Question: I now live in Duluth, GA. I know the bankruptcy court wants to know all my assets. But I have a wedding ring that I think they should not care about. The ring was given to me by my first husband when we lived in Cumming. And we were married only a little while before the government made him go to prison for some ridiculous charge.
What happened was that the prosecutors said he was selling some drugs. But I don't know when he could have been doing that because he was disabled from bad knees and he told me that he spent his time watching Rev. Billy Graham on TV and writing his book on global warming. He told me the book was about the effects of global warming in Mexico. He was writing it with a guy he who was a professor at a university in Mexico (but I never met him) and some man who called our house a lot named Juan. Somehow the government found three hundred pounds of pot in his car one day. He says he doesn't know how it got there.
When he went to prison we got divorced. But the ring is beautiful and I want to keep it. A jeweler said it is worth $25,000.00. My ex-husband must have saved up a lot of his disability checks to afford it! Do I really have to mention the ring? Why should I have to tell everyone about that wedding ring because it's private? I think I can file a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13.
Answer: Under the bankruptcy code, all assets have to be disclosed. There are, however, certain exemptions that can be utilized by a debtor. A ring valued at $25,000.00 is something that is required to be disclosed. Because of the ring's value, it could be a determining factor in your ability to file a Chapter 7, as opposed to a Chapter 13. We receive many questions about asset valuation and disclosure. The bankruptcy law is quite clear, however, and all assets must be disclosed.