713Training.Com has trained literally thousands of virtual bankruptcy assistants. Below is a compilation of the majority of questions we receive from people just entering this field as well as the answers. This information will aide you in making an informed decision whether to move forward in the virtual bankruptcy assistant field or not.
Do I need to be a paralegal to work for bankruptcy attorneys?No! Drafting bankruptcy petitions is not a skill taught in any law school or paralegal course. Paralegals normally focus their duties on more advanced areas of bankruptcy law including trial preparation, appeal procedures and working on more high profile cases. In the past, drafting bankruptcy petitions was considered to be nothing more than filling in forms. When the forms were filled out wrong or were missing information, the bankruptcy court rejected the filing and the attorney and staff inherited more work in filing amendments, motions and other legal documents to correct the errors and omissions.
However, when the bankruptcy law changed in 2005, a higher level of skills were needed to complete the bankruptcy forms. It has been proven that a well-researched and well-prepared bankruptcy petition is the cornerstone of the debtor bankruptcy law firm. If the bankruptcy petition is prepared correctly, the entire bankruptcy process normally flows with precision, saving attorneys, bankruptcy courts, Trustees and the debtor a great deal of time and frustration. And since these skills are not taught in any other media, many law firms (including attorneys, paralegals and legal personnel) lack these skills. However, if you have obtained them, you can write your own ticket and move your career into the direction you want to go.
Will I be taking the job away from a paralegal who is working at a law firm?No. You are not taking anyone’s job away when you work as a virtual bankruptcy assistant. Instead, you are an instrumental part of the law firm team because the work you do helps to relieve a heavy workload from the office staff.
Can I only work for bankruptcy attorneys in my area?No. Bankruptcy law is federal law. Just like a 1040 Tax Form in Kentucky looks the same as a 1040 Tax Form in Colorado, federal bankruptcy forms look the same in every state. The only difference (like tax forms) is the addition of local forms required by the state. Just like the state tax forms vary from state to state, local forms inside the federal bankruptcy forms may (or may not) vary from state to state. However, the bankruptcy software you use will ensure that you have all the correct forms for the state and jurisdiction your attorney is working in, thus eliminating any guesswork.
Therefore, once you learn the skills of preparing well-detailed bankruptcy petitions, you can work for attorneys in your local area, in your state, or in every state within the U.S. Because the work you do is virtual (communication is by email and PDF), there is no qualification that you must live in the same state as the attorney or law firm you work for.
Prior to finding out about the virtual bankruptcy assistant field, you may have heard horror stories concerning unauthorized practice of law (UPL) charges brought against non-attorney petition preparers. This is why I wrote the article that appears on Page 7 of this eBook to help you understand the difference between a professionally trained virtual bankruptcy assistant and a bankruptcy petition preparer.
Additionally, your name never appears on a bankruptcy petition that is filed with the court. This is because you are working for the attorney. Attorneys abide by a Code of Regulations that state they are ultimately responsible for any errors made by their legal staff. Therefore, you are protected as a non-attorney when you work for licensed attorneys. This also means that you do not need to purchase any errors and omissions insurance or a bond of any type. Think of yourself in the same way as you would consider yourself a service employee to a law firm, such a court reporter or a temporary contract employee.
Is this type of business considered “sharing fees” with the attorney?No. Virtual bankruptcy assistants never share fees with the attorney. The debtors pay the attorney directly for his or her representation. The virtual bankruptcy assistant processes the paperwork for the attorney, gathers general information from the client, and submits a bankruptcy petition for review and approval to the attorney. This is the same way a law firm employee would perform their duties if they worked inside the law firm preparing a bankruptcy petition. The only difference is that you are working from home and charging a flat fee for every bankruptcy petition you process.
How long will it take for me to train as a virtual bankruptcy assistant?Someone called the office one day and asked: “How long will it take me to read your book?” My assistant said: “How fast do you read?”
Providing you with an answer regarding the length of time it will take you to train as a virtual bankruptcy assistant is an impossible question to answer. The only reason I can think of as to why people ask this question is because they have watched too many infomercials. Business scams that promise you will make $10,000 in the next 30 days are nothing but scams. No one can promise you how much money you are going to make in any field. If a company makes any type of promise like this, run away from them immediately. They are only after your money and will only deliver you empty promises.
Besides, working in bankruptcy is similar to learning how to swim. You can attend swimming classes and learn all the basics; but you are not going to learn how to swim until you get in the water. In the same manner, 713Training.Com can provide you with all the basic skills you need to learn how to work for attorneys preparing Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy petitions; but you are not going to really learn how to master the skill until you work for an attorney and prepare bankruptcy petitions.
Again, this is a question I cannot answer. Every bankruptcy petition is unique. Every person who files bankruptcy has a unique set of debts and assets. One petition you prepare could be for a debtor with 15 rental properties and $250,000 in credit card debt. Another petition may be for a college student who is renting a basement apartment, owns no real estate and has only $7,000 in credit card debt. Therefore, the length of time it takes to complete a bankruptcy petition is dependent upon many different factors; which makes it impossible to determine the length of time it will take to complete any one bankruptcy petition.
