In theory, a Chapter 7 trustee is required to sell off the assets of the debtor and use the sale proceeds to pay off the claims of priority creditors and unsecured creditors. In reality, Chapter 7 debtors rarely have anything of value to give to the trustee. This is because their property is already collateral for the secured claim of a creditor, of no significant value to anyone else, or designated exempt and protected from the claims of any creditor.

In Chapter 13, you can still designate exempt property but if you have valuable assets that cannot be exempted and you still want to keep them, you can add the value of that property to your Chapter 13 payment plan and, in effect, buy the property back from your creditors over a three to five year time frame.

Florida law declares certain property either exempt or excluded so that the debtor can keep it. Determining which property you can keep requires an analysis of your personal situation. A qualified bankruptcy attorney from the Bankruptcy Law Firm of Orfelia M. Mayor, P.A. can help guide you through the process of identifying exempt property.

An example of some of the different types of exemptions are:

• Homestead (up to .5 acres in a city or 160 acres elsewhere)
• Personal property up to $1000
• Motor Vehicle up to $1000
• Public benefits such as social security , workers comp and unemployment
• Wages (up to a certain limit)