Charging Order Remedy

If a judgment creditor cannot reach partnership assets, what can he do? Since Husband’s only asset is an interest in the FLP, the creditor would apply to the court for a charging order against Husband’s partnership interest. A charging order means that the general partner is directed to pay over to the judgment creditor any distributions from the partnership which would otherwise go the debtor partner, until the judgment is paid in full. In other words, money which comes out of the partnership to the debtor partner can be seized by the creditor until the amount of the judgment is satisfied. Cash distributions paid to Husband could, therefore, be taken by the creditor. A charging order does not give the creditor the right to become a partner in the partnership and does not give him any right to interfere in the management or control of partnership affairs. He only receives the right to any actual distributions paid to Husband.

Under the circumstances in which a creditor has obtained a charging order, the partnership would not make any distributions to the debtor partner. This arrangement would be provided for in the partnership agreement and is permissible under partnership law. If the partnership does not make any distributions, the judgment creditor will not receive any payments. The partnership simply retains all of its funds and continues to invest and reinvest its cash without making any distributions.

The result of this technique is that family assets have been successfully protected from the judgment against Husband. Had the FLP arrangement not been used and had Husband and Wife kept all of their assets in their own names, the judgment creditor would have seized everything. Instead, through the use of this technique, all of these assets were protected.