I am convinced that people who ask this question are trying to determine how much money they are going to make working in this field. For example: If it takes 4 hours to prepare a bankruptcy petition from start to finish and you are being paid $400 per petition, you are going to earn $100 per hour. But I strongly urge you to abandon this type of thought pattern. Preparing bankruptcy petitions is not like working on an assembly line. One petition may take you 1 hour, another will take 8 hours, and still another may take 2 or 3 days. Plus, the more petitions you process the faster you will get. One virtual bankruptcy assistant told me:
“It took me almost 12 hours to prepare my first bankruptcy petition, but after doing about 15 or 20 of them I progressively got faster. Today, a typical bankruptcy petition with $15,000 or so in credit card debt and 1 real estate property takes me about 45 minutes.”
My suggestion to you is that instead of trying to answer this question now; concentrate on determining whether this is a field you will enjoy working in. If so, the money will come and you can regulate your income depending on the number of attorneys you choose to work for. Regardless, you will definitely earn more money than most people working full-time jobs. But, the amount you earn is entirely up to you.
What about additional training and support?Everyone who purchases training products from 713Training.Com is entitled to ongoing training and support through the lifetime of their career. This is a very rare option for a business to offer but it is necessary for the virtual bankruptcy assistant field to continue growing. One way that 713Training.Com provides this additional support is through the development of the National Association of Virtual Bankruptcy Assistants which you can learn more about by visiting http://www.navba.org.
713Training.Com also provides:Personal 1-on-1 Training at the Colorado Facility
http://www.713training.com/shop/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=98
Online 1-on-1 Training (class conducted by telephone and online) http://www.713training.com/shop/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=84
Bankruptcy Petition Review Training
http://www.713training.com/shop/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=86
Personalized Training in Marketing
http://www.713training.com/shop/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=96
How is the typical virtual bankruptcy assistant business structured?
Your virtual bankruptcy assistant business should be structured so that it benefits the attorneys you are working for. Since this is your business, you have the freedom to structure your own individual business any way you want. However, to provide you with a better idea of how the typical virtual bankruptcy assistant service operates, review the following outline:
** The process begins by the client filling out a set of Client Intake Forms. Most virtual bankruptcy assistant’s purchase personalized Client Intake Forms that they distribute to their attorneys. The attorneys print out the forms, give them to their clients, who in turn fill them out and returns them to the attorney along with the required documents (see last two pages of the Client Intake Forms.)
** The attorney returns the following to the virtual bankruptcy assistant by PDF or fax: (1) Completed set of Client Intake Forms; (2) Copy of the Credit Counseling Certificate; (3) Six months of paycheck stubs or bank statements (if client is not paid by an employer.) If client is self-employed they will fill out the business income and expense page included inside the Client Intake Forms.
** The virtual bankruptcy assistant begins inputting the information from the Client Intake Forms into the bankruptcy software. During the process, the virtual bankruptcy assistant compiles a list of questions for the client intake interview (normally conducted by telephone) as well as an Attorney Summary Sheet for the attorney. Both of these skills are taught in the training you receive from 713Training.Com.
** The virtual bankruptcy assistant will normally call the client and obtain any missing information not provided in the Client Intake Forms. This is a skill that is also taught in the training you received from 713Training.Com. It takes training as well as the ability to “think outside the box” to uncover hidden assets and liabilities that many clients omit due to their lack of knowledge in bankruptcy. Because you are trained in these skills, the attorneys benefit considerably because you are helping to protect them from possible fines and fulfilling their due diligence. This is only one reason why attorneys prefer to hire professionally trained virtual bankruptcy assistants. The average law firm employee or paralegal has never received this level of training.
** Next, the virtual bankruptcy assistant is trained how to conduct a wide range of different online researches for market values, judgment liens and criminal activity. These skills are not simply a background search where you get previous addresses and employment records. For the bankruptcy petition you are looking for different information in order to protect the debtor as well as the attorney you are working for.
** Finally, the virtual bankruptcy assistant combines all this information into a draft of a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition which is emailed to the attorney in PDF format. The attorney will review the document and make any corrections. The virtual bankruptcy assistant will prepare a final bankruptcy petition for filing with the bankruptcy court.
** The bankruptcy petition is electronically filed, either by the attorney or the virtual bankruptcy assistant. All bankruptcy software provides one-touch filing as long as you have the ECF login username and password of the attorney the virtual bankruptcy assistant is working for.
Do I need to purchase the same bankruptcy software my attorney uses?No. Just like it doesn’t matter if you use TurboTax or TaxCut to prepare income taxes (since they all produce the same federal forms), it doesn’t matter what bankruptcy software you choose to run your virtual bankruptcy assistant business. Besides, all bankruptcy software programs perform the same functions. The only difference is that they all have different functions in a variety of places. Just like Microsoft Word and Coral WordPerfect produce word processing documents but the functions are in different places, the bankruptcy software programs operate in the same manner.
