The Personal Financial Management Instructional Course has many names. Your attorney, the court, or another website may refer to it differently — but they all describe the same federally required course.

All of these refer to the same course offered by Bankruptcy Logic.

This is the course taken after filing your bankruptcy case and before the court grants your discharge. If your attorney, trustee, or court paperwork is asking for a debtor education certificate, this is the course you need.

If you have not yet filed your case and are looking for the pre-filing credit counseling requirement, that is a different course entirely.

My court paperwork says I need a "debtor education certificate." Is that this course? Yes. A debtor education certificate is the certificate issued upon completing the Personal Financial Management Instructional Course. Bankruptcy Logic provides this certificate promptly upon course completion.

My attorney called it the "second course." Is that this one? Yes. It is commonly called the second bankruptcy course because there are two required courses — one before filing and one after. This is the second one.

What is the first course? The first course is the pre-filing credit counseling course, taken before you file your bankruptcy petition. That is a separate requirement with a separate certificate. See our article on the difference between Course 1 and Course 2 for more information.