Once the bankruptcy is filed, all of your property at the time of the filing and certain other property to be received in the future, becomes the property of the bankruptcy estate. This means that the bankruptcy trustee may take control of this property to satisfy your creditors. You are required to file a schedule with the court describing all of your assets.

Certain property is either "excluded" from the bankruptcy estate or "exempt," and you will be able to keep that property. 11 U.S.C. sec. 541(b) describes what property is "excluded" from the bankruptcy estate and 11 U.S.C. sec. 522(b) describes what property is exempt.

Often, all of your assets can be protected. However, if any question exists regarding protection of assets, you should hire an attorney to ensure that the exemptions are properly chosen and applied to maximize the value of assets retained.