Inherit during 13

[Flamingo]

I'm not saying what you should do, but only talking about what I have been told.

I filed under old law as well. I was told that *any* "windfall," ANY - inheritance, lottery winnings, large sums of gift money, I had to inform the TRUSTEE - not my attorney, THE TRUSTEE. And that was ANY "windfall," i.e. any *amount.* It would then be determined what, if anything, I would get or have to pay.

Not informing the trustee was against the bankrupcty law (I believe) and could be cause for my case to be *dismissed.* Fortunately (or maybe not fortunately, LOL) I did not have to worry about this.

So. To answer your question of what the risk would be is a possible dismissal of your case, as someone else mentioned, should the trustee ever find out.


PS: Flamingo, would it be possible if you didn't color your posts? The text is difficult to read.

Sorry, I had no idea about the color - shows up fine on my screen...I guess it depends on your browser or computer. I will do away with the color! Can I add something here as to your "Trustee" quote above; my attorney told us since he represented us during our 13 (and well he did represent us), when you are represented by an attorney you inform the attorney first who contacts the Trustee for you; you do not contact the Trustee directly. If you do, you will be directed back to your attorney if you have one. If you file pro so, THEN you contact the Trustee directly. That is what I was told when we filed in 2002; I don't think it has changed as to legal representation. In this case, it appears she asked her attorney about the inheritance but did not disclose the amount of the inheritance, that she received a check in her name and passed it on to her father. If she did disclose this information to the attorney and he did nothing, the "Plan could hit the Fan. " However, since the attorney does not have all the information, and she appears not to be willing to disclose it to him, there are legal issues here as to attorney/client representation. If the OP reads this, as I stated in my previous post, it is up to you as to what you want to do but you know you are commiting BK fraud, there is a risk and no one can give you the exact percentage of that risk, and unless you fully come clean with your BK attorney, you will have to live with the fear of being found out until you receive those discharge papers in the mail (which is like 3 months after you make your last Plan payment). During that time, you can be found out and as another poster stated, all those who know about this (that you have told/knows as to your family or friends) can rat if they want and sometimes friends and family can do weird things if they hold a grudge against you. Be careful and protect yourself and best of luck to you in whatever you decide to do as to this.

[Flamingo]

And there is the 180 day rule but not sure if that applies only to chapter 7's. Perhaps you could contact the trustee's office and do a general inquiry without having to give specifics and see what they say. From my search on the subject, it is handled differently in all jurisidictions. And I agree with you, since you are close to finishing, it is cheaper to just make the payments to the trustee.

The 180 day rule applies only to Chapter 7's. As to 13's, "extra income, inheritance or lottery winnings" apply from the date of filing to discharge. Five years for her. She received the inheritance during the 13 so it is applicable. It's tough during a 13 because you may not know you are in someone's Will and can get a windfall as she did close to the end of your Plan. But legally she has to report her inheritance and now that there is deception involved, she needs to protect herself and come clean with her BK attorney as to what she should do. She does not disclose the amount of the inheritance compared to the amount that she filed upon in her 13 and she is probably afraid they will take the entire amount. She has already paid for several years into her Plan which would be taken into consideration and offset the figure. Without figures, no one knows.

[Flamingo]

OMG, I just noticed that my signature changed from "contributor" to guru after I posted that last message!!! Guru I am not, chatty (postie?) I am I guess, lol!

LOL! I think it depends on how much you contribute on here. There is excellent information on this forum and all thoughts/experiences help! My time is limited to get on here so I don't get to post as much or read as much as I would like but I think when we go through a Chapter 13 or 7, we all are guru's to some respect as to information!

[wooisme]

Sometimes these attorneys won't answer at all because they don't want to stick their necks out. Here's an example

My husband gets a royalty check once a year but this year being the last year he gets it.

In our plan we make payments every single month in order to KEEP the money when it comes in.

We got our royalty check which was $666 over what we paid in to keep.

so I email the attorney right away to say that I think there was going to be an overage on the check and what do i do, do i send it to the trustee....do i spend it , or do i put it in a savings account.

he writes back: how much over?

I told him $666 and he never responded to the question!!! I emailed him four times asking, and no response.

I took that to mean "please don't ask me this because i can't tell you not to send it in."

so what I did with it was I put the $666 that was extra and put it in savings and left it there.

I figured if he wants it he will ask for it and then i can give it to him

it's going to be the same with income taxes because we pay a monthly amount to keep income tax refunds.

My mom rewrote her will. Her lawyer told her to take me out of the will entirely and to give my portion of it to my other sibbling who then is instructed to give it to me when i reach a certain age which would be one year after discharge!

I didn't ask her to do that and it's her money. if she changed her will and did it that way , that's her decision to make since it's her money.

