§ 5/12-1006 Exemption for retirement plans
§ 12-1006. Exemption for retirement plans.
(a) A debtor's interest in or right, whether vested or not, to the assets held in or to receive pensions, annuities, benefits, distributions, refunds of contributions, or other payments under a retirement plan is exempt from judgment, attachment, execution, distress for rent, and seizure for the satisfaction of debts if the plan (i) is intended in good faith to qualify as a retirement plan under applicable provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as now or hereafter
amended, [FN1] or (ii) is a public employee pension plan created under the Illinois Pension Code, as now or hereafter mended. [FN2]
(b) “Retirement plan” includes the following:
(1) a stock bonus, pension, profit sharing, annuity, or similar plan or arrangement, including a retirement plan for self-employed individuals or a simplified employee pension plan;
(2) a government or church retirement plan or contract;
(3) an individual retirement annuity or individual retirement account; and
(4) a public employee pension plan created under the Illinois Pension Code, as now or hereafter amended.
(c) A retirement plan that is (i) intended in good faith to qualify as a retirement plan under the applicable provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as now or hereafter amended, or (ii) a public employee pension plan created under the Illinois Pension Code, as now or hereafter amended, is conclusively presumed to be a spendthrift trust under the law of Illinois.
(d) This Section applies to interests in retirement plans held by debtors subject to bankruptcy, judicial, administrative or other proceedings pending on or filed after August 30, 1989.
[FN1] 26 U.S.C.A. § 1 et seq.
[FN2] 40 ILCS 5/1-101 et seq.
VALIDITY
Enforcement of judgment provisions concerning exemption for retirement plans has been held unconstitutional as
preempted by the federal Bankruptcy Code in the case of In re Kazi, Bkrtcy, 125 B.R. 981 (S.D. Ill.1991).