Caution: The best advice I have is for you is to concentrate on learning the skills needed to prepare Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy petitions FIRST. Once you have learned the skills, download the different bankruptcy software programs. That way, you can decide for yourself which bankruptcy software program you like best and which is the easiest for you to use in your virtual bankruptcy assistant business.
How much money can you earn as a virtual bankruptcy assistant?713Training.Com provides training materials to teach you the skill of preparing Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy petitions. It is up to you to use those skills to build your own virtual bankruptcy assistant service. And it is up to you to set your prices at a level that provides you with the ability to meet your income goals. Just like the roofing contractor you call. He or she will provide you with a different price than they would provide to your neighbor. Why? Because your roofing needs are different from the roofing needs of your neighbor. No two jobs are alike.
But I am sure you still want some type of estimate so you can decide if you want to start this type of business or not. At the time this eBook is being written, the average attorney charges their client $2,500 for a Chapter 7 and $3,500 for a Chapter 13. Normally, when you are first starting out, you will charge the attorney 20% to 25% of their attorney fee, or somewhere between $300 and $500 for a Chapter 7 and $500 to $750 for a Chapter 13. As your skills grow, you may increase your fee depending on the attorney you are working for.
Now that it has been established that you can expect to make excellent money working for attorneys, your focus should be on whether you will enjoy the job as a virtual bankruptcy assistant or not. If you do not enjoy preparing Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy petitions, you will never make any money because the quality of work you produce will be poor and attorneys will not pay you. This is why I enforce the mindset that money should never be your driving force in this field or any other field. If you enjoy the work, you will earn an excellent income. If you don’t enjoy the work, you will be wasting your time and not make any money.
Why is there now a focus on skilled virtual bankruptcy assistants?As I mentioned before regarding the change in the bankruptcy law, on October 17, 2005, the bankruptcy law underwent major changes. Suddenly, the bankruptcy petition was elevated to the status of a "crucial" and important document. The new law even imposed sanctions on attorneys who submitted a bankruptcy petition with incomplete or non-verified information. Unfortunately, since a large majority of bankruptcy attorneys did not have access to skill training in this area they had very limited choices.
Learning the skill of drafting well detailed bankruptcy petitions is your key to a long-term future careerAsk any bankruptcy attorney if they are satisfied with the petition drafting skills of their office staff and most of them will say “no.” Due of the lack of education in this area, the law office staff had to learn how to prepare bankruptcy petitions from their co-workers. The co-workers normally learned from past errors and mistakes they made. Therefore, when you learn the skills to become a well-trained virtual bankruptcy specialist, your skills are rare and your income earning potential is endless.
Additionally, most debtor law firms experience a high turnover rate in employees. Why? Because the job inside the typical debtor bankruptcy law firm can be extremely stressful and will wear on your nerves very quickly. For example: it is hard to sit day in and day out listening to stories that tear your heart out. I remember breaking down mentally because a really sweet lady told me how she had been raped in a client intake interview. She had been living on the street and had not eaten in 4 days. She had no living relatives and was now 4 months pregnant from the rape. After finishing the client intake interview I took her to Wendy’s. When I saw how hungry she really was I went to the grocery store and bought her enough food for a few days. Finally I drove her to a homeless shelter and prayed with her before we parted. Stories like this are common place when you work inside the law firm of a debtor bankruptcy attorney so you can begin to understand why there is a high turnover rate of employees.
This is exactly one reason why the attorney I was working for decided to take the bankruptcy petition preparation process outside the law firm and try the experiment that he did. By removing me from the physical contact of the debtor, I was able to do a better job in preparing the bankruptcy petition and continue working in the field of debtor bankruptcy law throughout my career. This is another reason why working as a virtual bankruptcy assistant can greatly benefit debtor bankruptcy law firms.
Think about it . . .You can spend four years in college, go into debt $100,000 or more and when you graduate you may be able to get an entry-level job paying a salary of $35,000. Or, you can invest about $600, train for 2-6 months and have an earning potential of $100,000 or more per year. The choice is up to you.
SummaryWorking for attorneys as a virtual bankruptcy assistant is not a job everyone will enjoy. Just like some people love working as used car salesmen and I don't. And to drive the point home even more, working as a medical doctor, veterinarian, construction worker is not for everyone either. It is up to you to take the time to research any field you are interested in pursuing with the intention of starting a business. As I have stressed before, if your only focus is making money, and you have no concern about the field of bankruptcy, there is no logical reason to start a virtual bankruptcy assistant business. In one of my recent seminars I said:
"If I wanted to open a pizza shop, I would learn how to make pizza. If I wanted to start a virtual bankruptcy assistant business, I would learn how to prepare bankruptcy petitions. How much money you "could" or "may" earn is irrelevant at this point. If you believe in what you are doing and enjoy your work, the money will come through your hard work and dedication. The next step now is up to you.”
713TRAINING.COM, LLC
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