In our view, your response to the writ of garnishment should identify the trust’s deposit account, as well as the bank’s loans to the trust, for the reasons described below.

The trustee of a land trust holds both legal and equitable title to the property in the trust, and the beneficiary has a personal property interest in the trust property. Levine v. Pascal, 94 Ill.App.2d 43, 50 (1st Dist. 1968). In the present case, the individual who is the subject of the writ is both the trustee and the beneficiary of the land trust, and therefore she holds all three types of property interests in the trust property (legal, equitable, and a personal property interest). Consequently, we believe that a court very likely would find that the trust’s assets are a reportable property interest of the individual for purposes of your response to the writ of garnishment. See Levine v. Pascal, at 55 (“a creditor could reach the beneficial interest of a land trust by a creditor’s bill or other appropriate and timely proceedings”).

In light of these facts, it also is our view that the exception in Section 48.1(b)(12) of the Illinois Banking Act would apply to the bank’s disclosure. That provision provides an exception to the prohibition against disclosing financial information for “[t]he furnishing of information about the existence of an account of a person to a judgment creditor of that person who has made a written request for that information.”

In our view, your response to the writ also should disclose the bank’s outstanding loans to the land trust for the purpose of asserting and preserving the bank’s right of setoff against the trust’s assets, due to the fact that the trust’s assets are collateral for the bank’s loans. See 735 ILCS 5/12-708 (“The garnishee [the bank] is entitled to assert . . . offsetting claims against . . . the judgment debtor, whether due at the time of service of the garnishment summons or thereafter to become due”). See, also, Tonyan Constr. Co. v. McHenry State Bank, 29 Bankr. 714, n. 4 (Bankr. N.D. Ill. 1983).

Please be advised that the above comments express our views based on the facts presented to us, and they are not intended to provide you with legal advice or to replace legal advice from knowledgeable counsel. Your question is an important one, and you may wish to consider obtaining legal advice from your bank counsel before responding to the writ.