Protecting Your Assets When You Seek to Permanently Discharge Debts As we indicated in an earlier blog, the allowable exemptions under Texas law in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition are extremely generous. As a general rule, you'll be better served by claiming the exemptions under state law. Here, however, are the types and limits on property that … [Read more...]

Protecting Property from Attachment in a Chapter 7 Filing When you seek protection under the bankruptcy laws, you can choose to permanently discharge debts under Chapter 7 or to reorganize your debt under Chapter 13. With a Chapter 7 filing, you must turn over certain assets to the bankruptcy court to be sold to pay your creditors. But that … [Read more...]

The Waiting Period for Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 You can go through a bankruptcy proceeding with the best of intentions, pay close attention to your finances and still have difficulty meeting your obligations. Often, it's a health problem that brings you to consider filing for bankruptcy. That's no surprise and no cause for shame—it's the single … [Read more...]

Can You Lose Your IRA Investment in a Bankruptcy Proceeding? The Factors that Can Put Your Retirement Assets at Risk The 2005 revisions to the Bankruptcy Code specifically excluded individual retirement accounts (IRAs) from seizure by the bankruptcy court to satisfy creditors in a Chapter 7 liquidation proceeding. The exemption, however, is not … [Read more...]

Using the Bankruptcy Laws to Address Personal Tax Liabilities If you have fallen behind on your taxes, you may be under the impression that you cannot use the bankruptcy laws to help you get a handle on that debt. While it's generally true that most income tax arrearages cannot be discharged in a Chapter 7 liquidation proceeding, you may still be … [Read more...]

Using a Liquidation Proceeding to Terminate Your Mortgage Obligation Often, when you decide that a personal bankruptcy filing is your best option for getting your finances under control and getting a new start, you still want to keep your home. But what if that's not really in your best interests? What if the costs of keeping your home will be too … [Read more...]