Protecting Your Assets

Getting the Most out of Your Bankruptcy Exemptions

One of the goals of bankruptcy is to allow people to keep some of their necessary assets if they find themselves drowning in debt. In creating bankruptcy protections, Congress understood that sometimes life throws us curveballs, and when that happens we still need to have some necessities to get back on our feet. Therefore, in bankruptcy you get to claim a certain amount of your property as exempt and keep it away from your creditors even if you find yourself with more bills than you can possibly pay.

Bankruptcy exemptions support your right to make a fresh financial start while still retaining some essential possessions. To learn how you can protect certain property from the claims of creditors in bankruptcy, contact an attorney at Wantland Law for a free consultation.

In Shepherdsville, Taylorsville, Bardstown or Louisville, Call 877-690-4814

Our lawyers can help you get the most out of your bankruptcy exemptions and show you how they work. We recommend that you contact us before you take any drastic measures to meet past-due debt obligations. That way you can avoid mistakes that can hurt your ability to take advantage of your available exemptions.

For example, we hate to hear about people drawing down their IRA or taking out a 401(k) loan to pay off hospital bills or credit card debts. For bankruptcy purposes, that's a case of using an asset that your creditors would never reach anyway to pay off a debt that you'll never have to repay if you go through bankruptcy. That's the worst of both worlds.

The exemptions you have available are described in detail in the Bankruptcy Code. They include a limited amount of equity in your house, in a motor vehicle, in household goods and in certain other assets. Other assets are fully exempt, such as tax refunds (in Chapter 7), child support or alimony, government assistance, most retirement accounts and disability payments.

Our goal is to help you designate your exemptions so that you get your maximum value out of them while minimizing the amount you need to pay to unsecured creditors, in either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13. Practically none of the people we work with ever have to give up property in a bankruptcy case because they couldn't claim an exemption.

To learn more about the power of exemptions to protect your assets in bankruptcy while helping you get the most out of your right to discharge, contact an attorney at Wantland Law in Shepherdsville for a free consultation.

We are a debt relief agency. We help people file for relief under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.