Yes, in many cases the trustee can. If you paid money back to a parent, sibling, or other relative in the year before you filed Chapter 7, the trustee assigned to your case has the power to sue that relative and recover the payment for the benefit of your other creditors.
The law treats family differently from everyone else
When you file Chapter 7, the trustee looks backward at what you did with your money before the case. Section 547 of the Bankruptcy Code lets the trustee undo certain payments made to creditors shortly before filing, on the theory that the money should have been split among everyone you owed instead of going to one favored person. For an ordinary creditor the look-back period is 90 days. For an "insider," it stretches to one year. Relatives count as insiders, and so do business partners and companies you control.
The one-year window is the part that surprises people. A payment you made eleven months ago, when you had no intention of filing anything, can still be pulled back.
Here is what it looks like in practice
Say you borrowed $5,000 from your mother in 2024 to cover a stretch of slow work. In May you get a bonus and pay her back in full. In August the medical bills catch up with you and you file Chapter 7.
Your mother was paid in full. Your credit card companies and the hospital were not. The trustee can sue your mother for that $5,000, and if the trustee wins, she writes a check to the bankruptcy estate, which is then divided among all of your creditors. She can file a claim in your case for the loan, but a claim in a Chapter 7 often pays very little or nothing.
Your discharge does not protect her. The discharge wipes out your obligation to pay the debt. It does nothing about the trustee's right to go after a person who received your money.
Small payments are generally not the target
The Code has a floor for consumer cases. Under section 547(c)(8), if your debts are primarily consumer debts, a transfer cannot be attacked as a preference when the total value affected is less than $600. Slipping your brother $150 for groceries three times last spring is not what this is about.
The practical point is that trustees pursue payments worth pursuing. A lawsuit costs real money, and a small recovery does not justify one.
Handing over property is a separate and bigger problem
Paying a real debt is one thing. Giving something away is treated more harshly. Section 548 lets the trustee undo transfers made within two years before filing where you got less than reasonably equivalent value in return and were insolvent at the time, or where you made the transfer intending to put the asset out of a creditor's reach.
Signing your truck over to your son "to keep it safe" is the version of this we see most often. It does not keep the truck safe. It turns a vehicle that might have been protected by Nevada's exemptions into a lawsuit against your son, and it raises questions about your intent that an ordinary exemption claim never would have raised.
Leaving it off the paperwork is the worst option
The official bankruptcy forms ask directly about payments to insiders in the year before filing, and about property you transferred. You sign them under penalty of perjury. A disclosed payment is a problem your lawyer can work with. A concealed one puts your discharge at risk and can carry consequences well beyond losing your case.
Sometimes timing is the whole answer
Whether any of this actually matters in your case depends on the facts: how much was paid, when, to whom, whether it was a genuine loan or a gift, what you owned at the time, and whether a lawsuit would net anything for creditors. In some situations waiting a few months to file moves a payment outside the window entirely. In others, waiting does nothing useful and only lets a garnishment continue. It varies, and it is worth knowing which situation you are in before you file rather than after. The same goes before you repay anyone. If you are thinking about catching up with a relative because the loan weighs on you, ask first.
Talk it through before you do anything
Brian D. Shapiro has roughly 30 years in the United States Bankruptcy Court and currently serves as one of only four Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustees in the District of Nevada, so he sees this question from both sides of the table. Consultations are free and handled by phone or video, and Chapter 7 cases start with $0 down in attorney fees. Call 702-386-8600.