Florida Bankruptcy Asset Exemption List

If you are considering filing for bankruptcy in Florida, your first thought might be to whether you would be able to keep your property or not from claims of creditors or the bankruptcy trustee. Based on the exemptions law, Ft. Lauderdale bankruptcy lawyer Jeffrey Solomon can help you know more specifically the assets that you can probably keep.

Florida residents have numerous exemptions. In bankruptcy, these exemptions apply if you have resided in Florida for two years. Exempt items exempt include:

• A qualified retirement account, such as a 401(k), IRA, Thrift Savings Plan, or pension.
• $1,000 in personal property and $2,000 for a husband and wife.
• $1,000 in equity in a motor vehicle, or for a husband and wife, $1,000 per vehicle on up to two vehicles.
• An additional $4,000 in personal property if the debtor does not claim a homestead exemption ($8,000 for husband and wife)
• Wages of the head of the household (primary wage-earner).
• Florida Prepaid Tuition Fund and a portion of 529 plans.
• Earned income credit portion of tax refund. (A chapter 7 trustee can take a tax refund.)
• Social Security or disability income (except for possibly a lump sum award).
• Worker’s compensation award.
• Child support or alimony necessary for support.
• Life insurance cash value (not the death benefit).
• Annuities.
• Mobile homes that remain on the real estate lot.
• Florida homesteads if the home is less than one half acre in a municipality or 160 acres elsewhere. (There is no value limit, but you must have owned the property for 1215 days, or you will receive only a $146,450 exemption, or likely $292,900 for a married couple. If you sold your prior home and used the funds to purchase a new homestead, it will be exempt.)
• Tenancy by the entireties. (If one spouse jointly owns a property with the other spouse, and there is no joint debt, creditors cannot seize it.

Attorney Solomon included information about homestead seminars for your convenience.  For an analysis of which of your personal assets are eligible for exemption, contact a Ft. Lauderdale bankruptcy attorney at the Law Office of Jeffrey Solomon.