Because the world is shrinking, in effect, and because the US bankruptcy laws are stricter than ever, people now are asked about bank accounts and property they own "anywhere in the world."

They know that many people could stash money abroad, or could own real estate in foreign countries. You have to disclose it or else you'd be in trouble later on if they found out.

But for you, the gutter economy you speak of in the foreign country can work in your favor as far as evaluation of your one-third share of your family inheritance. Therefore, it might not be a strong adverse impact on your bankruptcy case after all.

You will have to disclose this potential asset on your bankruptcy schedules. The tricky part will be assigning a value to it. You won't want to value it too highly, but you do need to be as truthful as possible.

The other important factor will be the exemptions available to you. There are categories of exemptions for things such as vehicles, retirement plans, household goods, and jewelry. There is also a catch all category often referred to as the "wild card" exemption. Usually there are enough exemptions for all of a person's property and therefore nothing needs to be sold for the benefit of creditors.

If you already have a lot of assets, you may use up your exemptions and have nothing left over for this potential inheritance. If you don't have many assets, then hopefully you will have enough exemptions available to you for the value of this inheritance.

A bankruptcy case will have a trustee assigned to it. It's the trustee's job to try to maximize recovery to the creditors and see if there is anything that should be liquidated. It will be up to the trustee to object to this item on your bankruptcy schedules if he feels it should be liquidated.