What Property Is Exempt From Creditors in Wyoming?

In Wyoming, a judgment creditor cannot force the sale of your primary residence to satisfy a debt unless your equity exceeds the state's homestead exemption, which is $100,000 per owner-occupant under Wyo. Stat. § 1-20-101. The Legislature raised the homestead from $20,000 to $100,000 effective July 1, 2023, so older guides (and older versions of this page) understate it badly. Because the exemption is allowed per person, two people who jointly own and occupy the same home, such as a married couple, may each claim it, protecting up to $200,000 in equity (§ 1-20-102(b)). The homestead may be a house on a lot or lands of any number of acres, or a house trailer or other movable home — and it still counts whether or not the trailer has wheels or rests on an immovable support (§ 1-20-104). You can read the current text yourself in the Legislature's official statutes: Wyoming Statutes, Title 1 (Legislative Service Office).

Wyoming law shields a defined list of property and income from levy, execution, and garnishment. Knowing exactly which items are exempt, and how to assert that protection in time, is what keeps a creditor from emptying your bank account or seizing your belongings after a judgment.

The Wyoming Homestead Exemption

The homestead exemption (Wyo. Stat. § 1-20-101 through § 1-20-104) protects equity in the home you actually occupy, not a vacation property or rental. Key points specific to Wyoming:

• Amount: Up to $100,000 of value per owner-occupant. When two or more people jointly own and live in the home, each is entitled to a separate exemption — so a couple can shield up to $200,000.
• Occupancy is the condition: The homestead is exempt only while it is occupied as a home by the owner or the person entitled to it, or their family (§ 1-20-102(a)). If a spouse or minor child survives the owner, the survivor takes the homestead (§ 1-20-103).
• What qualifies: A house on a lot or on lands of any number of acres, or a house trailer or other movable home, wheels or no wheels.
• The one statutory exception: No property claimed as exempt under § 1-20-101 through § 1-20-106 is exempt from attachment or sale on execution for the purchase money of that property (§ 1-20-108(a)). If the debt is the money you borrowed to buy the very item, the exemption does not shield it. You must also be a bona fide Wyoming resident to claim these exemptions (§ 1-20-108(b)).
• What it does not stop: An exemption runs against execution and attachment by a creditor. It is not a defense to a mortgage or deed of trust you signed yourself — a lender you granted a lien to forecloses on that lien, and unpaid property taxes are collected outside the execution process.

If your equity is at or under the exemption, an ordinary judgment creditor has nothing to reach. Because Chapter 20 spells out only the purchase-money exception, be skeptical of any claim that some other creditor automatically outranks the homestead; make the creditor point to the statute.

Wages: Wyoming Tracks the Federal Garnishment Cap

Wyoming protects the larger of 75% of your disposable earnings for the week, or an amount equal to 30 times the federal minimum wage. The statute caps garnishment at the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings for that week, or the amount by which that week's disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage (Wyo. Stat. § 1-15-408(b)). Disposable earnings are what remains after legally required deductions such as taxes and Social Security. The identical cap applies to judgments arising from a consumer credit sale, lease, or loan under Wyo. Stat. § 40-14-505(b), and no court may make or enforce an order violating it.

The calculation uses the federal minimum hourly wage set by the Fair Labor Standards Act, not Wyoming's lower state minimum, so at the current federal rate of $7.25 an hour the weekly protected floor is $217.50. Higher amounts may be taken for child support, spousal support, and certain tax debts, which follow their own rules; a child-support income-withholding order has statutory priority over any other garnishment. Wyoming also has a continuing garnishment procedure for earnings (§ 1-15-501 through § 1-15-509), under which one writ reaches successive pay periods for up to 90 days.

Your employer may not fire you because a creditor served a continuing garnishment (§ 1-15-509). If you are fired for that reason, you have 120 days to sue for lost wages and reinstatement.

Recent Paychecks in Your Bank Account Are Still Exempt

This is the provision most Wyoming debtors need and almost never hear about. Wage protection does not evaporate the moment your paycheck hits the bank. Under Wyo. Stat. § 1-15-408(a) (and, for consumer-credit judgments, § 40-14-505(d)):

• The 20-day rule: Your disposable earnings remain exempt, to the extent the wage cap protects them, if they were deposited in your account within 20 calendar days before the bank was served with the writ, on the day of service, or within 10 business days after service.
• The already-garnished rule: If the creditor successfully garnished the earnings shown on a pay advice at your employer, then the remaining proceeds of that pay advice deposited in your bank account are entirely exempt from execution. The creditor gets one bite, not two.

