIL YOU HAVE FINISHED PUTTING ALL YOUR INFORMATION INTO THE SYSTEM. THAT WILL DELAY YOUR FILING AND CAUSE ALL SORTS OF PROBLEMS.
Here's the good news about it; your schedules will not contain a typo put there by a typist in the pool, working at minimum wage.
Here's the bad news: your schedules will have the information that you provide. No more. And since it's a crime (no kidding) to fail to list assets, or to fail to list creditors, you need to list 'em all. Now, if you don't list an asset or a transaction like the sale of a car, or you fail to list a creditor, you may very well not go to jail. You might get lucky and only lose your discharge, or have your case dismissed.
We don't want that, and neither do you. So get serious about the project. Note that you can save what you've input into stopmybills.com, and come back to it in another session, until you hit the dreaded "SEND", which you WON'T do until the information is complete and correct.
Let's talk first about why you need to get serious about filling out your forms accurately. On the one hand, if you want debt relief in Bankruptcy Court, that relief comes only after the filing of your petition with the accompanying lists and statements and schedules.
So if you want the Automatic Stay, and then the Bankruptcy Discharge, and to keep your Exemptions, which are the usual reasons that people want to file a Bankruptcy Petition, then you'll want to fill out the forms.
Start by collecting all your information so you have it next to you. Put together your list of assets and your list of debts and all the financial information you can find, so it'll be easy for you to find. I strongly suggest and advise that you pull three credit reports on yourself or selves, so you have a data "safety net". The credit report won't have all your debts, but once you have listed all the debts you remember, and that show up in your records, the credit report may alert you to debts you have forgotten. GET THREE CREDIT REPORTS BEFORE YOU START TO FILL OUT YOUR FORMS, GO IT?
AND DO NOT PRESS SEND UNTIL THE INFORMATION IN YOUR SCHEDULES IS COMPLETE. COMPLETE. ENTIRE. COMPLETE. REALLY!!!! Capeesh?
That means that you're going to list all your stuff, with values, and all your debts, with account numbers, and a lot more things than that, as well, including transactions, like the sale of your non-exempt car to Jimmy Smith and the amount you were paid for that car. Remember that your trustee will want to know where money coming in to you for the last year or so came from, and where it was spent.
When you start the process, you'll see fields for questions about general information; that will include name (include all names you've used over the past eight years), phone numbers, address, and mailing address if that's different from your residence.
Then you'll start filling in data concerning real estate (real estate includes bare land, and houses, and apartment houses, and any other property attached to the dirt) in which you have an interest. Note that you need to include the month and year you purchased your interest in the property.
You'll also need to enter your estimate of the value of the real property. One site you can use to get a guesstimate (they call it a Zestimate; I couldn't make this stuff up) is Zillow.com. It's free. Other sites you can use are housevalues.com, azmarketanalysis.com, or smartervalue.com. I don't care what estimate you use, as long as you have some reasonable basis for the value on your schedules. I suggest you print out the sources you used to find your values and stick 'em in a three-ring binder, so you can show them to the trustee if she asks. In fact, I don't just suggest it. I demand it!
You'll then need to input information about your personal property. The values there are going to be replacement values. Go look at e-Bay, or craigslist, or yard sales to see what it would cost to replace your 9-year old couch (the one that helped five kittens grow up, and the St. Bernard). Look for replacement values for items that are similar to the items you have.
Specifically, if your end table was a personal possession of King Louis IVX and has a market value of $9,000,000.00, don't get cute and list it as though it's an end table from Wal-Mart and worth $3.67 because of the stains left by the, you know, kittens. And don't list your Wal-Mart end table at a value as though it was a personal possession of King Louis IVX. Go for accurate.
I'll try to provide guidance as we move through the list of categories. In some categories (checking, savings, or other financial accounts, excluding IRAs), you'll be completely detailed. Ditto with cars and motorcycles. But clothing generally gets lumped ("used clothes and costume jewelry, value $500", because unless you're the singer known as Cher, your used clothes are not worth more than $500 maximum, and the trustees all know that). Furniture gets listed piece by piece, because the exemption gives you $4,000 for furniture, but it has to be specific pieces of furniture.
