Bankruptcy: Liquidating Your Retirement Savings
Although there is no specific age in which people get into financial difficulties, many people get these problems when they have already retired. Instead of resting, they find themselves trying to pay off debts with their hard earned money that they would otherwise be enjoying in their sunset days. These people will liquidate their retirement savings in order to pay their debts.
In this case, the debtor ends up paying huge amounts of tax as they try to liquidate large amounts of their saving which in most cases in not even enough to cover the debts. This will also leave the debtor unprepared for their old days. It is not always that funds may be liquidated to pay off debts. This means that if these savings are in a special account, these may be exempted by the court to be used for paying creditors.
This is according to a new law that was passed in 2005 to protect those who cannot pay their debt and yet they are bankrupt. This will happen in the bankruptcy case but not in any form of judgment. In case the retired debtor has some retirement plans to his name, they can be used to pay off the debts as long as they are part of the estate in case of a bankruptcy.
It should be noted that, this does not include any cash savings made by the individuals for their later years. The court can exempt such plans if their value is less than a million dollars. In cases of funds being used in plans by the retired debtor, they are to be exempted from income taxes.
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