NB Bankruptcy Exemptions.
Assets you keep in a bankruptcy or a proposal..

The property exempt from seizure is set by the provinces and territories and applies to the equity in the asset.

Equity is the excess that the value of an asset has over any charges or encumbrances against that asset.

For example, if you have furnishings worth $10,000 and there is a $6,000 secured debt against them then the equity in the furnishings is $4,000. In New Brunswick the exemption for furnishings is $5,000 so in this example you are entitled to the equity of $4,000 and the unsecured creditors cannot take this.

 

New Brunswick Bankruptcy Exemptions:

• Furniture, household furnishings and appliances used by the debtor or a dependent to a realizable value of $5,000 or to any greater amount that may be prescribed;

• Food, clothing and fuel necessary for the debtor and his family;

• Two horses and sets of harness, two cows, ten sheep, two  hogs and twenty fowl, and food therefor for six months;

• Necessary tools, equipment and books to the value of $6,500 used in the practice of the debtor's trade or profession;

• Necessary seed grain and potatoes required for planting purposes to the following quantities: forty bushels of oats, ten bushels of barley, ten bushels of buckwheat, ten bushels of wheat and thirty-five barrels of potatoes;

• One motor vehicle having a realizable value of not more than six thousand five hundred dollars at the time the claim for exemption is made, or not more that any greater amount that may be prescribed, if the motor vehicle is required by the debtor in the course of or to retain employment or in the course of and necessary to the debtor's trade, profession or occupation or for transportation to a place of employment where public transportation facilities are not reasonably available;

• Necessary medical and health aids;

• Pets belonging to the debtor;

• Pension plans.

• Effective July 7, 2008 exemptions are in effect for all registered retirement savings plans (RRSP's, RRIF's and DPSP's (Deferred Profit Sharing Plans).
  • Contributions made in the 12 months prior to the date of bankruptcy will be recovered (clawed back) for the benefit of the bankruptcy estate for RRSPs in provinces without RRSP exemption laws (BC, Alberta, Ontario, NB, and NS);
  • There will be no upper cap on the amount of RRSPs that can be protected;
    
  • There will be no need to set up the RRSPs in a locked in plan to make them eligible for exemption;
  • The court will have no jurisdiction to extend the one year claw back period period in an appropriate case.