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Commercial Law Keyed to Whaley
In re Duckworth
Citation:
776 F.3d 453 (2014)Facts
Ruth Heffron established a traditional IRA and designated her daughter, Heidi Heffron-Clark, as the beneficiary. When Ruth died in 2001, the IRA, which was worth approximately $450,000, passed to Heidi as an inherited IRA. In October 2010, Heidi and her husband, Brandon Clark, filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition and claimed the inherited IRA, by then worth approximately $300,000, as exempt from the bankruptcy estate under 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(C). The bankruptcy trustee, William Rameker, and unsecured creditors objected to the exemption claim, arguing that funds in an inherited IRA are not “retirement funds” within the meaning of the statute because the funds are no longer set aside for retirement purposes.
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