401k contributions pre-bk

[Hope4TheBest]

Hi - we're in California and were not contributing to our 401k until about a month before filing ch 7. Before the bk was filed we contributed over $7k and during our 341 the trustee started asking questions about the 401k contributions (eg. 'are they voluntary', etc). Our attorney told us that we are free to plan for our retirement and that these contributions would not have an impact on our bk but now we're worried. Can anyone with experience confirm this? Could the trustee take back these contributions or *gulp* throw our our ch 7 case? We're pretty stressed here!

[joab]

Pre-petition 401k contributions are normally always exempt. I'd follow your attorney's lead, but based on what you said, it doesn't sound like the trustee would have a leg to stand on in opposing those contributions.

Voluntary post-petition 401k contributions would be another matter entirely.