The trustee in my bankruptcy really wants to see the bank statement for the month that you filed the case.

Why is that so important? The reason is that when you file your bankruptcy schedules, you’re going to list all of your assets which will include your cash in the bank. The trustee needs to be able to verify exactly how much money was in your various bank accounts on the date that you filed bankruptcy because that’s the asset that he or she is allowed to liquidate for the benefit of creditors. So, you may have a situation where you think when you filled out the bankruptcy schedules that you had a certain amount of money and then you get a paycheck and that goes directly into your bank account and then you file bankruptcy. So in reality the amount of money that you have that’s available to the trustee and to your creditors is significantly more than the amount that you thought you had. That’s why it’s really important before you file bankruptcy to know exactly how much is in the bank on the day you file your case.