The categories:
1) Checking, savings, and other financial accounts (excluding IRAs): like I said, the more detail, the better. On the date of filing, you'll probably only have $300 (the exempt amount for a couple in Arizona) in one checking account). You will have used the rest of the money that was in there to buy food, for instance, or make a payment on your mortgage, using debit cards, prior to filing.
2) Security deposits that have not been returned to you.
3) Household furnishings; this is the category where I want you to list all your furniture, PIECE BY PIECE, because the trustee needs to see whether the items are exempt! Note that everybody has five televisions, and the first one and the second one are exempt for hubbie and wifie in Arizona. But you'll also figure out when you check e-Bay or craigslist that your twenty year old black and white analog television is worth very, very little indeed. In the vast number of cases, the trustee has exactly no interest in your three non-exempt old televisions.
---Yes, I said list all your furniture!!! With used-furniture replacement values. One of you gets a $4,000 exemption in Arizona, and the other gets another $4,000 exemption. But list 'em! And by the way, the trustees generally don't have the slightest interest in your third couch, either, unless a king or queen previously owned it. Ditto your non-exempt footstool.
4)Books, music, collectibles, or other art: here, count all your books, cds, and dvds; see what ten of your used cds are worth on e-bay or craigslist, and do the same for your used books and used dvds. Then give us the value of your home library. Generally everything will exempt. If you have posters framed on your walls, do a similar analysis. If you have original artwork on your walls, that your bought when you thought you were rich, go on the internet and figure out, as best you can, what it's worth, and list it. If it's worth a big chunk of money, you might want to consider whether it's worth trying to sell it for fair market value and use the money to buy food. If you sell it, or anything else significant prior to filing, that'll need to be reported on this form, and you'll need to be able to show how you spent the money if the trustee asks you. And she probably will.
5)Clothing--as I said, we usually suggest that unless you're Cher, you list clothing and costume jewelry, $500; that's much more than it's worth, of course, but if the trustee wants to take your clothes and sell them...oh, well, that's just silly. She won't want to try to sell your used clothes.
6)Furs and Jewelry - list your watches separately (the Arizona exemption is one for each of you, up to a value of $100), list wedding/engagement rings separately, and list all of your other non-costume jewelry, which is not exempt in Arizona, separately. Before you go nutty as a fruitcake about your wedding ring, read my discussion of wedding rings and whether you get to keep them. The short answer is simple here in Arizona. You keep them if you want to keep them, and you're willing to do what it takes to keep them. See the post.
7)Firearms or other hobby equipment; just itemize them with a description. Do not list "gun", however, because the trustee can't tell what that's worth and whether it is exempt. List "Smith and Wesson .38 hammerless snubnose revolver, stainless, 25 years old, value $250", or whatever else is a correct description. Ditto with exercise equipment; the trustee needs to be able to tell whether your weight set is from Sears and made of plastic and concrete or is an Olympic standard weight set worth $15,000.
8)Interest in Insurance Policies; the trustee wants to know what the face amount of the policy is, and whether there is any cash surrender value. List 'em all, of course.
9)Annuities: if you have one, list it. If you don't know what it is, you don't have one.
10)interest in education IRAs; list 'em.
11)interest in other IRAs and Pensions. Most of these are exempt.
12)Stock or interests in any business; if you own any stock, no matter whether it's worth very little, you list it!
13)Interests in partnerships or joint ventures: you got 'em, you gotta list 'em!
14)Government or Corporate Bonds: if you have these, why didn't you sell them to pay your attorney's fees? But list 'em if you got 'em. If you sell them to buy food or to make a mortgage payment, make sure you list that transfer.
15)Alimony or support that you are entitled to but have not received: list it.
16)Any other debts owed to you. Even if you didn't ever expect to collect the debt. Even if you think it can't be collected, list it!
17)Future interests, life estates, special rights or powers: if you don't know what these are, you probably don't have them. If you have them, list them!
18)Death benefit plans, life insurance policies or trusts; list 'em if you got 'em.
19)Unliquidated claims; that means that if you have a claim against somebody and you can't tell exactly how much the claim is worth, it'll go here. For instance, if you have a wrongful death claim against somebody, and you can't precisely calculate the amount of those damages, that'll go in here.
