Insurance Settlement

[chloe0724]

Does anyone know if an insurance settlement is exempt? My husband's work is trying to settle his disability claim with a settlement from workman's comp. We have the choice to take a lump sum or have the city pay for his medical insurance for life. We are trying to decide what to do.

This has been a very hard time and I don't want to take a lump sum and have it all taken by the trustee.

[Flamingo]

We were advised by our attorney that if there was any insurance or other settlement received during our plan, or inheritance, lottery win, etc., we had to inform him immediately. I suggest you do the same to be on the safe side.

[chloe0724]

Oh, I would not keep that from the Trustee at all. I have been searching around the web and can only find that workman's comp is exempt, but it doesn't have a dollar amount.

The thing is, the settlement is to pay for his future medical bills because it;s a permanat diability caused by his job. I can't see how that would be taken by the trustee.

[chloe0724]

Wanted to get this back on the new posts.

Any advice? Still no word from my attorney.

[rrockinggramma]

I think that the question and resolution will revolve around a couple of things. First, your husband was off work when you filed, right? And this settlement was not known at the time of filing, (I mean the possiblity of it, it wasn't pending, this is something that the company threw at him recently to get it done and over with rather than pay him long term disability, right?)

Based on the above assumptions, I wonder if it can be "exempted" because it is disability, like social security is exempted. Maybe you could research that a bit and see what happens in your district as to disability income etc and how your trustee's handle it.


haha that was your question, is it exempt.

I would recommend search your state BK's website and looking at court opinions and/or your trustee's website to see if his opinions are listed to see if he would indeed take a lump sum settlement.

Some trustee's are just plain awful about that stuff so it depends on if he is pro creditor or pro debtor

[chloe0724]

First, we did not file jointly. Only my name. He was warking at the time we filed, but stopped shortly after. We were not aware of any possible settelment offer that may have come until we got notification.

I have searched in so many different ways for information about Virgina laws related to this. It seems like it would be exempt because it is insurance, but I'm not sure.

I wish my attorney would call me back!!

[soleprop]

check the state exemptions for where you live - unless you filed with federal exemptions. some states (MN is one of them I think) exempt all forms of insurance benefits.

[HHM]

Also, if the exemption exists, it may not exist in the "exemption law". You may need to look at the Work Comp law to find it. Just a heads up.