Wyoming Bankruptcy Exemptions: What You Get to Keep

If you file bankruptcy in Wyoming, the most important rule to understand up front is this: Wyoming has opted out of the federal bankruptcy exemption system. Under Wyo. Stat. § 1-20-109, the federal exemption list in 11 U.S.C. § 522(d) is not available to a debtor whose domicile has been in Wyoming for the 180 days before filing. You use Wyoming's own exemptions, found mainly in Title 1, Chapter 20 of the Wyoming Statutes, combined with the separate set of federal nonbankruptcy exemptions (which protect things like Social Security, veterans' benefits, and most ERISA-qualified pensions). That single choice shapes everything else — though, as explained below, a recent arrival in Wyoming can sometimes still reach the federal list.

Wyoming's Homestead Exemption: $100,000

Wyoming's homestead exemption is set by Wyo. Stat. § 1-20-101, and it protects up to $100,000 of equity in the home you occupy as your residence. If you have seen a $20,000 figure elsewhere, it is out of date: the Legislature raised the exemption fivefold in HB0174 (2023 General Session, Enrolled Act No. 39), which struck “twenty thousand dollars ($20,000.00)” and inserted “one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000.00),” effective July 1, 2023. Many secondary sources still print the old number.

Two more features matter. First, the homestead is per person, not per household. Wyo. Stat. § 1-20-102(b) says that when two or more persons jointly own and occupy the same residence, each is entitled to the homestead exemption — so two joint owner-occupiers can protect up to $200,000 of combined equity. Note the statute says “persons,” not “spouses”: joint owner-occupiers do not have to be married. Second, the homestead is only exempt while occupied as a residence (§ 1-20-102(a)), and it can consist of a house on a lot, land of any number of acres, or a house trailer or other movable home, whether or not it still has wheels (§ 1-20-104).

“Equity” means the value of the home minus what you still owe on the mortgage and any liens. So if your home is worth $320,000 and you owe $240,000, your $80,000 of equity falls comfortably within a single filer's exemption. One important exception: under § 1-20-108(a), the exemptions in §§ 1-20-101 through 1-20-106 do not protect property from a creditor collecting the purchase money for that same property, and the person claiming them must be a bona fide Wyoming resident.

Vehicle, Personal Property, Firearms, and Tools of the Trade

Wyoming protects a range of personal property under Wyo. Stat. §§ 1-20-105 and 1-20-106. The current statutory figures are:

• Motor vehicle — $5,000. Section 1-20-106(a)(iv) exempts “the value in a motor vehicle not exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000.00).” As with the homestead, this protects your equity, not the sticker price.
• Household furniture, bedding, and provisions — $4,000 per occupant. Section 1-20-106(a)(iii) exempts furniture, bedding, provisions and other household articles as the debtor may select, up to $4,000 — and “when two (2) or more persons occupy the same residence, each shall be entitled to a separate exemption.”
• Tools of the trade — $4,000. Section 1-20-106(b) exempts the tools, team, implements or stock in trade used to carry on your trade or business up to $4,000; a professional person's library, instruments and implements are separately exempt up to $4,000.
• Firearms — up to 3, totaling $3,000. Section 1-20-106(a)(v) exempts not more than three firearms with a combined value up to $3,000, plus their associated ammunition, up to 1,000 rounds per firearm. This one is easy to miss, and an unclaimed exemption is a waived exemption.
• Wearing apparel — $2,000. Section 1-20-105 exempts necessary wearing apparel up to $2,000, but expressly excludes jewelry of any kind other than wedding rings.
• Family bible, pictures, school books, and a cemetery lot. Exempt without a stated dollar cap under § 1-20-106(a)(i) and (a)(ii).

If a sheriff levies on your property, § 1-20-106(c) provides that the value of what you select is fixed by the appraisement of three disinterested appraisers summoned by the officer — so valuation is a step you can contest.

Other targeted protections include retirement plans (§ 1-20-110), which broadly exempt interests in and payments from plans qualified under 26 U.S.C. §§ 401, 403, 408, 408A, 409, 414 or 457 — with a trap worth knowing: under § 1-20-110(b), a contribution you make to a retirement plan within 90 days before filing bankruptcy is not exempt. Contributions to a qualified medical savings account are exempt under § 1-20-111. Federal nonbankruptcy law adds Social Security, veterans' and black lung benefits, workers' compensation, and unemployment compensation.

The Missing Piece: No Broad Wildcard

One of the biggest practical differences in Wyoming is what it does not have. The federal exemption system includes a generous “wildcard” that lets filers protect cash, a bank balance, or any property of their choice. Wyoming has no comparable general-purpose wildcard exemption. A Wyoming filer cannot simply shield a chunk of money in checking or a tax refund the way a debtor using the federal list can.

If you have non-exempt cash, a second vehicle, valuable collectibles, or a tax refund coming, those assets may be exposed in Chapter 7. In Chapter 13, you keep your property but must pay unsecured creditors at least the value of what is not exempt over your repayment plan, so exemptions still drive the math.

How Exemptions Work in Chapter 7 vs. Chapter 13

In a Chapter 7 liquidation, a trustee may sell property that is not covered by an exemption and distribute the proceeds to creditors. Because most Wyoming filers' essential property fits within the exemptions — and, since 2023, a great deal more home equity does — the large majority of Chapter 7 cases are “no-asset” cases in which nothing is actually sold.