20)Patents, copyrights, or other intellectual property; list it if you have it. Value it as precisely as you can. If you've been trying to sell your patent for a decade, it may not be worth a lot. But estimate the value as closely as you can.
21)Licenses, franchises, or general intangibles. List if you got.
22)Customer list from any business you operated in the last eight years. Getting a value for this will be interesting. Note that if you owned a corporation, the customer list is probably owned by the corporation, and not by you. You own the stock in the corporation.
23)Automobiles, trucks, trailers, or other vehicles. The online bluebook may help you; trustees in Arizona are generally looking for high private party values, not trade-in values. There are a ton of other sites you may use if you have trouble with the bluebook, including carquotes.com and edmunds.com.
24)Boats and boat motors and boat accessories: list if you got.
25)Aircraft or accessories. Don't ask me where to find the value for a used wooden Fokker Propeller. I don't know either.
26)Animals. Note that most animals are either exempt or worthless. Trustees generally don't want to take custody of assets that eat or require care. Horses are generally a big issue. If you have horses, find out how much they're actually worth, however you do it, and convince me and Heidi that you're correct before we file.
27)Any other personal property that isn't listed above. Note that if you have a big collection of hand tools that you use in your job, those need to be inventoried and valued at replacement value. There is a $2,500 tools of the trade exemption in Arizona, and we can double that if you're married.
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NOW WE GET TO THE DEBTS SECTION!
YOU NEED TO LIST ALL YOUR CREDITORS. WHEN I SAY ALL, I REALLY, REALLY MEAN ALL. INCLUDING YOUR RELATIVES, WHO YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR BANKRUPTCY. OR THAT GUY WHO'S SUING YOU, WHO YOU THINK ISN'T ENTITLED TO A DIME. IF YOU DON'T LIST 'EM, THEY WON'T GO AWAY. AND THEN AFTER THE BANKRUPTCY, YOU'LL GET SUED BY SOMEBODY YOU DIDN'T LIST, AND IT WILL BE YOUR FAULT. NO KIDDING. AND IT'S EVEN A CRIME TO FRAUDULENTLY AND INTENTIONALLY FAIL TO LIST CREDITORS.
Here's a practice pointer; pull three credit reports on yourself, and those credit reports will act as a safety net for you. They aren't going to list all your debts. But if you have forgotten about a creditor, the credit reports are a safety net for you. For that matter, if you pull a credit report and see that somebody stole your identity and racked up debt, you're better off listing those debts as disputed than failing to list them and trying to prove after your bankruptcy that you didn't owe them.
I'm begging you now.
I don't want any of my clients to be sued after a bankruptcy, because there's little I can do to help you. It happened to a lovely couple who were clients of mine. They were sued for $100,000 on a note just after their Discharge was entered. I asked what happened, and they told me, "We forgot about that one!"
Do NOT let that happen to you!!!!
What address should you use for your creditors? All of them!!
I'd rather have one creditor with five different addresses than for you to leave out the correct address.
IN SPECIFIC, INCLUDE THE ADDRESSES FOR EVERY CREDITOR THAT SEND YOU MAIL WITHIN 90 DAYS OF FILING. AND THERE ARE USUALLY TWO OR THREE ADDRESSES ON EVERY BILL! LIST THEM ALL!
You must list the account numbers for each of the creditors.
If there is a collection agency for a creditor, you should separately list that collection agency, and note that they may be using their own internal account number.
As to who is responsible for the debt, the general rule is that if you incurred the debt while you were married, it's a joint debt. If you weren't married at the time the debt was incurred, indicate that it was incurred by either husband or wife, as the case may be.
The date incurred usually relates to when you opened the credit account, and that date may show up on your credit report.
As to the amount due, that's the least important number you are going to be listing. The amount due is a moving target, because the creditor is constantly adding interest and fees.
The type of debt relates to why you owe the money, and the answer may be house, or car, or credit card, or medical bill or general unsecured debt if it's a credit card and you can't remember what you purchased.
List any collection agency that sent you a letter as an assignee of the original creditor.