Note the limit of the first rule: it preserves the exempt portion of those earnings, not automatically every dollar in the account. But it means a checking account holding nothing but your recent paychecks is protected by statute — you are not merely relying on your ability to trace the funds. Keep the pay stubs and the deposit records, and say so in writing when you claim the exemption. The bank has no duty to investigate your account or work this out for you, so if you do not raise it, no one will.

Retirement Accounts and Pensions

Wyoming's retirement exemption (Wyo. Stat. § 1-20-110) is strong and has no dollar cap. It exempts your interest in a retirement plan, and money payable to you from one, from execution, attachment, garnishment, or any other legal process. A "retirement plan" is defined as a plan, account, or annuity qualified under 26 U.S.C. § 401, 403, 408, 408A, 409, 414, or 457 — which covers:

• 401(k) and 403(b) plans;
• Traditional IRAs (§ 408) and Roth IRAs (§ 408A);
• 457 plans and other qualified public and private pension benefits.

An inherited interest is exempt to the same extent it was exempt for the person who died. Most employer-sponsored plans are separately protected at the federal level by ERISA. Two exceptions are written into the statute, and you need both:

• The 90-day bankruptcy rule (§ 1-20-110(b)): The exemption does not apply to a contribution you made to a retirement plan within 90 days before filing for bankruptcy. Stuffing cash into an IRA on the eve of a filing does not protect it.
• QDROs (§ 1-20-110(c)): Retirement funds are not exempt from the claim of an alternate payee under a qualified domestic relations order — a divorce order can reach them. Once the alternate payee has their share, it is exempt from their creditors.

Separately, Wyo. Stat. § 1-20-111 exempts your contributions to a qualified medical savings account, except against judgments for medical expenses.

Public Benefits: Social Security, Unemployment, and Workers' Compensation

Several income streams are off-limits to ordinary judgment creditors:

• Social Security and SSI: Protected by federal law (42 U.S.C. § 407). Federal banking rules also require banks to automatically protect a cushion of recently direct-deposited Social Security and certain other federal benefits when a garnishment order arrives.
• Unemployment compensation: Benefit rights are exempt from levy, execution, attachment, or other debt collection remedy, and any waiver of the exemption is void. But read the rest of the sentence: benefits you have received are exempt only if not combined with other funds, and even then not against debts incurred for necessities furnished to you, your spouse, or your dependents during your unemployment (Wyo. Stat. § 27-3-319(c)). The non-commingling requirement is in the statute itself, not just a practical tip — keep benefits in their own account.
• Workers' compensation: No money paid or payable under the Worker's Compensation Act may be assigned, charged, or taken in execution or by garnishment before the warrant for it is issued and delivered, and any such attempt is void (Wyo. Stat. § 27-14-702). The carve-out is child-support withholding (§ 27-14-703). Because the statute speaks to money before the warrant is delivered, do not assume funds already sitting in a commingled checking account carry the same automatic shield — segregate them.

The court's own judgment notice also lists veteran's benefits, black lung benefits, POWER payments, and federal civil-service and state retirement benefits as exemptions you may claim.

Vehicle, Household Goods, Firearms, and Tools of Trade

Wyoming's personal-property exemptions (Wyo. Stat. § 1-20-105 and § 1-20-106) were also raised in 2023. They cover everyday necessities and the means of earning a living:

