341 Meeting in Boston

[newperson1127]

Hi, My wife and I filed for BK this past month and have a 341 Meeting in Dec.I have no assets, 1.5K in my ING Account, which is basically my retirement money. Is that protected? We made 43K combined last year and have about 63K in debt. Would there be a reason where we can be denied the bankruptcy? I have never done this before and is scared out of my wits. What kind of questions would the trustee ask??

[AAAArt]

I'm sorry to say that unless your ING acct. is an IRA, you are going to have to find another way to exempt it. My atty. said that they always used savings and cash as the first thing that they exempted. (In my state ((IL)), you can exempt $4000 as a couple under the wildcard. Use whatever you least want to keep or whatever you think the trustee under the non-exempt portiion. There is no guarantee that they won't take it, but at least it is something that you are more willing to give up. (This is listed on Sched. C, where you relist all of your assets and then check exempt or non-exempt.
You can still amend if you need to. OTOH, giving up $1500 to get rid of $63,000 worth of debt iis not a bad idea and with your fresh start, you shouold be able to make that up rather easily.
Re: income to expenses. No problems.
Re: What will Trustee asd...look for any threads in this section or "General BK Talk" w/ "341" in the title and you will find several answers to that question and be much relieved on that subject. You could also just use the "search" feature and type in "341 meeting" and see what comes up.
As I try to remind myself, "scared out of my wits" is a stage we all cycle back and forth through and is entirely normal. Hope this helps, Art

[StaciMM]

AAAART is right-if it is a regular ING Savings account, and you have no exemption that will cover it, it is a good possibility the trustee will take it. Some states have a wild card, look into that and if you have one you could use, it would be good to amend your petition.

[newperson1127]

I spoke with my attorney and she rattled off something us using a Federal Wildcard Exemption... What does that mean????

[SleeplessInMI]

What does that mean????

You didn't ask her what it means?

[StaciMM]

Mass. allows you to choose between the state exemptions or federal exemptions lists. If you have alot of equity in your home, you're best off using the state list. Mass allows at least $100,000 in equity to be exempt, not sure if that is a current #. If that is not a concern though, you are better off using the federal list because it allows more exemptions for personal property.

If you have no equity, or only a little equity, in your home-you can use the federal list. The federal exemptions allow you to use unused homestead exemption as a 'wild card' where you can exempt any other property. (In addition to the personal property exemptions, not instead of.) The site I check shows "Real property, including co-op or mobile home, to $17,450; unused portion of homestead to $8,725 may be applied to any property" for the federal guideline, though I'm pretty sure that is out dated and the real # is a little higher.

[StaciMM]

PS-under federal, married couples may double all exemptions-so even if the real exemptions weren't a little higher, you could exempt $1500 savings as wild card, and still have $33400 in equity 'safe'. ($17450+17450, less $1500.)

[newperson1127]

OK, now we don't own a home. We rent. The only asset I have is a car I own that is worth 1K and a savings of 1.5K...Is that exempt under the federal wildcard exemption??

[StaciMM]

If you claim the federal exemptions, then yes you can exempt it. If your attorney knew about the savings account, I'm guessing he chose the federal exemptions for you.