The most common fear people bring to a first consultation is that filing means losing everything they own. For the large majority of people who file, that is not what happens.
Exemptions are the whole game
Bankruptcy law lets you protect certain property from being sold to pay creditors. Those protections are called exemptions, and they are set largely by state law. That is why the honest answer to “will I lose my house” is always: it depends where you live, and on details someone needs to look at.
Some states protect a great deal of home equity. Others protect very little. Some let you choose between the state’s list and the federal list; many require you to use the state’s. The state page for where you live is the place to start, and an attorney licensed there is the place to finish.
The categories most people are asking about
Your home. Protection depends on your state’s homestead exemption and how much equity you actually have. If you owe close to what it is worth, there is often nothing for a trustee to take even where protection is thin.
Your car. Most states protect a working vehicle up to a limit. If you owe money on it, the equity is what matters, not the sticker price.
Retirement accounts. Tax-qualified retirement accounts are generally protected. This is the one people most often destroy trying to avoid filing.
The ordinary contents of your life. Clothes, furniture, kitchen things, tools you need for work. Trustees are not interested in your sofa.
What is not protected
Second properties, boats, valuable collections, large amounts of cash sitting in an account, and equity beyond your state’s limits. Also worth knowing: paying back a relative right before you file can be undone by the trustee, which creates a genuinely awful family conversation. Ask before you repay anyone.
The mistake to avoid
Do not start moving assets around, transferring things into a relative’s name, or selling property cheaply to someone you know. That is the fastest way to turn a routine filing into a contested one, and in the worst case into an allegation of fraud. Whatever your situation is, it is better to walk in and describe it accurately.
Next step
Look up your state’s exemptions, then have an attorney in that state confirm them against your actual situation. Amounts change, and details you would not think mattered — how long you have lived there, whose name is on the title, when you bought it — change the answer.