SS disability / bank account questions

[shoopy]

Currently I have my social security disability benefits (my only source of income) deposited directly into a checking account which also has my wife's name on it. In practice, I am the only one that ever uses it.

I use it to pay bills with, so it has been my practice to withdraw money from an account at a different bank in which my wife has direct deposit. I understand that social security funds should not be co-mingled with other funds, in order to preserve their exempt status. Is it enough to run the account down to zero, to make sure that there are no more co-mingled funds in the account, then never make any other deposits to it, other than social security? Can more than 1 months worth of social security be exempted?

I asked one of the attorneys that I interviewed if my wife and I should just create new individual bank accounts, since she won't be filing BK with me. His answer was kind of cryptic, and to the effect of '...it's probably best not to mess with bank accounts too much before filing...".

[justbroke]

The attorney is trying to say... don't move money around since it could give the appearance of hiding money. I would say that opening a new account and directing your SS/SSDI benefits to that account, would be the thing to do. Then, spend down the other (old) account. The problem is really about the appearance of hiding money and moving it around shortly before filing.

Are you talking a significant balance anyhow? Does the non-SS/SSDI money not fit into one of your exemptions anyhow?

[shoopy]

...Are you talking a significant balance anyhow? Does the non-SS/SSDI money not fit into one of your exemptions anyhow?

Thank you for reply.

I am likely going to have to use the Michigan exemptions, which don't give you crap in the way of any meaningful exemptions, but do exclude the homestead due to tenancy by the entirety, since my wife is not filing. Also excluded are social security payments, so I want to have as little other cash around as possible.

[Pandora]

I keep hearing about not co-mingling SSD with other monies, however we have always done so and did not have a problem whatsoever.

Maybe its a state by state / attorney by attorney thing - I dont know. Even though our funds were co-mingled, the total amount of my SSD was exempt from the means test, but it did count towards DMI unfortunately. Everything in our bank account was exempt as well, but we also spent it down (account) to as close to $100 as possible to coincide with our filing day as well as our 341. Our attorney told us to write all bills out at least 2 weeks prior to filing and our 341 hearing to ensure that all checks were cleared from the account - we did so - and still no issues.