Garnishment Situation

Posted By: TeamComply

Garnishment Situation - 04/21/21 04:53 PM

Garnishment situation:

Bank receives a garnishment on Jane and John Doe for approximately $6,000, and each have separate accounts with the bank.
Jane receives FBPs and thus has protected funds of approximately $2,900, and her available balance is $8,700.
John does not receive any FBPs (so no protected funds) and his available balance is $2,400.

To process this garnishment according to the FBP rules, should we take as many funds as possible from John's account first for garnishment (so $2,400), and then look at Jane's account that has FBPs? Jane's account has approximately $5,800 available for garnishment (after considering the $2,900 protected funds). So this would result in $2,400 in funds garnished from John's account and $3,600 garnished from Jane's account to fully satisfy the garnishment. Or is this not how this should be handled? Either way funds from both accounts will need to be taken to fully satisfy the garnishment. I couldn't find where the rules speak to this type of scenario, so wanted to be sure we are handling it properly.
Posted By: John Burnett

Re: Garnishment Situation - 04/21/21 07:50 PM

You protect the required amount in each account. After that, whether you wipe out one account before tapping the other or take half of the garnishment from each or figure out to leave the same amount of unprotected funds in each is up to the bank. For any fine points, check out 31 CFR 212.6 at https://www.bankersonline.com/regulations/31-212-006