Official Form 106A/B is the schedule where individual bankruptcy filers list everything they own, and learning how to fill out Bankruptcy Schedule A/B comes down to three tasks: identifying every asset, valuing each one at what a buyer would actually pay today, and filing the completed form with your petition or within 14 days after.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure Rule 1007 – Lists, Schedules, Statements, and Other Documents The trustee and your creditors use this schedule to figure out what property might be liquidated in Chapter 7 or folded into a Chapter 13 repayment plan, so accuracy matters more than speed.
Gather Your Records First
Federal law requires a schedule of assets and liabilities in every individual bankruptcy case.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 521 – Debtor’s Duties Pulling documents together before you open the form saves rework later. You want:
- Deeds, mortgage statements, and recent tax assessments for any real estate you own or hold an interest in, including rentals and timeshares.
- Titles or registrations for every car, truck, motorcycle, boat, RV, or trailer, with mileage and condition notes.
- Current statements for checking, savings, money market, CD, and brokerage accounts.
- Recent statements for 401(k), IRA, and pension accounts.
- Whole life or universal life insurance policies with cash surrender values.
- Your most recent tax return and any refund you’re expecting but haven’t received.
- Documentation for any pending or potential lawsuit, insurance claim, or workers’ compensation case.
- Records of personal loans you’ve made, security deposits with landlords or utilities, and other money owed to you.
Filers routinely forget the items that don’t feel like property: an expected tax refund, a pending personal injury case, a security deposit sitting with a landlord. The trustee will ask about these under oath at the 341 meeting of creditors, and it is much easier to disclose them on the original form than to explain an omission later.3United States Department of Justice. Section 341 Meeting of Creditors
How to Value Each Asset
Schedule A/B asks for “current value,” meaning what a buyer would realistically pay for the item as it sits today. Not what you paid. Not what a replacement would cost new.
Household Goods, Clothing, and Electronics
Think thrift-store or garage-sale prices. A couch you bought for $1,200 five years ago might realistically sell for $75 to $150 at a yard sale, and that yard-sale figure is what goes on the form. Checking resale sites for comparable used items is a practical way to support your numbers, and jotting down where you found each comparable helps if the trustee later questions a value.
Vehicles
Use a recognized pricing guide such as Kelley Blue Book or NADA Guides and select the private-party value for your vehicle’s year, make, model, mileage, and condition. The form asks for both the value of the entire vehicle and the value of your interest. If you still owe $12,000 on a car worth $15,000, your equity is $3,000, but you still report $15,000 as the current value.
Real Estate
A recent tax assessment, a comparative market analysis from a real estate agent, or an online home-value tool gives you a reasonable starting point. A professional appraisal typically costs a few hundred dollars and may be worth it when the property’s value sits close to your exemption limit. Where you co-own a home with a spouse or partner, report only your share under “value of debtor’s interest.”
The Rule for Property Securing a Debt
When personal property secures a debt, such as a car loan, federal law defines value as “replacement value,” meaning the price a retail merchant would charge for property of that kind and condition, without deducting for sales costs.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 506 – Determination of Secured Status This produces a slightly higher number than a private-sale price. For unsecured household items, the thrift-store standard is the norm in most courts.
Working Through the Form
The form is broken into numbered parts by category. Every section must be addressed. If you don’t own property of a particular type, check “None” for that section rather than leaving it blank.5United States Courts. Schedule A/B: Property (Individuals)
Part 1: Real Estate
List every parcel you own or hold any interest in: home, vacation property, vacant land, rental, timeshare. For each, give the street address (or a description if there is no street address), the nature of your ownership (sole owner, joint tenant, tenant in common), the current value of the whole property, and the value of your interest.
Part 2: Personal Property
This is the longest section. It walks through dozens of specific property types: cash on hand, bank deposits, household goods, clothing, electronics, jewelry, firearms, collectibles, sports equipment, farm supplies, office equipment, and more. Describe the item, note whether it is owned solely or jointly, and enter the current value. Group similar low-value items together (“miscellaneous kitchen items — $50”) rather than listing every fork.
Part 3: Vehicles
List each car, truck, van, motorcycle, boat, trailer, and RV separately with year, make, model, and mileage. Enter the current value of the whole vehicle and the value of your interest.
Parts 4 Through 6: Financial Assets, Business Interests, and Other Property
These sections capture bank accounts, investments, retirement accounts, interests in businesses or partnerships, intellectual property, licenses, and anything that didn’t fit earlier. Legal claims belong here. If you have a pending lawsuit, a workers’ compensation claim, or any right to receive money from someone, list it with a brief description and your best estimate of value. Even a claim you consider worthless should be disclosed with a value of “$0” or “unknown” rather than omitted.