List any law firm that contacted you or sued you as an assignee of the original creditor.
CO-DEBTORS: ALSO LIST co-debtors as creditors. They may very well have a right to sue you if you defaulted on the debt.
YOU WON'T HAVE ENOUGH ROOM TO ENTER ALL THE ADDRESSES FOR ALL THE LAWYERS AND COLLECTION COMPANIES OF SOME CREDITORS; LIST THE LAWYERS AND COLLECTION AGENCIES AS "COLLECTION AGENCY FOR _________________" OR ATTORNEY FOR ______________"
The exact amount you owe to creditors is the least important number on your schedules; do the best you can to estimate this moving target, but it's always changing, and everybody knows that.
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Dependents: you'll be listing everyone who is your dependent. That is partly because of the means test. From the perspective of the means test, the more dependents, the better. Note that unless you listed the individual as a dependent on your income tax return as a dependent, you may not be able to benefit from them on the means test analysis.
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Income: You will be required to disclose all the income you and your spouse have received for the last six months for means test purposes. Note that you will also need to scan and email your last six months of pay stubs to Heidi, the Bankruptcy Angel, so she can check your numbers. If you received other income in the last six months, list it.
You will also be filling out information including your occupation, employer's name, employer's address, how long you've been employed, and a current pay stub.
You will also need to fill out information about amounts you earned in two prior years, both from your employment and from other sources.
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Expenses: You are going to be listing all your normal monthly living expenses. Make sure you list as well expenses that you only pay on a annual, quarterly or semi-annual basis. This is an extensive section. You'll need your checkbook or check registers, and a calculator to help you with this.
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FINANCIAL AFFAIRS:
You'll be listing the following sorts of information:
----payments to any unsecured creditor totaling more than $600 in the last 90 days
----debts repaid to relatives, partners, close friends, or other insiders within the last 12 months, so the trustee can sue them for what's called an "insider preference";
----lawsuits you've been involved in over the last 12 months (note that in Arizona, if you file a Chapter 7, any suit you have in a car accident case belongs to the bankruptcy estate for the benefit of your creditors);
----property taken by a creditor or money garnished within the last 12 months;
----property that was repossessed or foreclosed on or that was returned voluntarily to the seller within the last 12 months;
----rights signed over to a creditor within the last four months;
----you'll report whether a fiduciary took custody of your property within the last year;
----you'll report losses due to fire, flood, theft, other disaster, or gambling within 12 months;
----you'll report money paid for debt counseling or to any attorney (including me) within 12 months;
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READ THIS--READ THIS--READ THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!
DO NOT PRESS COMPLETE UNTIL YOU ARE REALLY, REALLY DONE FILLING OUT THE FORMS!!!!!
OUR OFFICE GETS AN EMAIL that tells us you are done filling out forms. After that, do NOT try to enter additional information, BECAUSE IT WON'T WORK!! Email Heidi at my office and tell her about the additional information or corrections that must be entered.
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Sit back and relax. You've done a buncha work and you deserve a break today. Relax as much as you can.
DO NOT EXPECT THAT YOU WILL GET AN IMMEDIATE, BREATHLESS CALL FROM MY OFFICE CONGRATULATING YOU! This was a ton of thankless work. Welcome to my world.
Feel free to email me and Heidi and let us know that you're done with Phase One, and that you'd like to file in a month, prior to the trustee's sale on your house, or after you've gotten your tax refund and spent it on food so your children don't starve, and AFTER you've done the "Spend Down", and have spent your most recent paycheck on your mortgage, food, car payment, or whatever you spend your check on.
Do not plan to punch "send" and to file the next day. It ain't happenin'. There are people in line ahead of you, and we have to review the darn thing to make sure it's fairly safe to file for you!!!!
We now have to do the real work of reviewing it and seeing how much you'll lose to the trustee as non-exempt property, or how much you'll be buying back from the trustee. We'll also need to see what crazy, obvious mistakes you made (like listing car washes as an expense, but not listing a car, for instance).
I suggest using zillow and lots of other sites to get an average. I was helping a friend look at houses the other day and zillow's "zestimates" are waaay off for many locations. More estimates = better chance of being actually close to a real value.