I have questions about the role of the trustee

[Flowers]

what does this mean: "if the trustee abandons his
interest in the property"

Also, what is the trustee motivation? Meaning, is he or she getting an incentive to keep these cases going and closed on-time? A cut of the payplan?

[pigpen75]

what does this mean: "if the trustee abandons his
interest in the property"

Also, what is the trustee motivation? Meaning, is he or she getting an incentive to keep these cases going and closed on-time? A cut of the payplan?

My lawyer just told me the other day that the trustee gets like 20% of our assets. I don't know if he is full of BS but he did say this and it would make sense. He also says they only get $60 a case so this would make even more sense because it would motivate them to get everything they can from you.

[Flowers]

OMG. so if my attorney pushes me into a chapter 7, then she is probably getting a cut too?

[justbroke]

what does this mean: "if the trustee abandons his interest in the property"

This means that the Trustee wants nothing to do with a particular piece of property. That means that the cost to sell it exceeds or is close to the value of the property. That makes it a no brainer for the Trustee. Abandoning the property means it's no longer the property of the Bankruptcy Estate... and now belongs to the Debtor personally to do whatever.

Also, what is the trustee motivation? Meaning, is he or she getting an incentive to keep these cases going and closed on-time? A cut of the payplan?

The Trustee's true motivation is to get money for his client... the creditors! Their job is to, quite simply, manage the Bankruptcy Estate. In a Chapter 7, their job is specifically to liquidate the Estate so that the creditors can get paid.

The Trustee has a lot of expense. A lot of that money goes to office expenses, including, but not limited to, lawyers, paralegal staff, office staff, and office space.

First, the Trustee doesn't get 20% of your assets. It's basically a rolling fee structure which is 25% of the first $5,000, and 10% of the next $45,000, and so on (decreasing to 3% at $1,000,000).

Most of the time (96% of Chapter 7 cases are No Asset), the Trustee only gets about $25.00 (which comes from the application fee). This is why you'll hear people come back from their 341s -- when they are No Asset -- and state that the Trustee said "I'm making no money today".

While you may think that the 4% of cases which are subject to the 25%, 10%, 5%, 3% rolling fee schedule is a lot of money... remember what the Trustee must do with that money, which may include hiring an outside attorney because the Debtor decides to fight something in an Adversarial Proceeding or other contested matter.

(Sample: for $1,000,000 sold by the Trustee, the Trustee gets $53,000 or about 5.3%. For $50,000 sold by the Trustee, the Trustee gets $5,750 or 11.5%.)

OMG. so if my attorney pushes me into a chapter 7, then she is probably getting a cut too?

Your lawyer's only cut is her fees. There are no kickbacks.

[Flowers]

Oh, Thank you - I really had no idea how this worked.
I can not wait til it is all done and there are no more lawyers in my life.