Statute of Limitations for Fraudulent Transfers in Florida

Florida creditors have a limited window to challenge a debtor’s transfer of assets as fraudulent. The general deadline is four years from the date of the transfer under § 726.110 of the Florida Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (FUFTA). That four-year period applies to claims brought under both § 726.105 (transfers fraudulent as to present and future creditors) and § 726.106(1) (constructive fraud against present creditors). A shorter one-year deadline applies to claims under § 726.106(2), which covers insider transfers for antecedent debts while the debtor was insolvent.

These deadlines matter for asset protection planning because a transfer that survives the applicable limitations period becomes permanent. No creditor can later undo it, regardless of the original intent behind the transfer.

The Four-Year Limitations Period

Section 726.110 sets the primary deadline. A creditor bringing a claim under § 726.105, which covers transfers made with actual intent to defraud or transfers made without reasonably equivalent value while the debtor was undercapitalized or insolvent, must file within four years after the transfer was made. The same four-year period applies to constructive fraud claims under § 726.106(1), which targets transfers made without equivalent value while the debtor was insolvent.

The clock starts when the transfer is “made” within the meaning of FUFTA. For real property, a transfer is made when the deed is recorded or otherwise perfected against a good-faith purchaser. For personal property, the transfer is made when it is perfected against a simple-contract creditor. In most cases, this means the moment title, possession, or account registration changes hands.

The One-Year Insider Period

Claims under § 726.106(2) have a much shorter deadline. This subsection addresses a narrow category of transfers: conveyances made to an insider for a preexisting debt while the debtor was insolvent, where the insider had reasonable cause to believe the debtor was insolvent. A creditor must bring this claim within one year after the transfer was made or the obligation was incurred.

An insider under FUFTA includes a debtor’s relatives, business partners, officers, directors, and entities controlled by the debtor. When a debtor repays a family member’s loan ahead of other creditors while insolvent, this one-year window is the only period during which creditors can challenge that preferential transfer.

The Discovery Savings Clause

FUFTA includes a savings clause designed to prevent debtors from concealing transfers until the four-year period expires. Under § 726.110, a creditor may bring a claim under § 726.105 within one year after the transfer “was or could reasonably have been discovered by the claimant,” even if more than four years have passed since the transfer itself.

This provision does not extend the one-year insider period under § 726.106(2). It applies only to claims brought under § 726.105.

A Florida appellate court addressed how the savings clause operates in a case where a debtor disclosed a transfer shortly after judgment but initially misrepresented the consideration behind it. The debtor testified that the transfer was made in exchange for a debt cancellation. The creditor later discovered, after more than a year of obstructed discovery, that no real consideration existed.

The court held that the one-year savings clause runs from the date the creditor discovered (or could have discovered) the transfer itself, not from the date the creditor learned that the transfer was fraudulent. The statute’s language referred to discovery of the transfer, and the court declined to expand it to encompass discovery of facts suggesting fraud.

This ruling carries a practical consequence for debtors. A transfer that a creditor knows about, even one the creditor initially accepted as legitimate, starts the savings clause clock. The creditor cannot restart the period by later discovering that the consideration was a sham.

Personal Property and Proceedings Supplementary

The most significant complexity in Florida’s fraudulent transfer limitations law involves personal property challenged through proceedings supplementary rather than through a standalone FUFTA lawsuit.

Section 56.29 of the Florida Statutes allows a judgment creditor to challenge fraudulent transfers of personal property as part of the judgment collection process. Before the legislature amended this statute in 2014, Florida courts consistently held that proceedings supplementary could be initiated at any time during the twenty-year life of a judgment, notwithstanding FUFTA’s four-year deadline.

The First District Court of Appeal established this principle in Biel Reo, LLC v. Barefoot Cottages Dev. Co. (2014), holding that § 56.29 contains its own limitations scheme tied to the life of the judgment. Although proving a fraudulent transfer under proceedings supplementary borrows substantive elements from FUFTA, the court concluded that borrowing the proof standards does not require importing FUFTA’s shorter limitations period.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal reached the opposite conclusion in Uoweit, LLC v. Fleming (2020), holding that the 2014 amendment to § 56.29, which for the first time expressly incorporated Chapter 726’s standards, also incorporated its four-year statute of limitations.

