An important category of documents needed for a 341 meeting is bank statements. The trustee wants to see statements from any kind of account you had on the day you filed for bankruptcy, even if the account had zero dollars in it. The trustee needs statements from every account listed in the bankruptcy petition.
By statement I mean the official document issued by the bank, credit union, or prepaid card at regular intervals, giving an accounting of the account. Statements usually post once a month, but the frequency depends on the bank. What day in a month the statement posts also varies by bank or account type.
In online banking, a transaction history will probably be easier to find. This often pops up on an online banking customer’s dashboard, whereas a statement might require a few more clicks. Transaction histories cover a lot of the same information that would appear on the statement, but they are not as official and are often missing critical information that trustee needs to see. But if the correct statement has not posted yet by the 341 meeting, a transaction history may be the only option.
The trustee is looking for your name, the bank’s name, the account number and the dates the statement covers. Your filing date must be included somewhere in the statement’s date range. For example, if you filed on the 20th, a statement that began on the 25th of the previous month and ends on the 26th of the current month covers the filing date. A statement that begins or ends on the filing date is fine, too.
When you send in bank statements, make sure all the pages are included, even the “This Page Left Intentionally Blank” page. Also please send us paper copies or good-quality PDFs. We want the trustee to be able to easily read the statements; photos and screenshots are often hard to read.
When the time is right, or when you are ready, reach out to Minnesota’s HIGHEST GOOGLE reviewed bankruptcy law firm at www.kainscott.com. You will be so happy you did!
