Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: Arkansas exempts a traditional or Roth IRA from ordinary creditors with no stated dollar cap on its face, but Arkansas lets a debtor elect either state or federal exemptions in bankruptcy, where a separate, smaller cap applies to recent contributions.
Confidence note: medium. Arkansas’s code is not freely browsable on a .gov site; this page relies on a text-republication mirror (onecle.com), and a possible constitutional cap on the non-bankruptcy exemption could not be independently confirmed this session. This page covers ordinary judgment-creditor protection under Arkansas law and the state’s bankruptcy exemption election; see the 51-jurisdiction summary at IRA creditor protection by state for how it compares.
How Arkansas protects an IRA from ordinary creditors
| Traditional IRA (outside bankruptcy) | Not capped on its face. Ark. Code Ann. §16-66-220(a)(1) exempts IRA assets and payments "unless the plan, contract, or account does not qualify" under the Internal Revenue Code. A separate constitutional question is unresolved: Arkansas’s constitution caps general personal-property exemptions at $200 (unmarried) or $500 (married/head of family), and some secondary sources report courts have applied that cap to retirement exemptions outside bankruptcy; this session could not independently confirm a case citation, so treat the uncapped reading with that caveat. |
|---|---|
| Roth IRA | Expressly named, and given better treatment than a traditional IRA: §16-66-220(b)(2) exempts a Roth IRA from the contribution-limit cap that otherwise applies to traditional-IRA contributions above the IRC-deductible amount. |
| Inherited / beneficiary IRA | Not addressed by that term. |
| Bankruptcy exemption choice | Election state, not opt-out. Ark. Code Ann. §16-66-217 lets a resident choose either the state exemptions or the federal 11 U.S.C. §522(d) list. A separate, bankruptcy-only supplemental exemption at §16-66-218(b)(16) additionally protects IRA contributions made more than one year before filing, capped at $20,000 for an individual or $20,000 combined for a married couple. |
| Carve-outs and exceptions | Contributions exceeding IRC-deductible limits (and their earnings) generally lose the exemption, except for a Roth IRA, which is not subject to that cap. |
Coordinate this with your overall estate and retirement plan
An adviser can help weigh whether to roll an IRA into an employer plan for stronger creditor protection, how much to keep in each account type, and how state law interacts with the rest of your plan, but that does not replace reading your own state’s statute.
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The federal backdrop, the same in every state
Two separate systems can protect an IRA, and which one applies depends on whether you are in bankruptcy. Outside bankruptcy, in an ordinary lawsuit and judgment, only your state’s own exemption statute protects an IRA; there is no federal floor. Inside a Chapter 7 or 13 case, a debtor who lives in a state that allows the choice (see the table below) may instead elect the federal exemption list, which protects retirement funds under 11 U.S.C. §522(d)(12) for accounts exempt from tax under IRC §401, 403, 408, 408A, 414, 457 or 501(a). For traditional and Roth IRAs specifically (not SEP or SIMPLE plans, and not amounts rolled over from an employer plan, which stay unlimited), that federal protection is capped in the aggregate at $1,711,975 (11 U.S.C. §522(n), adjusted for inflation effective April 1, 2025 through March 31, 2028; the base figure was $1,000,000 in 2005 and is reindexed every three years). A state that has NOT opted out of the federal list still leaves the debtor free to use state exemptions instead if the state amount is better, since the debtor picks whichever list helps more, once, for the whole case.
A 401(k) or other ERISA-qualified employer plan does not depend on any of this: its anti-alienation protection is federal, unlimited and the same in every state, in or out of bankruptcy. See 401(k) vs. IRA creditor protection for that comparison in full.
Inherited IRAs are a separate question
In 2014 the U.S. Supreme Court held, unanimously, that an inherited IRA is not a “retirement fund” within the meaning of the federal bankruptcy exemption, in Clark v. Rameker, 573 U.S. 122 (2014). That holding controls only the federal bankruptcy exemption; it says nothing about what a state’s own exemption statute does outside bankruptcy, or about a state that has opted out and writes its own bankruptcy-time exemption list. Some states responded by amending their own statutes to protect inherited IRAs expressly; most have simply never addressed the question. See inherited IRA creditor protection for the full explanation of the ruling and its reasoning.
Statute and sources
Governing citation: Ark. Code Ann. §16-66-220; §16-66-217; §16-66-218.
Read September 4, 2026.
Related: IRA creditor protection, all 51 jurisdictions · 401(k) vs. IRA creditor protection · inherited IRA creditor protection.
General information drawn from each state’s own published statutes, not legal, tax or financial advice. Exemption amounts and rules are set by state law and can change by future legislation or court decisions; whether a specific IRA is protected in a specific case depends on facts this page cannot see. We are not a law firm, a tax adviser, or a fiduciary, and this is not personalized advice. Talk to a bankruptcy or asset-protection attorney licensed in your state before relying on any figure here.