The main mistakes that someone could make, uh, before filing bankruptcy would be to make any big changes or transfers or movements of money or assets close to the bankruptcy without checking with their attorney, such as, uh, your 401k or IRA. Those are totally protected, but you don’t want to withdraw from those, uh, soon before filing, because then you’ve taken that money from a protected status to unprotected. Uh, you don’t want to do that.
Some people think they’re going to improve things or outsmart the system by, uh, moving an asset or selling something at a low price to their sister or family member or things like that — that, uh, you just don’t want to move around money or assets without checking with your attorney first, because that could cause a problem. And much of the time, someone is doing something that wasn’t going to be a problem anyway, but they just somehow think they’re improving their situation where they may not be. So, just be careful. Don’t make any changes. Check with your attorney.