Bankruptcy Trustees Some Overlook Non-Exempt Annuities And IRAs

Posted by Levi Templeton | No Comments

Almost all of my blog posts are intended to inform prospective bankruptcy debtors. This post is intended to help bankruptcy trustees.

I wrote a post on my asset protection blog about Florida’s annuity exemption being limited to annuities issued in Florida. The post explained that Florida residents who purchased an annuity while they resided in another state before moving to Florida may find that their annuity is not exempt under Florida law. Most annuity contracts state that the law applicable to the annuity is the law of the state where the annuity was issued which in most cases will be the state where the debtor resided when the annuity was sold. The question is in not where the annuity company is located; it’s where the debtor/owner lived when he entered into the annuity contract.

Florida debtors cannot export Florida’s exemptions to another state. I believe that an annuity which was purchased and issued in another state whose laws do not exempt annuities may not be exempt when the debtor subsequently files bankruptcy in Florida. The same issue applies to other assets outside Florida, such as IRAs, which were opened and still maintained in offices and accounts in another state.

Over the years I have had many bankruptcy clients claim exemptions for their annuities and other financial assets such as IRAs. I have never heard a bankruptcy trustee ask where the debtor lived when he bought the annuity or where the debtor opened and maintains his IRA account.

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