From the Editor – Property of Estate and Exemptions • NACTT Academy

From the Editor – Property of Estate and Exemptions

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired)

Social Security Act protects benefits. Rejecting the Chapter 7 trustee’s argument that Social Security benefits could be reached on equitable grounds when the debtor did not have present need for the benefits that had been paid and were held in bank account, the court applied Law v. Siegel to hold that it lacked such equitable authority. Moreover, “§ 407(a) [of the Social Security Act] implements a three-pronged protective regime for social security benefits, both paid and payable,” including protecting those benefits from the operation of . . .

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