Part 7: Totals
Add the values from each prior part and enter the grand total. That figure is the total value of your bankruptcy estate before exemptions.
Redact Sensitive Information Before Filing
Bankruptcy filings become part of the public record, and federal rules require you to redact sensitive identifiers.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure Rule 9037 – Protecting Privacy for Filings Show only the last four digits of any financial account number, the last four digits of a Social Security number, only the year of a birth date, and only initials for a minor’s name. The clerk does not check for compliance. Redaction is your job.
Filing the Form
Schedule A/B is filed with the bankruptcy court in the district where you live, ideally alongside your petition and the other required schedules. If you don’t file it with the petition, you have 14 days to submit it.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure Rule 1007 – Lists, Schedules, Statements, and Other Documents
Attorneys file electronically through the court’s CM/ECF system.7United States Courts. Electronic Filing (CM/ECF) If you’re filing without an attorney, some bankruptcy courts offer a secure online upload portal as an alternative to mailing or hand-delivering paper to the clerk’s office.8United States Bankruptcy Court. Pro Se Electronic Document Upload Check your local court’s website. If you file on paper, keep a copy stamped with the filing date.
Can’t get everything together in 14 days? File a motion for more time. Courts usually treat a first request as routine and extend to 30 days from the petition date. Missing the deadline without an extension can lead to dismissal, so file the motion before the 14 days run out, not after.
Schedule A/B Alone Doesn’t Protect Anything
Listing an asset on Schedule A/B does not, by itself, keep it out of the trustee’s hands. To protect property, you also file Schedule C (Official Form 106C), which claims exemptions for specific assets you listed on A/B.9United States Courts. Schedule C: The Property You Claim as Exempt Federal and state exemption laws typically shield home equity up to a set amount, a vehicle, clothing, household goods, retirement accounts, and tools of your trade. The trustee reviews those exemption claims against the values you reported on A/B, and property that falls within your exemptions stays with you.10United States Courts. Chapter 7 – Bankruptcy Basics
This is why the valuation work on Schedule A/B matters. Overstate a value and you may push an asset above its exemption cap and lose property you could have kept. Understate it and the trustee can challenge you, slowing the case.
Amending After You File
You can amend Schedule A/B any time before the case closes.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC App Rule 1009 – Amendments of Voluntary Petitions, Lists, Schedules and Statements Amendments are common. You might discover a forgotten asset, realize a value was off, or acquire property after filing. File an updated Form 106A/B with the corrections and pay the court’s $34 amendment fee.12United States Courts. Bankruptcy Court Miscellaneous Fee Schedule The judge can waive the fee for good cause. Notify the trustee and any creditor whose interests are affected.
Voluntarily correcting a mistake looks far better than having the trustee find the omission first. If you realize you left something off, amend promptly.
Property You Acquire After Filing
The bankruptcy estate doesn’t close neatly at the petition date. Under federal law, property you acquire or become entitled to within 180 days after filing is also part of the estate if it comes from an inheritance, a divorce or separation property settlement, or a life insurance or death-benefit payout.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 541 – Property of the Estate What triggers the rule is becoming legally entitled to the property, not the money arriving. If a relative dies 90 days after you file and leaves you an inheritance, that inheritance belongs to the estate even if probate takes a year.
When you learn you’ve acquired or become entitled to property covered by this rule, file a supplemental schedule within 14 days.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure Rule 1007 – Lists, Schedules, Statements, and Other Documents Chapter 13 filers carry a broader obligation: because the Chapter 13 estate includes property the debtor acquires before the case is closed, dismissed, or converted, a windfall at any point during the three-to-five-year plan can trigger a plan modification that raises payments to creditors.
What Happens If You Leave Something Off
Consequences run from inconvenient to severe depending on whether the court believes the omission was accidental or deliberate.
- The court can dismiss the case or deny discharge, leaving you worse off than before filing.
- If you fail to list a legal claim and later try to pursue it, the opposing party can argue that you’re barred from the lawsuit because you told the bankruptcy court the claim didn’t exist. Courts have used this doctrine to throw out otherwise valid cases.
- Knowingly concealing property, making a false oath on your schedules, or fraudulently transferring assets before filing are federal crimes. Bankruptcy fraud carries up to five years in prison, a fine, or both.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 152 – Concealment of Assets; False Oaths and Claims
The trustee’s job is finding assets. They have access to your tax returns, bank records, and real property databases, and they question you under oath at the 341 meeting.3United States Department of Justice. Section 341 Meeting of Creditors An honest mistake is fixable through an amendment. A deliberate omission is not worth the risk.