The Bank Run Protocol

01The order of operations

This is the moment the audit becomes visible, so it happens once, with counsel, and in sequence. Nothing here is a suggestion to empty an account or defeat a court order — jurisdictions impose automatic restraints, and violating them costs you more than the money.

• Retain counsel and confirm what the local automatic orders permit before you move a dollar.
• Request complete statements — five years where available — from every institution where your name appears.
• Open an individual account at an institution with no relationship to the household.
• Redirect your own income and secure a documented living reserve as counsel advises.
• Freeze credit at all three bureaus and pull all three reports the same day.
• Deliver the full document set to your attorney before any filing, not after.

02Chain of custody

From here forward, every document gets a source, a date received, and an unaltered original file. Rename nothing. Crop nothing. Keep a simple log. Evidence that cannot be authenticated is a story, and stories lose.