Work with a bankruptcy trustee in Scarborough when you file for bankruptcy. Once you file your case, you must follow the proceedings. It could confuse first-timers, but things can get easier with a trustee.
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An important thing to note is that collection calls will be immediately stopped after filing. Your creditors won’t be able to harass you to pay back what you owe. You can also notify your place of work to halt any wage garnishment that occurs.
Next, you should ensure you can make the bankruptcy payments required. That’s where your trustee enters the picture, since they will be the ones to negotiate your settlement and decide which assets will go toward reducing your credit.
Trusting Your Bankruptcy Trustee
You don't have to experience stress and anxiety when filing for bankruptcy. The process is easy if you have a professional to guide you. The point of working with an insolvency agent is to make the bankruptcy process go smoothly for all parties.
Both the creditors and the debtors want to get through bankruptcy as soon as possible. That is why your insolvency agent will want to work closely with you and your creditors. They will always be on the debtor’s side and negotiate with creditors in your favor.
Trustees overall want a fair deal between the creditors and the debtors. They will help suggest options you’ve approved to your creditors and vice versa. Once both parties have agreed on the conditions, you are ready to work with your insolvency agent to choose an asset for sale.
How a Trustee Helps You
In general, insolvency agents need to fulfill standard tasks for every debtor they get assigned to. Depending on the status of your bankruptcy case, the number of your assets, and how many creditors you have, your insolvency agent will have more than one or two roles to play. Below are some responsibilities you can expect from a bankruptcy trustee.
1. Conducting the Meeting of Creditors
It’s the trustee’s responsibility to conduct a meeting with creditors. No bankruptcy judge needs to attend. You will need to attend the first meeting to avoid case dismissal. After the initial session, you can sit the remaining meetings afterward.
Likewise, not all creditors are required to attend the meeting. At the meeting, your insolvency agent must check your ID and other documents. Trustees must ask questions regarding the bankruptcy case and its paperwork.
The creditors present can ask questions regarding the financial matters involved in the case. Trustees will take the initiative to ask about anything that could affect your bankruptcy case. Most of the questions at the meeting will involve your income, assets, debts, and expenses.
2. Reviewing Your Assets
Trustees are tasked with reviewing the debtor’s assets. Not all debtors are aware of the assets that they can sell and those that they can keep. It’s also challenging for debtors to determine what can be considered their assets or not.
When you have an insolvency agent to work with, you can simply ask them to review your properties. They will check whether you have non-exempt assets and assets that are protected by an exemption. Your trustee will help you determine what exemptions can be claimed when you file your case.
It will also be part of your insolvency agent’s job to review and confirm the information in your bankruptcy forms. They will have to explain what instructions or terms you don't understand. You must understand everything about your insolvency details for the case to succeed.
3. Recovering Debt Payments
You’d be surprised to learn that trustees can also recover debt payments. Getting your payments back is possible if you’ve paid an unsecured debt within 90 days of filing your bankruptcy case.
That happens to ensure that every creditor gets a fair share of the payment deal. Your trustee wouldn’t want any creditor that was preferred over the rest. The great thing about returning your payments is that you can still get them back, even if they were garnished from your wages.
When the creditor is related to you or a friend, the insolvency agent can recover payments within 12 months of your filing for bankruptcy. You can always ask your trustee which creditors to prioritize and which payments you can take back.
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4. Double Checking Your Forms
You must file for bankruptcy by filling out various forms with accurate data. The trustee’s job is to review your answers to see if you might have provided the wrong information. It’s crucial since you want everything on the forms to coincide with your financial data.
Filing a case can be challenging for debtors to go through the information alone, so insolvency agents with more experience and knowledge of the procedure are tasked with taking over. Trustees are also responsible for looking at your tax returns and paycheck records.
Always be honest about your financial information to your trustees. You don't want to look like you're hiding assets or avoiding taxes. Once trustees find discrepancies in your information, they can request a criminal investigation against you.
5. Recovering Property
It’s not only payments that trustees can recover but property as well. When you have property that’s sold or given away to creditors, your insolvency agent can recover it when it meets the requirements.
One requirement is that the property should have been sold for less than its actual value. When your trustee confirms this, they can take back your property because it was obtained at a lesser value. The transfer could be called fraudulent when they see how the creditors have taken advantage of the debtor.
Your trustee will recover and sell the property to help you pay your unsecured loans. Usually, these properties are non-exempt assets, meaning they can be sold to repay your debts. You can always ask your trustee how they chose the properties.
Options For Bankruptcy Cases
If you find yourself in a tight spot financially, it doesn't mean that bankruptcy is the only way out. Your licensed insolvency trustee can suggest other debt payment options for you. Contrary to what some might think, bankruptcy trustees can advise you not to take the bankruptcy option.
However, every debtor’s situation is different from another. That's why you should always be open to options while gathering data to file for bankruptcy. The best thing to do is consult with your insolvency agent.
Trustees will help assess your financial status and give you the most effective debt relief option for you to use. However, if you still choose bankruptcy, your insolvency agent will assist you in filing bankruptcy successfully. Look for a bankruptcy trustee in Scarborough that you can trust and discuss your bankruptcy options with them.
