[WSBAPT] Estate with creditor claims but exempt assets

[Eric Nelsen]

If an Estate has $50,000 in creditor claims but its only available assets are retirement accounts exempt from seizure under RCW 6.15.020<http://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=6.15&full=true#6.15.020>, does that also exempt the Estate from paying the creditor claims?

The statute says:

The right of a person to a pension, annuity, or retirement allowance or disability allowance, or death benefits, or any optional benefit, or any other right accrued or accruing to any citizen of the state of Washington under any employee benefit plan, and any fund created by such a plan or arrangement, shall be exempt from execution, attachment, garnishment, or seizure by or under any legal process whatever.

Does that include a creditor claim process in an estate?

Additional wrinkle, bonus points: The retirement account is actually accrued by and in name of the surviving spouse -- community property. Same result?

Can the surviving spouse be forced to pay a debt, via a creditor claim process, with assets that couldn't be attacked by attachment or garnishment?

Sincerely,

Eric

Eric C. Nelsen
SAYRE LAW OFFICES, PLLC
1417 31st Ave South
Seattle WA  98144-3909
phone 206-625-0092
fax 206-625-9040

Please Note that We Have Moved. We have moved our Seattle office to Mount Baker Ridge (a small commercial community just above the I-90 tunnel). Our new address is 1417 31st Avenue South, Seattle WA 98144. All other contact information remains the same.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20161115/ea9c4b6d/attachment.html>