What to keep in mind
- Assessment comes before a choice of procedure.
- Filing creates continuing responsibilities.
- Discharge and final estate administration are different milestones.
Assessment is a separate step from filing
Before treating bankruptcy as the answer, ask for an explanation of the available procedures and their consequences for your specific debts and assets. The OSB describes Licensed Insolvency Trustees as federally regulated professionals authorized to administer bankruptcies and consumer proposals.
Prepare a complete debt inventory rather than choosing only the accounts you want addressed. Include government balances, family obligations, guarantees, disputed demands and business liabilities. Mark each document with the borrower name and latest balance date. This lets the discussion distinguish what you owe from what a chosen process can actually change.
Administration involves information and cooperation
Bankruptcy carries duties to provide records, disclose property and assist the trustee. Those requirements are set out in section 158. Treat information gathering as ongoing work, rather than a form completed once.
Create a folder for requests and a second folder for your responses. Keep copies of income evidence, asset valuations and correspondence. If an entry is wrong or incomplete, ask how to correct it promptly. When documents are unavailable, explain which document is missing and what you have tried to obtain. Silence makes it harder to distinguish a delay from an unresolved question.
Property and income need different analyses
An asset assessment asks about ownership, value, security and applicable exemptions. An income assessment asks different questions about earnings and family circumstances. The OSB bankruptcy overview explains these separate aspects of administration.
For a vehicle, bring the finance agreement and a recent payout figure alongside a reasonable valuation. For variable work income, bring a sequence of statements rather than your strongest month. Ask the trustee to identify the assumptions behind any estimate. A headline monthly figure is difficult to evaluate without knowing what it includes and what could change.
Discharge needs its own confirmation
Discharge concerns release from debts subject to statutory exceptions; it does not mean every obligation disappears. The OSB discharge explanation distinguishes automatic and court outcomes. Do not infer completion simply because the expected month has arrived.
Keep the document confirming your discharge and ask which obligations or administrative matters remain. Our discharge guide explains the questions to ask. If you have a previous filing, unresolved duties or a notice of opposition, flag it early. This page provides a route through the system, not a filing recommendation or a calculation for an individual estate.
Follow the evidence
Sources & further reading
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