In Minnesota, you are allowed to exempt or protect proceeds stemming from the death of your spouse or parent up to $50,000. You may protect or exempt $12,500 more for each dependent or child. If you have received funds from an unfortunate event such as this and are considering filing bankruptcy, consider letting Kain & Scott help you protect your property and funds.

In my last installments about understanding Minnesota law to protect your property (Part 5), I discussed tools of the trade and farm machine. In those cases, I was able to find case law to help describe those laws as viewed by a court. Here, the case law is sparse, so I’m going to keep it brief, but still speak on the subject if when you are allowed to exempt property in Minnesota.

Under Minn. Stat. § 550.37, subd. 6, you are allowed to exempt property if your interest in that property consists of “tools, implements, machines, instruments, office furniture, stock in trade, and library reasonably necessary in the trade, business, or profession of the debtor…”.

From the ancient Mississippian people who grew crops near present-day Winona, to European immigrants farming in Jordan, and to present-day family farms, Minnesota has a rich farming history.

Under Minn. Stat. § 550.37, subd. 4, “[a]ll wearing apparel, one watch, utensils, and foodstuffs of the debtor and the debtor's family; and (b) household furniture, household appliances, phonographs, radio and television receivers of the debtor and the debtor's family...” are exempt. See In re Irwin, 232 B.R. 151 (Bankr. Minn. 1999).

In a previous post, I wrote about some simple rules for determining ownership of property.  The concept of property is important in both chapter 7 and chapter 13 bankruptcy cases – it affects the administration of chapter 7 cases and the amount paid in monthly chapter 13 plan payments, since the debtor’s property composes what’s called the bankruptcy estate.  And in most cases, property ownership is pretty easy to determine.  But there are some cases in which who owns property – and how much the property is worth – can get complicated.  Here are a few examples: