A Court Appointed Trustee is a Private Individual Overseen by the United States Trustee, a Branch of the Department of Justice

Interviewer: Who is the appointed trustee? Who is this person and how does this person gets life debt?

Brad Weil: The court appointed trustee is a private individual, can be an attorney doesn’t have to be. I know several trustees that are not attorneys, they’re accountants actually. They are appointed by the court, they are overseen by the office of the United States trustee, which is a branch of the Department of Justice. And their job is to oversee the bankruptcy process. In the Chapter 13, their job is to collect monthly payments and to distribute that monthly payment to the creditors based on the plan of reorganization that the debtor proposes. They are also responsible for verifying the debtor’s income and expenses, making sure the expenses are what we call necessary and reasonable. If your expenses are too high, they might challenge that. They file objections to the plan if there’s something not right about your plan and they will object and you have to fix it before you can get the plan confirmed by the judge. Or sometimes, you can challenge the trustee.