Florida Senate - 2011                                     SB 978
       
       
       
       By Senator Flores
       
       
       
       
       38-01000A-11                                           2011978__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to individual retirement accounts;
    3         amending s. 222.21, F.S.; clarifying the exemption of
    4         inherited individual retirement accounts from legal
    5         processes; providing intent; providing for retroactive
    6         application; providing an effective date.
    7  
    8         WHEREAS, many residents of this state have individual
    9  retirement accounts, relying upon the Legislature’s intent that
   10  individual retirement accounts be exempt from claims of
   11  creditors, and
   12         WHEREAS, the Legislature clearly intended in s.
   13  222.21(2)(c), Florida Statutes, that inherited individual
   14  retirement accounts included in s. 402(c) of the Internal
   15  Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, be exempt from claims of
   16  creditors of the owner, beneficiary, or participant of the
   17  inherited individual retirement account, and
   18         WHEREAS, in Robertson v. Deeb, 16 So. 3d 936 (Fla. 2d DCA
   19  2009) the appellate court, contrary to the Legislature’s intent,
   20  held that an inherited individual retirement account was not
   21  exempt from the beneficiaries’ creditors because such an account
   22  was not included in property described in s. 222.21, Florida
   23  Statutes, a decision that was followed in the Bankruptcy Court
   24  of the Middle District of Florida, In re: Ard, 435 B.R. 719
   25  (Bkrtcy. M.D. Fla. 2010), NOW, THEREFORE,
   26  
   27  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   28  
   29         Section 1. Paragraph (c) of subsection (2) of section
   30  222.21, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
   31         222.21 Exemption of pension money and certain tax-exempt
   32  funds or accounts from legal processes.—
   33         (2)
   34         (c) Any money or other assets or any interest in any fund
   35  or account that is are exempt from claims of creditors of the
   36  owner, beneficiary, or participant under paragraph (a) does do
   37  not cease to be exempt after the owner’s death to qualify for
   38  exemption by reason of a direct transfer or eligible rollover
   39  that is excluded from gross income under s. 402(c) of the
   40  Internal Revenue Code of 1986, including, but not limited to, a
   41  direct transfer or eligible rollover to an inherited individual
   42  retirement account as defined in s. 408(d)(3) of the Internal
   43  Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. This paragraph is intended to
   44  clarify existing law, is remedial in nature, and shall have
   45  retroactive application to all inherited individual retirement
   46  accounts without regard to the date an account was created.
   47         Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.