The Third District Court of Appeal resolved this split in Rosenberg v. Bank (2023), siding with the First District’s reasoning. The court held that fraudulent transfer claims brought under § 56.29(3) in proceedings supplementary may be pursued for the life of the judgment. The court distinguished the remedy available under proceedings supplementary (limited to recovering the specific transferred property still in the transferee’s hands) from the broader remedies available under Chapter 726, which include monetary damages against transferees. Different remedies, the court reasoned, can carry different limitations periods without creating an absurd result.

The practical effect is that a debtor who transfers personal property (cash, investments, business interests) faces potential challenge for up to twenty years when the creditor uses proceedings supplementary. The creditor’s remedy is narrower (return of the specific property, not money damages), but the exposure window is far longer.

Bankruptcy Lookback Periods

Bankruptcy introduces separate time limits that override state-law deadlines.

Section 548 of the Bankruptcy Code allows a trustee to avoid fraudulent transfers made within two years before the bankruptcy petition was filed. This two-year lookback applies regardless of whether the state limitations period has expired.

A bankruptcy trustee can also use § 544(b) to step into the shoes of an actual creditor and assert state-law fraudulent transfer claims with the benefit of the state’s longer limitations period. In Florida, this means the trustee could potentially use the four-year FUFTA deadline or the life-of-the-judgment period under proceedings supplementary, depending on the procedural posture.

Fraudulent conversions carry additional exposure in bankruptcy. If a debtor purchased or improved Florida homestead property with nonexempt funds within ten years before filing, creditors may challenge the conversion under § 522(o) of the Bankruptcy Code and potentially reduce the homestead exemption by the amount of the converted funds.

Federal Government as Creditor

When the federal government holds the claim, longer deadlines apply. The Federal Debt Collection Procedures Act gives the government six years from the date of the transfer to bring a fraudulent transfer action. The Internal Revenue Service has ten years from the date of tax assessment to challenge a taxpayer’s asset transfers. These extended federal periods apply regardless of FUFTA’s four-year deadline and cannot be shortened by state law.

How the Limitations Period Affects Asset Protection Planning

The statute of limitations is one of the strongest defenses available to a debtor whose transfers are later challenged. A transfer that predates a creditor’s claim by more than four years is generally beyond reach under FUFTA, though the proceedings supplementary exception for personal property creates a longer exposure window.

This dynamic shapes the timing of asset protection planning. Transfers made well before any creditor claim arises have the strongest protection. Planning that occurs before a lawsuit is threatened, before a business dispute develops, and before a professional liability exposure materializes gets the full benefit of the four-year window. The passage of time does not transform a fraudulent transfer into a legitimate one, but once the limitations period expires, the question of intent becomes moot because the creditor can no longer bring a claim.

For debtors facing existing claims, the statute of limitations interacts with other defenses to fraudulent transfer actions. A transfer made for reasonably equivalent value is not voidable regardless of timing. A transfer of exempt property cannot be fraudulent because the creditor had no right to reach that property in the first place. The limitations period matters most for transfers of nonexempt property made without full consideration. That category is the most likely to be challenged.

The distinction between Chapter 726 claims and proceedings supplementary claims also affects strategy. A debtor who transfers personal property may be protected after four years from a standalone FUFTA lawsuit seeking money damages, but may remain exposed to a narrower proceedings supplementary action seeking return of the specific property, provided that property can still be identified in the transferee’s hands.

Claim Type	Statute	Deadline
Actual or constructive fraud (§ 726.105)	§ 726.110(1)	4 years from transfer
Constructive fraud—present creditors (§ 726.106(1))	§ 726.110(2)	4 years from transfer
Insider preference (§ 726.106(2))	§ 726.110(3)	1 year from transfer
Discovery savings clause (§ 726.105 only)	§ 726.110(1)	1 year after discovery, if beyond 4 years
Proceedings supplementary—personal property	§ 56.29(3)	Life of judgment (up to 20 years)
Federal bankruptcy avoidance	11 U.S.C. § 548	2 years before filing
Bankruptcy homestead conversion	11 U.S.C. § 522(o)	10 years before filing
Federal Debt Collection Procedures Act	28 U.S.C. § 3304	6 years from transfer
IRS collection	26 U.S.C. § 6502	10 years from assessment