In a Chapter 13 reorganization, you keep all your property and repay creditors through a three-to-five-year plan. Exemptions set a floor: under the “best interests of creditors” test, your plan must pay unsecured creditors at least as much as they would have received if your non-exempt assets had been liquidated in Chapter 7. So even though nothing is sold, larger non-exempt holdings can raise your plan payment.

Residency Rules Before You File

You cannot pick a state's exemptions simply by filing there. Under 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(A), the exemptions you get are those of the state where you were domiciled for the 730 days (two years) before filing; if you were not in a single state for that whole period, the law looks to where you were domiciled for the 180 days immediately preceding that 730-day period (or the longer part of it).

There is an important exception, and it is the one most likely to be missed. If that domicile rule leaves you ineligible for any exemption — which happens when the state you are sent back to limits its exemptions to its own residents — the hanging paragraph at the end of 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3) says the debtor may elect the federal exemptions under § 522(d). So a recent arrival in Wyoming is not automatically stuck. Wyoming's own opt-out (§ 1-20-109) is itself written to apply only where the debtor's domicile has been in Wyoming for the 180 days before filing. If you moved recently, do not assume the federal list — and its wildcard — is off the table; this is worth checking carefully.

How Wyoming Compares on Wage Garnishment

Exemptions also reach your paycheck if a creditor wins a judgment. Wyoming enacts the federal Consumer Credit Protection Act cap (15 U.S.C. § 1673) almost verbatim in Wyo. Stat. § 1-15-408(b): a creditor may take the lesser of 25% of your disposable earnings for the week, or the amount by which your weekly disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage. Child support, taxes, and student loans follow different rules, and a child-support income withholding order takes priority over any other garnishment.

Wyoming adds a protection that many readers never hear about: your wages stay exempt after they land in your bank account. Under § 1-15-408(a), disposable earnings remain exempt to the extent of the 25%/30x cap if they were deposited in your account within 20 calendar days before a writ of garnishment was served on the bank, on the day of service, or within 10 business days after service. And if a creditor has already garnished the earnings shown on a pay advice, the remaining proceeds from that pay advice deposited into a bank account are “entirely exempt from execution.” If your account is frozen after a paycheck hits, say so — you may be entitled to that money back.

How to Claim and Enforce Your Exemptions

Exemptions are not automatic. In bankruptcy, you must list them on Schedule C of your petition, identifying each item, the statute that protects it, and the claimed value. Creditors and the trustee then have a limited window (generally 30 days after the conclusion of the meeting of creditors) to object. If no one objects, the exemption stands. Getting the valuations and the statutory citations right is critical, because an unclaimed or misvalued exemption can cost you property.

Outside bankruptcy, Wyoming's exemptions protect you from a judgment creditor's execution or garnishment — but only if you speak up fast. Under Wyo. Stat. § 1-17-102(a), a person whose property is seized under execution must file a written request for a hearing with the clerk of court within 10 days after the seizure. The court then must hold the hearing within five days (excluding weekends and legal holidays) of receiving the request. The statutory notice Wyoming courts attach to every money judgment spells out the stakes: “If you fail to make a written request for a hearing and claim one (1) or more of the foregoing exemptions within ten (10) days after seizure of your property, funds or wages, you may waive or lose your right to claim the exemptions.” That is a short fuse. If your wages, bank account, or property have been seized, file the request first and sort out the details after.

Where to Verify the Current Figures

Dollar amounts in Title 1, Chapter 20 are amended from time to time, and stale figures circulate widely — the $20,000 homestead number is still printed on many websites, and even on some official handouts, three years after it was repealed. Confirm the current statutory amounts at the source:

• Read the exemption statutes in the current Wyoming Statutes, Title 1 (Code of Civil Procedure), published free as a PDF by the Wyoming Legislative Service Office. Chapter 20 is the exemption chapter; Chapter 15 covers garnishment and Chapter 17 covers execution.
• Check the enrolled act itself when a figure changes — for example, HB0174 (2023), which raised the homestead to $100,000, shows the exact strike-and-underline text the Legislature adopted.
• Read the federal exemption and domicile rules in 11 U.S.C. § 522 on the U.S. House Office of the Law Revision Counsel's official site.
• Consult the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Wyoming, and a licensed Wyoming bankruptcy attorney, before filing.

Federal consumer protections apply on top of state law: the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act limits how third-party collectors can contact you, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act governs what appears on your credit report. A bankruptcy discharge wipes out qualifying debts regardless of state, but which property you keep along the way is governed by Wyoming's exemption choices described above.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Exemption planning turns on your specific facts, and getting it wrong can cost you property — talk to a licensed Wyoming bankruptcy attorney about your situation.

Official Wyoming Sources

This page is based on Wyoming law. Limits and deadlines change — verify the current details directly with the official Wyoming sources below. This is general legal information, not legal advice.

• Wyoming Attorney General - Consumer Protection and Antitrust Unit — official Wyoming agency.
• Wyoming Attorney General - Consumer Complaints (file a complaint)
• Wyoming Statutes Title 40, Chapter 12 - Consumer Protection (Wyoming Consumer Protection Act)

Federal law also applies. Federal laws like the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Fair Credit Reporting Act protect you nationwide, on top of Wyoming’s own rules.