Indiana Code 27-1-12-29. Group life insurance; exemption of proceeds from legal process
(b) Except as provided in subsection (c), no policy of group insurance nor the proceeds thereof, when paid to any employee or employees, shall be liable to attachment, garnishment, or other process, or to be seized, taken, appropriated, or applied to any legal or equitable process or operation of law, to pay any debt or liability of such employee, or the employee’s beneficiary, or any other person who may have a right under the policy, either before or after payment, nor shall the proceeds thereof, where not payable to a named beneficiary, constitute a part of the estate of the employee for the payment of the employee’s debts.
Terms Used In Indiana Code 27-1-12-29
- Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
- Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
- Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
- Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
- employees: as used in this chapter refers to officers, managers, employees, and retired employees of the employer and the individual proprietor or partners if the employer is an individual or partnership. See Indiana Code 27-1-12-34.1
- Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
- Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
- Insurance: means a contract of insurance or an agreement by which one (1) party, for a consideration, promises to pay money or its equivalent or to do an act valuable to the insured upon the destruction, loss or injury of something in which the other party has a pecuniary interest, or in consideration of a price paid, adequate to the risk, becomes security to the other against loss by certain specified risks; to grant indemnity or security against loss for a consideration. See Indiana Code 27-1-2-3
- insurer: means a company, firm, partnership, association, order, society or system making any kind or kinds of insurance and shall include associations operating as Lloyds, reciprocal or inter-insurers, or individual underwriters. See Indiana Code 27-1-2-3
- person: includes individuals, corporations, associations, and partnerships; personal pronoun includes all genders; the singular includes the plural and the plural includes the singular. See Indiana Code 27-1-2-3
- premium: means money or any other thing of value paid or given in consideration to an insurer, insurance producer, or solicitor on account of or in connection with a contract of insurance and shall include as a part but not in limitation of the above, policy fees, admission fees, membership fees and regular or special assessments and payments made on account of annuities. See Indiana Code 27-1-2-3
- Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Indiana Code 1-1-4-5
(1) not more than one (1) year before the date of the filing of a voluntary or involuntary bankruptcy petition by; or
(2) to defraud the creditors of;
the policy owner.
(d) The insurer issuing the policy is discharged from all liability by payment of the proceeds and avails of the policy (as defined in section 14(b) of this chapter) in accordance with the terms of the policy unless, before payment, the insurer has received at the insurer’s home office, written notice by or on behalf of a creditor of the policy owner that specifies the amount claimed against the policy owner.
Formerly: Acts 1935, c.162, s.168. As amended by P.L.253-1995, SEC.2; P.L.136-2018, SEC.159.