A Day in the Life of a Chapter 7 Trustee

There was a good article in the Tampa Bay Times the other day about a day in the life of a Chapter 7 trustee. (The article is linked below.) Specifically, it is about a day in which the Chapter 7 trustee is conducting so-called "341 meetings" or "trustee's meetings" with dozens of Chapter 7 debtors. Each of the debtors has a sad tale of how their financial life took the downturn that led them to bankruptcy. I've heard many of the same stories the trustee is hearing in the article, and I've seen the same look of disappointment and even disbelief in the eyes of people who never thought that their lives would come to this.

I tell my clients that the bankruptcy laws were put in place for a reason: to help honest but unfortunate people to put impossible debt behind them and move ahead with a fresh start in their financial lives. Before they came to see me, many of my clients wasted months and months trying desperately to keep up with credit card payments that they knew, in the back of their minds, they'd never be able to pay off. Every one of my former clients who I've reconnected with later tell me that the only thing they regret about filing for bankruptcy is that they didn't do it a lot sooner. Life is just too short. Take advantage of what the bankruptcy laws offer, and move on to your next challenge.

Here's the link to the article.

https://www.tampabay.com/business/what-caused-the-bankruptcy-x2014-a-day-with-debtors-in-tampa-bay-bankruptcy-hearings-20190702/