Can a Business Bank Account Be Garnished in Florida?

Whether a creditor can garnish a business bank account depends on who the judgment is against and how the business is structured. A personal creditor generally cannot garnish an LLC or corporation’s bank account directly. A business creditor generally cannot garnish the owner’s personal bank account. Both rules break down when the legal separation between the owner and the business has not been maintained.

The question runs in both directions, and the answer in each case depends on entity structure, account ownership, and whether funds have been commingled.

Personal Judgment Against the Owner

A judgment creditor holding a personal judgment against a business owner cannot serve a writ of garnishment directly on the business’s bank account if the business is a separate legal entity. An LLC, corporation, or partnership is a distinct legal person under Florida law. The business’s bank account belongs to the entity, not the individual owner. A personal creditor can only garnish property that belongs to the judgment debtor.

The critical requirement is formal legal separation. The business must have its own employer identification number, its own bank account titled in the entity’s name, and its own financial records. A sole proprietorship does not qualify. A sole proprietor and the business are legally the same person, so a personal creditor can garnish any account in the owner’s name or the DBA’s name.

The Charging Order Alternative

A personal creditor’s remedy against an LLC interest is a charging order, not direct garnishment. The charging order under Florida Statute § 605.0503 redirects the debtor-member’s share of LLC distributions to the creditor. The creditor receives whatever distributions the LLC would otherwise pay to the debtor, but the charging order does not give the creditor management control or access to the LLC’s operating account.

For multi-member LLCs, the charging order is the creditor’s exclusive remedy under § 605.0503(3). The creditor cannot force a liquidation, vote on business decisions, or compel distributions that the LLC’s managers have not authorized.

Single-member LLCs are more vulnerable. In Olmstead v. FTC, the Florida Supreme Court held that a creditor can obtain a charging order against a single-member LLC. In bankruptcy, the trustee can step into the debtor’s shoes, exercise management control, and liquidate the LLC’s assets—including draining its bank account.

Business Judgment Against the Entity

A creditor with a judgment against the business can garnish the business’s bank account directly. The writ of garnishment is served on the bank holding the entity’s account, and the bank freezes the balance. This follows the standard garnishment process under Chapter 77.

The business creditor generally cannot garnish the owner’s personal bank account based solely on a judgment against the entity. The entity’s liability does not automatically pass through to the owner. This is the fundamental purpose of forming an LLC or corporation—separating business liabilities from personal assets.

When Creditors Reach Through the Entity

The separation fails under three circumstances.

Personal guarantees. If the owner personally guaranteed a business loan, lease, or credit line, the creditor holds a judgment against both the entity and the individual. The personal guarantee eliminates the separation for that specific debt. The creditor can garnish both the business account and the owner’s personal account.

Piercing the corporate veil. Florida courts allow creditors to disregard the entity structure when the owner treated the business as an alter ego. The standard factors include commingling personal and business funds, failing to maintain separate books, using entity funds for personal expenses, undercapitalizing the business, and failing to observe corporate formalities. Veil piercing makes the owner personally liable for the entity’s debts.

Fraudulent transfers. If the owner moved personal assets into the business to evade a personal creditor, or stripped business assets to dodge a business creditor, the court can reverse the transfer through proceedings supplementary (§ 56.29).

Commingling Destroys the Separation

Commingling personal and business funds is the most common way business owners lose the protection that entity structure provides. Depositing personal income into a business account, paying personal expenses from business funds, or transferring money between personal and business accounts without documented business purpose all create commingling.

A creditor investigating through post-judgment discovery can subpoena bank records and identify commingled transactions. If the records show a pattern of intermingled funds, the creditor can argue that the entity is the owner’s alter ego and that the court can treat the accounts as one.

Maintaining strict separation requires a business account used exclusively for business transactions, personal accounts that receive only personal income, documented transfers between accounts reflecting legitimate business transactions, and consistent use of the entity name on all contracts and invoices.

Protecting Business Accounts Before a Claim

Business owners who structure their entities correctly before any liability event have the strongest position. The LLC provides the entity separation. Adding a second member—even an irrevocable trust holding a small membership percentage—converts a single-member LLC into a multi-member LLC, invoking the exclusive charging order remedy under § 605.0503(3).

Tenants by the entireties ownership protects personal bank accounts held jointly by married couples from individual creditors. If the judgment runs against only one spouse, the TBE account is shielded regardless of the balance.

For business owners whose non-exempt wealth exceeds what entity structures and Florida exemptions can protect, offshore asset protection trusts hold assets at foreign institutions outside U.S. court jurisdiction. The trust provides a structural layer that domestic entity planning cannot match when the judgment is large enough that a creditor will invest in aggressive collection.