Any person has the right to select and designate a total of one million dollars and the income and distributions therefrom from the employee’s benefit plans as exempt from execution, attachment, garnishment, seizure, or taking by any legal process. This exemption is subject to the right of the State of South Dakota and its political subdivisions to collect any amounts owed to them. This section permits benefits under such plan or arrangement to be payable to a spouse, former spouse, child, or other dependent of a participant in such plan to the extent expressly provided for in a qualified domestic relations order as defined in 29 U.S.C. § 1056(d) or in § 401(a)(13) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Terms Used In South Dakota Codified Laws 43-45-16

  • Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
  • Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
  • 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
  • Person: includes natural persons, partnerships, associations, cooperative corporations, limited liability companies, and corporations. See South Dakota Codified Laws 2-14-2

Source: SL 1997, ch 250, § 2; SL 2007, ch 252, § 1.