AZ No confirmation yet & several Q's

[Aylajs]

My husband & I filed ch13 in August 2011 following several huge financial hits that left us few alternatives. We are in AZ and have an attorney representing us. We have made 6 on time payments to our trustee and are living within our ch 13 budget, although very tight. To date only our 3 secured creditors (2 cars and a motorcycle) have filed claims. We pay our 1st mortage outside the plan and our 2nd lien is being stripped. We had several CC with large balances, I am not sure that i understand why they have made no claims after 5 months (since 341). Has this happened to anyone? Can they just show up anytime in the 5 years? Also, we have rec'd no communications from the trustee regarding requirements (i.e. confirmation). My attny has advised to just leave my annual bonus in a savings account until we are confirmed. Frankly this seems so up in the air without the confimation.

Also, I have an RSA (Resitricted Stock Account) which a portion will vest this month. My husbands's company was purcharsed and our new health insureance choices are only high deductible ($5,250). We did not have that in our original plan. My attny thinks that i can sell the amount that vests and put it aside for this new cost (we have started an HSA for next year). I just am a bit uncomfortable with this as it seems that the trustee could ask for it too. He said to keep receipts that would reasonable prove that we did not use the money for a "world cruise". Anybody come across sellling vested stocks once they vest?

Thanks!

[lrprn]

We had several CC with large balances, I am not sure that i understand why they have made no claims after 5 months (since 341). Has this happened to anyone?

Yes. Several of our largest cc's ($12K and $9K respectively) did not file claims while a small gas card ($350) did. There's really no rhyme or reason to why creditors do or don't file claims. It's really not for you to worry about.

Any non-govt creditor who has not filed a claim by now has lost their opportunity to do so unless they can prove to the court that they have a legitimate reason they didn't know about the bk filing. Your cc's that haven't filed claims by now are out of luck and will get nothing from your plan. A higher payout will go to your other non-secured creditors who did file (unless you are in a 100% plan now).

Can they just show up anytime in the 5 years?

No.

Also, we have rec'd no communications from the trustee regarding requirements (i.e. confirmation).

No unusual - especially in AZ where I understand it's currently taking about 8-10 months to get confirmed even if your 13 case is straightforward.

My attny has advised to just leave my annual bonus in a savings account until we are confirmed.

This is wise advice. It's possible that if your trustee happens to ask about additional income after filing but before confirmation, the bonus dollars will then come to light. Your trustee could ask for some or all of the bonus money. Best to keep it in an account just in case the unlikely happens.

My attny thinks that i can sell the amount that vests and put it aside for this new cost (we have started an HSA for next year). I just am a bit uncomfortable with this as it seems that the trustee could ask for it too. He said to keep receipts that would reasonable prove that we did not use the money for a "world cruise". Anybody come across sellling vested stocks once they vest?

Again you need to trust your attorney in this matter. He is most familiar with how your trustee acts and the local bk court's prior policies and procedures in this situation.

[goon]

I am in AZ as well, took like 14 months to get my confirmation, so don't worry about that one too much, a pain to wait for and it sucks having things in the air, but if your lawyer did his job right then there shouldn't be any issues.

On the other questions... from the discussions with my lawyer and what I have seen it depends to some degree on the details of your plan and which trustee you have. In my case I ended up being able to keep a bonus, RSU stocks that vested after filing ( I have since sold), and on-going tax returns. But I am in a plan where I am paying nearly $2k a month and will be almost (but not quite) 100% payback.

From the advice I was given from my atty you should certainly be able to get away with selling the stock to pay the healthcare costs, just keep notes/copies/receipts just in case.

Also if some of the creditors aren't filing claims consider yourself lucky, from what I was told sometimes they don't bother because of the legal expense required on their side if they don't think they will get anything or will only get a limited amount. Sometimes they would rather have the writeoff now on this years books instead of waiting for the plan to complete and having that continue to show as money due on the books.

[kmartin]

I am also in AZ, filed in April 2011. Our Chapter 13 is very straightforward, we are on a 100% payback plan and the time has long passed for anyone else to file a claim. I have made 9 payments so far and still have not been confirmed. AZ must just be really slow. Patiently waiting.....

[Guest123]

I'm in Az also and we filed a year ago. I think it took 4 - 6 months for us. Would have been sooner but we had some issues with a creditor.

I would just save the bonus until you are comfirmed just to be safe. We had to do that with a tax return but the trustee didn't need it.

Once it gets comfirmed the weight should lift from your shoulders.