After the Georgia Supreme Court answered a certified question, the Eleventh Circuit held that health savings account (“HSA”) funds are not property exempt from the bankruptcy estate under Georgia law. In Mooney v. Webster, No. 15-11229 (11th Cir. Jan. 27, 2017), a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petitioner claimed the assets in her HSA account as exempt from bankruptcy under O.C.G.A. § 44-13-100(a)(2)(C), which exempts any “disability, illness, or unemployment benefit” and O.C.G.A. § 44-13-100(a)(2)(E), which exempts any “payment under a pension, annuity, or similar plan or contract on account of illness [or] disability . . . .”
The Eleventh Circuit certified the question of whether a petitioner’s HSA fund is exempt under these two Georgia statutes to the Georgia Supreme Court.
Posted by Margaret Flatt.