Retirement Accounts & Divorce: Lerbakken Opinion Puts Accounts at Risk

The 8th Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel has issued a new opinion that is really causing a lot of anxiety and uncertainty about the exemption status in bankruptcy cases of retirement accounts awarded to debtors during a divorce case. If a debtor is awarded a portion of their ex-spouse’s retirement account in a divorce proceeding, is that account protected in bankruptcy? Until a few months ago the majority opinion was yes, but that is all changed since the BAP issued the Lerbakken opinion. In Lerbakken, the debtor was awarded one-half of his wife’s 401(k) retirement account in a divorce proceeding. He subsequently filed Chapter 7 and the bankruptcy trustee claimed his interest in the retirement.  The bankruptcy judge ruled in favor of the trustee citing the United States Supreme Court’s opinion of Clark v Rameker, a case involving inherited IRA accounts. To understand what the BAP was saying in Lerbakken, we need to review what the Supreme Court said…

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