money in the bank

[andileigh]

When you file, is it true you don't want to show money in the bank? Does someone look through bank statements? How far back to they go? Where do you then put the money in the mean time?

[monkatom]

If you have money in the bank you may be able to exempt all or some of it depending on you're states exemptions. The trustee usually will look at the last 6 months statements If you can not or do not want to exempt cash in the bank you can turn it in to exempt items. You can go grocery shopping or do other things depending on the state exemptions or federal exemptions if you're state allows that.

[Flamingo]

Trustees can go as far back as one year to view your bank accounts (money going in/money going out). The average is six months but there are those of us who have had to provide one year of bank statements and explanations as to deposits and withdrawals over a specific amount. The reason for this lookback period is to catch fraudulant transactions in preparing to file bankruptcy. So you really can't bank on a specific period of time prior to filing as to how far the trustee will look back. One year is a long time to try to preplan filing BK and hide money especially if one is drowning in debt.