¶ D01
Overview
Purpose. This appendix surveys, for each state and the District of Columbia, the rules that most often decide whether a debtor's assets can be reached without any planning: the homestead and other statutory exemptions, tenancy by the entirety, the protection of retirement assets, and the charging-order rule for LLC interests. It also surveys the state criminal statutes that reach transfers made to defraud creditors, which the chapters refer to throughout (see supra ¶ 330.03; ch. 7). The chapters analyze the rules; the surveys state them state by state.
The five surveys.
| Survey | Records | Text | Chapter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homestead and entireties | Homestead amount and acreage; tenancy by the entirety; bankruptcy opt-out | ¶ D20 | chs. 11, 12 |
| Insurance, annuities and wages | Cash value, annuity and wage exemptions | ¶ D30 | ch. 12 |
| Retirement assets | IRAs and plans; inherited IRAs | ¶ D40 | ch. 13 |
| Charging orders | Exclusivity, foreclosure and single-member treatment under each LLC act | ¶ D50 | ch. 16 |
| Criminal transfers | State offenses for transfers or concealment to defraud creditors | ¶ D60 | chs. 3, 7 |
Sources and limits. The entries were compiled in November 2026 from the official codes of each state where they could be read, and otherwise from verbatim mirrors of those codes. Where no official adjusted figure for an indexed amount was found, the entry states the statutory base and the indexing rule. Dollar amounts that are indexed change on fixed dates, and several states changed their homestead amounts in 2024 to 2027. Every entry must be checked against the current statute before it is relied upon.
Which state's exemptions apply. Outside bankruptcy, exemptions are generally those of the forum state where the creditor enforces its judgment. In bankruptcy, the debtor's exemptions are those of the state in which the debtor was domiciled for the 730 days before the petition, or for the longest part of the 180 days before that period, and a debtor who cannot use any state's exemptions may elect the federal list. 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(A) (see supra ch. 12). A move to a state with larger exemptions shortly before bankruptcy therefore may not help, and the homestead cap of § 522(p) applies to value acquired within 1,215 days before the petition (see supra ch. 8).