Property & Exemptions
What you get to keep: how exemptions protect your home, car, retirement, and personal property, the choice between federal and state exemption systems, the wildcard exemption, and what happens to property you cannot protect.
All Property & Exemptions guides
- Exemption Planning Before You File: What's Allowed
Converting cash into exempt property before filing can be lawful planning or a fraudulent transfer that costs your discharge. Here's the legal line.
- Protecting Your Car With Vehicle Exemptions
How the motor-vehicle and wildcard exemptions protect your car's equity in bankruptcy, and what to do if equity exceeds the limit.
- Protecting Your Retirement Accounts in Bankruptcy
401(k)s, pensions, and most IRAs are strongly protected in bankruptcy. Learn the rules, the inherited-IRA exception, and why not to cash out early.
- Can You Lose Your Tax Refund in Bankruptcy?
A tax refund can become part of your bankruptcy estate. Learn how exemptions, timing, and your chapter type affect whether you keep it.
- The Wildcard Exemption Explained
The bankruptcy wildcard exemption lets you protect any property you choose — here's how it works and how to find current amounts.
- Bankruptcy Exemptions Explained: What You Can Keep
Bankruptcy exemptions let most filers keep their home, car, and belongings. Here's how the exemption system actually works.
- Federal vs. State Bankruptcy Exemptions
Some states let you pick federal bankruptcy exemptions, others require state-only. Learn how residency decides which list applies to you.
- Protecting Life Insurance and Annuities in Bankruptcy
Term life usually has nothing to protect. Whole-life cash value and annuities are different — here's how bankruptcy treats each, and where to check the rules.
- What Happens to Jointly Owned Property in Bankruptcy?
Filing bankruptcy only pulls in your share of jointly owned property - here's how homes, cars, and joint accounts are actually treated.
- The Homestead Exemption: Protecting Your Home
How the homestead exemption protects home equity in bankruptcy, why it varies wildly by state, and the federal cap that can limit recent movers.
- What Is Non-Exempt Property (and What Happens to It)?
Non-exempt property is what exemptions don't cover. Here's what a Chapter 7 trustee can do with it, and how it sets your Chapter 13 minimum payment.
- Can You Keep an Inheritance in Bankruptcy?
A death within 180 days after you file can pull an inheritance into your bankruptcy estate. How the rule, the Chapter 13 difference, and exemptions work.
- The Tools-of-the-Trade Exemption
How the tools-of-the-trade exemption protects work equipment and vehicles in bankruptcy, and how it stacks with the wildcard exemption.
- The Domicile Rule: Which State's Exemptions You Use
Moved states recently? Bankruptcy's domicile rule can send you back to your old state's exemptions. Here's how the look-back period works.