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Once you file for bankruptcy, you will need to fulfill all of the following duties:

• Provide a complete statement of assets and liabilities including creditors’ names, addresses, account numbers, invoices and amounts. Where additional bills or legal documents are received by the bankrupt, they should be provided to the trustee. If you should forget to tell the trustee about certain assets or debts you must promptly tell them as soon as you remember
• Reveal and turn over to the trustee all non-exempt assets in your possession or control
• Make available to the trustee all books and records relating to assets or financial affairs
• Inform the trustee of the details of all property disposed of in the five years prior to the bankruptcy
• Turn over all credit cards to the trustee, for cancellation
• Submit monthly statements showing all the money received into your household and all money spent by your household and make payments to the trustee as required to do so
• Inform the trustee of any material change in circumstances (for example if your earnings significantly increase or decrease, if you get a job/lose a job, if you acquire a dependent/lose a dependent, etc.)
• Attend the first meeting of the creditors if there is one, and any other meetings when called upon by the trustee
• Attend first and second financial counselling sessions
• Provide information to prepare tax returns
• Keep the trustee advised of your address, phone number, and email address until approximately a year after you have been discharged

You may be required to attend at the Office of the Official Receiver (the government representative dealing with bankruptcies) or at the place set by the Official Receiver, if and when requested, to be examined under oath as to the facts relating to the bankruptcy. Most people who go bankrupt are not required to do this.

The following five videos may help you better understand the insolvency process and your available options:

• Discussing your options with an LIT
• What to expect if you file for bankruptcy
• Submitting a consumer proposal to creditors
• Understanding the bankruptcy discharge
• Bankruptcy and surplus income payments

If you have further questions about bankruptcy, please speak with your Grant Thornton debt professional.

The most common way for you to go bankrupt is “to make an assignment in bankruptcy”. This means you are choosing to go bankrupt.

You start the process by meeting with one of our debt professionals, in person or over the phone, for your free consultation. We will find out the details of your particular situation, including what assets you own and what debts you have. We will then explain your debt solution options to you in detail. If you then decide that you want to file for bankruptcy, you will complete our Fresh Start Workbook. Once we have the completed Workbook, we can then prepare the forms that you are required to sign. You will meet with us to sign the forms and then we will file your bankruptcy with the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy. You will then be bankrupt.

While in bankruptcy, you are subject to certain restrictions:

• You can’t obtain credit in excess of $999 unless you advise the creditor giving you the credit that you are going through bankruptcy
• You can go into business provided you advise people you are dealing with that you are an undischarged bankrupt
• You can’t sit on the Board of Directors of a limited company
• You can’t own or acquire any assets in excess of current exemption limits