[Flamingo]

Sometimes these attorneys won't answer at all because they don't want to stick their necks out. Here's an example
My husband gets a royalty check once a year but this year being the last year he gets it.
In our plan we make payments every single month in order to KEEP the money when it comes in.
We got our royalty check which was $666 over what we paid in to keep.
so I email the attorney right away to say that I think there was going to be an overage on the check and what do i do, do i send it to the trustee....do i spend it , or do i put it in a savings account.
he writes back: how much over?
I told him $666 and he never responded to the question!!! I emailed him four times asking, and no response.
I took that to mean "please don't ask me this because i can't tell you not to send it in."
so what I did with it was I put the $666 that was extra and put it in savings and left it there.
I figured if he wants it he will ask for it and then i can give it to him
it's going to be the same with income taxes because we pay a monthly amount to keep income tax refunds.
My mom rewrote her will. Her lawyer told her to take me out of the will entirely and to give my portion of it to my other sibbling who then is instructed to give it to me when i reach a certain age which would be one year after discharge!
I didn't ask her to do that and it's her money. if she changed her will and did it that way , that's her decision to make since it's her money.

Note the delay in your attorney's response to you is that he has contacted the Trustee and is awaiting a response from him/her before he gets back to you. As you know, that can take a while. It's not the attorney's decision, it is the Trustee's decision and the attorney will relay that to you.

"Estate Planning" is the key to many issues when it comes to certain stages of ones life, trusts, etc. The rich know how to save all sorts of assets via planning and trusts. It pays to get a good lawyer who can advise you how to protect your assets to benefit you and others in the future.

[wooisme]

Well the Lawyer was written about this on November the 29th and here it is today January the 6th. I highly doubt that he has contacted "any" trustee in this matter. he never bothered to acknowledge the amount with me ...all he asked was how much over and i told him and have not heard bupkus from him! it should not take almost 40 full days to get an answer from a trustee with whom he is in constant contact with and sees every single monday and tuesday of the week. It doesn't matter, I have it sitting in savings untouched. I'm not going to make it easy for them. if they want it they will have to tell me to send it to them.

[Flamingo]

Well the Lawyer was written about this on November the 29th and here it is today January the 6th. I highly doubt that he has contacted "any" trustee in this matter. he never bothered to acknowledge the amount with me ...all he asked was how much over and i told him and have not heard bupkus from him! it should not take almost 40 full days to get an answer from a trustee with whom he is in constant contact with and sees every single monday and tuesday of the week. It doesn't matter, I have it sitting in savings untouched. I'm not going to make it easy for them. if they want it they will have to tell me to send it to them.

With holidays, weekends, vacations and schedules, it can take much longer than that as legal wheels grind slowly, not to mention the other hundreds or thousands of issues that may be on the Trustee's desk. Yours is not the only case, believe me! For us to just refinance during our 13, it took almost eight months of working with brokers, our attorney and trustee from start to finish. The holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) messed it up bad because of vacations and no cases heard or Motions heard during the holidays. As long as you have notified him and he has acknowledged you, that is the main thing. However, I would give it a few more weeks and send a letter to his office inquiring about the situation so you have a specific answer to your situation. He does have to question the trustee so don't think the delay is just the fault of the attorney.

[wooisme]

Well I did notify him, I saved the emails I sent the lawyer as I always do, and i saved his one response of "how much over" and then my response to him. So I did notify the lawyer. I guess i could have called the trustees office myself but I do have a lawyer and he really needs to be the one to address it, not really me. the only time i ever call the trustees office is when our mail person is on vacation and someone else takes the mail in that day. I wait a week and then call to make sure they received the payment. other than that i do not bother those people at all and don't want to.

I'm just glad i put the money away so that if i'm told to pay it, I still have it to pay.

[rrockinggramma]

My mom just rewrote her will and put me back into it. It has upset all of my siblings but it is her money. I borrowed from my mother back in 2000 and was taken out of the will as a result. Well now that she is 86 and the sting of her loaning me that money is gone, she decided that since she had 4 kids, we all will get an equal share. Course I didn't discourage her. My siblings tried to though but she was adamant. We are currently in the process of moving her into an independent living center where she will be more supervised etc. I am praying that she holds on until after August of this year, when I will be discharged.

[$$only4ever]

Well the Lawyer was written about this on November the 29th and here it is today January the 6th. I highly doubt that he has contacted "any" trustee in this matter. he never bothered to acknowledge the amount with me ...all he asked was how much over and i told him and have not heard bupkus from him! it should not take almost 40 full days to get an answer from a trustee with whom he is in constant contact with and sees every single monday and tuesday of the week. It doesn't matter, I have it sitting in savings untouched. I'm not going to make it easy for them. if they want it they will have to tell me to send it to them.

Wooisme,

We are in the same boat. My Mom passed away last spring and I received a small inheritance. I notified my attorney by e-mail in August when I received the proceeds and he notified the trustee by e-mail 08/11. To date, I have not heard a word. My attorney said that we have done everything that we were supposed to do. I have made copies of every e-mail including the one that was sent to the trustee. I have put the $$ in an account and will just let it sit until he asks for it.

I figure that the trustee might go after the $$ after my plan has been completed and just before discharge.

[wooisme]

I think it's terrible! To not give an answer one way or the other......it really urks me to no end. You do what is right, and then no response. I mean august, come on now, you mean to tell me you can't get an answer since august. that's crazy.

[$$only4ever]

No Wooisme, Terrible is the trustee snatching the money away from me. According to my attorney, we have the done all that legally we are suppose to do. Now back under the radar. If the trustee wants it now then it is up to him to contact my attorney. Meanwhile, I am making a little $$ while it sits in a savings account.