• Motor vehicle: $5,000 of value in a motor vehicle (§ 1-20-106(a)(iv)). This is a standalone exemption available to any person — it sits alongside the family bible and the household goods, and it carries no work-use requirement. You do not have to use the car for a trade or business to claim it.
• Household goods: Furniture, bedding, provisions, and other household articles you select, up to $4,000, with a separate exemption for each person occupying the same residence (§ 1-20-106(a)(iii)). A two-person household therefore shields $8,000.
• Wearing apparel: Necessary clothing up to $2,000 per person (§ 1-20-105). Necessary wearing apparel does not include jewelry of any type other than wedding rings — so a wedding ring is protected, and other jewelry is not.
• Firearms: Up to three firearms worth no more than $3,000 in total, plus their ammunition up to 1,000 rounds per firearm (§ 1-20-106(a)(v)).
• Tools of trade: The tools, team, implements, or stock in trade used and kept for carrying on your trade or business, up to $4,000; or a professional person's library, instruments, and implements, up to $4,000 (§ 1-20-106(b)). This is in addition to the $5,000 vehicle exemption.
• Other items: The family bible, pictures, and school books, and a lot in any cemetery or burial ground (§ 1-20-106(a)(i)–(ii)). These carry no stated dollar cap.

Value is determined by the appraisement of three disinterested appraisers selected and sworn by the officer levying on the property (§ 1-20-106(c)) — so if the sheriff's valuation is inflated, the appraisal is the place to fight. Remember the purchase-money exception in § 1-20-108(a): none of these exemptions protects an item against the creditor who financed that very item. Wyoming has also opted out of the federal bankruptcy exemptions, so in a Wyoming bankruptcy you use this state list, not the 11 U.S.C. § 522(d) list (§ 1-20-109).

How to Claim Your Exemptions: the 10-Day Deadline

Exemptions are not self-executing. If property, funds, or wages are seized under execution, Wyoming gives you a specific, short, written deadline — and the statute is blunt about the consequence of missing it.

• File within 10 days, with the clerk of court. Under Wyo. Stat. § 1-17-102(a), a person whose property is seized under execution "shall file a written request for a hearing with the clerk of court within ten (10) days after seizure" of the property. The statutory notice the court must attach to every money judgment warns that if you fail to request a hearing and claim your exemptions within those 10 days, you may waive or lose your right to claim them.
• You then get a hearing fast. You are entitled to a hearing within five days (excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays) after the court receives your written request (§ 1-17-102(a)).
• Use the statute's own checklist. The § 1-17-102(b) notice lists what you can claim: Social Security and SSI, veteran's benefits, black lung benefits, POWER payments, federal civil-service and state retirement benefits, worker's compensation, unemployment compensation, a portion of wages under § 1-15-408 or § 40-14-505, and homestead, personal articles, and trade articles under § 1-20-101 through § 1-20-111.
• Bring proof. Bank statements showing Social Security or wage deposits, pay advices and deposit dates (for the 20-day rule above), retirement-account records, and vehicle or equipment documentation.

Continuing wage garnishment is on a different clock. If you were served with a continuing garnishment of earnings, § 1-17-102(e) sends you to § 1-15-507 instead: you have five days (excluding weekends and holidays) from receiving the exempt-earnings calculation to resolve a miscalculation with your employer, and then five days (excluding weekends and holidays) from the date the clerk receives the withheld earnings to file a written objection with the clerk and mail a copy to the creditor. If you miss that window, you are not necessarily finished: § 1-15-507(c) lets a judgment debtor who did not file a written objection move the court, at any time within 90 days of receiving the calculation and for good cause shown, to hear an objection that the earnings were miscalculated. Filing an objection stays disposition of the money until the court rules.

Deadlines this short are unforgiving, but they are also short enough to meet. If your account was frozen or your property was seized, do not spend the 10 days shopping for a lawyer — file the written request with the clerk of court first, then get help.

Where to Verify and Get Help

Every figure above comes from the Wyoming Legislature's own official publication of the statutes, which you can read for free: Title 1 (Code of Civil Procedure — exemptions, garnishment, and execution), Title 27 (unemployment and worker's compensation), and Title 40 (Uniform Consumer Credit Code). The exemption amounts on this page reflect the increases the Legislature enacted in 2023; the Legislature can change them again, so check the current statute before you rely on a number. For consumer questions about debt collection, harassment, and unfair practices, contact the Wyoming Attorney General's Office, Consumer Protection and Antitrust Unit. At the federal level, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act limits how third-party collectors may contact you, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act governs how debts appear on your credit report.

This article is general information about Wyoming law, not legal advice. If you are facing a garnishment, levy, or execution, consider speaking with a Wyoming-licensed attorney or a legal-aid organization, because missing a deadline can waive an otherwise valid exemption.

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.