The money sitting in your account on the day you file becomes part of your bankruptcy estate, and whether you keep it depends on which Nevada exemption covers it. Most people who file with an ordinary checking balance keep all of it, but the number that counts is the balance your bank shows on your filing date, not the number in your checkbook.
Your filing date is a snapshot
Bankruptcy takes a picture of what you own at a single moment. The Bankruptcy Code says the estate includes all legal or equitable interests of the debtor in property "as of the commencement of the case" (11 U.S.C. ยง 541(a)(1)). The case commences when the petition is filed. Not at your 341 meeting weeks later, not at discharge. Whatever is in the account at that moment is what the trustee sees. One of the first documents a Chapter 7 trustee asks for is the bank statement covering the filing date. That is routine, not a trap.
Nevada's exemption list is the one that applies
Nevada opted out of the federal exemption scheme, so Nevada filers use Nevada's list (NRS 21.090(3)). For cash, the one that matters is the wildcard in NRS 21.090(1)(z), which covers personal property not otherwise exempt and specifically names "money, stocks, bonds or other funds on deposit with a financial institution." You get to choose what it is applied to.
There is deliberately no dollar figure in this post. Nevada's exemption amounts are set by statute and change periodically. Ask about the number that applies on the day you actually file.
Where the deposit came from can matter more than how much it is
Some money is exempt because of its source, separately from the wildcard. Social Security, child support, spousal support, unemployment benefits, private disability payments and workers' compensation each have their own exemption under NRS 21.090. Retirement funds have their own as well. The complication is mixing. If Social Security lands in the same account as a paycheck and bills have been paid from it for a year, identifying which dollars are which becomes a tracing question that depends on the records. Sometimes it is clean. Often it is not.
Outstanding checks catch more people than anything else
This is the most common surprise, and it comes from reading these statements for a living. Say you write a $900 rent check on the 28th and file on the 30th, and the check does not clear until the 2nd. Your register says $150. Your bank says $1,050. The estate works from the bank's figure, because that money was still yours at the moment you filed. The same gap opens around a tax refund that just landed or a paycheck deposited that morning, which is why filing the day before payday looks very different from filing the day after. That gap is usually manageable, but only if someone looks before the petition goes in.
A bank you also owe money to may freeze the account
If you bank where you also carry a credit card, an overdraft balance or a car loan, which is common at credit unions, that institution may place a hold on the account once it learns of the filing. Courts have drawn a line between a bank briefly holding funds and a bank actually applying them to what you owe, and the rules there are technical. The practical point: if your bank is also a creditor, raise it before you file rather than after a rent payment bounces.
The trustee also looks at the months before you filed
The balance is one question; the deposits leading up to it are another. Unusually large deposits, transfers to family and payments to relatives in the months before filing all draw questions, and a payment to a relative is something a trustee may be able to recover from that relative afterward. That is a hard surprise for someone trying to do right by family. Spending your own money on ordinary living expenses before filing, such as rent and groceries, is a different matter from giving it away. The line between the two is fact-specific.
Talk it through before you file, not after
If you are worried about the money in your account, a conversation costs nothing. Brian D. Shapiro has approximately 30 years of practice in the United States Bankruptcy Court and is one of only four Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustees in the District of Nevada, so these questions get answered from both sides of the table. Consultations are free and held by phone or video, and the firm requires $0 down in attorney fees to start a Chapter 7, with no attorney fees due until after the petition is filed. Call 702-386-8600.