Should I file my bankruptcy case now or should I wait? There are many answers to that question. Right now I want to deal with one, which is let’s say you’ve made a transfer to a family member or friend or to a business and you didn’t get anything back. You just wanted to retitle it, or maybe you wanted to put it in somebody else’s name because you are a little nervous about what’s going to happen with your creditors.

You’re going to have to wait 3 years from the date of that transfer until you file your bankruptcy case. That’s because trustees can look back at all of the transfers you’ve made during the 3 years before bankruptcy to determine if the trustee can sue the recipient of that transfer in order to get it back and use it to pay creditors.

So sometimes when you are getting ready to decide what you want to do about your debt and you think that it makes sense to either transfer an asset out of your name, be prepared. You are going to have to wait 3 years before you file your bankruptcy case, and if a creditor or a group of creditors are able to force you into an involuntary case then your planning will be for naught because the trustee in that case is going to be able to get that transfer back if the Chapter 7 case sticks.