This is part 6 of 11 of my bankruptcy experience article series.
There are two types of bankruptcy, Chapter 7 and Chapter 13. When you file either of these cases you are going to have a meeting about 30 days in. That meeting is called a 341 Creditor Meeting.
I filed my Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in July of 2022, and I had my 341 Creditor Meeting 30 days later, in August 2022. In this article I will discuss the details of the meeting.
If helpful to bounce around, check out the other parts of this series:
- Part 1: My Bankruptcy Experience
- Part 2: What Drove My Decision To File Bankruptcy
- Part 3: 4 Things I Wish I Would Have Known Before Filing Bankruptcy
- Part 4: Should I Optimize For Lowest Bankruptcy Fee, Reviews Or Something Else?
- Part 5: How I knew I Had A Great Bankruptcy Attorney
- Part 6: My 341 Meeting Of Creditors Experience
- Part 7: 3 Hardest Things About The Bankruptcy Filing To Discharge Process
- Part 8: Rebuilding My Credit Score After Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
- Part 9: 1 Year After Bankruptcy: How I Got My Score Over 700 And Rented An Apartment
- Part 10: How Can I Set Myself Up For Success After Bankruptcy Discharge? 4 Things To Know
- Part 11: I Loved Filing Bankruptcy – I Never Want To Do It Again
What is a 341 Meeting Of Creditors?
The purpose of this 341 meeting of creditors is for the United States Bankruptcy Trustee to review the documents that you submitted when filing your case. Those documents are often referred to as your bankruptcy petition or bankruptcy schedules. In this meeting, the trustee puts the debtor (the person filing for bankruptcy) under oath and asks them a series of questions pertaining to their case.
There may also be creditors there, while it is unlikely that they are going to show up it can still happen. If a creditor does show up, they may ask questions about assets or income that you may own or have access to. If you do not answer the questions, or do not show up for the hearing then the trustee could request that your bankruptcy case be dismissed. If you are curious as to what kind of questions may be asked, I found some sample questions here.
My 341 Meeting Experience
The days leading up to my meeting, I was extremely anxious and I was reading anything that I could on the subject. Nothing that I read helped, in fact it made my anxiety worse. In hindsight, I did not need to get myself that stressed out. Getting pulled over for a minor traffic violation is more stressful than this was.
In total, my meeting with the trustee was about 4 minutes long. It was done over Zoom. Everyone who was scheduled that day for a meeting logged into the group zoom meeting room at the designated start time. We all met with the trustee and she told us that she would call us in 1 by 1 with our attorneys. She then removed everyone from the meeting room until it was our turn.
When it was our turn we got added back into the meeting. The trustee introduced herself, our attorney was in the meeting as well. The trustee asked us all to state our names for the record. After doing that she had us raise our right hand and put us under oath. The trustee asked questions about our bankruptcy documents, asked why we were filing for bankruptcy. Basically, she was just trying to understand our situation.
A portion of my income was generated from a small business that was in the form of an LLC. When you are self-employed and are looking to file for bankruptcy they ask you to fill out a form called a Profit and Loss (see example below).
The profit and loss allowed the trustee to get an example of what my operating expenses were and helped get to my total gross income from the business. We discussed my business and how I generated revenue. She did not have any questions other than that.
Issues During 341 Meeting
Our creditor meeting went very smoothly. However, we ran into one issue. When she was reviewing our bank statements she noticed that there was a transaction to Venmo. She asked if we had a Venmo account and we said yes, she told our attorney that we would need to provide her with 6 months of Venmo statements for her to review. Right after our meeting we submitted those documents and there were no other issues.
Final Thoughts
Like I said before, I really worked myself up prior to my meeting with the trustee. If I ever find myself in this situation again, I know what to expect. There is nothing wrong or shameful about filing bankruptcy. It is a completely legitimate and legal process and if you treat it as such you will be in good shape.
If you are unsure whether or not bankruptcy, or just want to get an idea on what is available to you you can take our Quick Debt Relief Calculator and it will give you an idea on what options are available and give you a recommendation on what you should do.
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