242.04 Transfers fraudulent as to present and future creditors.

(1) A transfer made or obligations incurred by a debtor is fraudulent as to a creditor, whether the creditor's claim arose before or after the transfer was made or the obligation was incurred, if the debtor made the transfer or incurred the obligation:

(a) With actual intent to hinder, delay or defraud any creditor of the debtor; or

(b) Without receiving a reasonably equivalent value in exchange for the transfer or obligation, and the debtor:

1. Was engaged or was about to engage in a business or a transaction for which the remaining assets of the debtor were unreasonably small in relation to the business or transaction; or

2. Intended to incur, or believed or reasonably should have believed that the debtor would incur, debts beyond the debtor's ability to pay as they became due.

(2) In determining actual intent under sub. (1) (a), consideration may be given, among other factors, to whether:

(a) The transfer or obligation was to an insider;

(b) The debtor retained possession or control of the property transferred after the transfer;

(c) The transfer or the obligation was disclosed or concealed;

(d) Before the transfer was made or the obligation was incurred, the debtor had been sued or threatened with suit;

(e) The transfer was of substantially all the debtor's assets;

(f) The debtor absconded;

(g) The debtor removed or concealed assets;

(h) The value of the consideration received by the debtor was reasonably equivalent to the value of the asset transferred or the amount of the obligation incurred;

(i) The debtor was insolvent or became insolvent shortly after the transfer was made or the obligation was incurred;

(j) The transfer occurred shortly before or shortly after a substantial debt was incurred; and

(k) The debtor transferred the essential assets of the business to a lienor who transferred the assets to an insider of the debtor.

History: 1987 a. 192.

Federal law does not preclude a labor union from bringing a state action for an alleged fraudulent conveyance by an employer when the claim does not require substantial interpretation of a collective bargaining agreement. International Machinist Association v. United States Can Co., 150 Wis. 2d 479, 441 N.W.2d 710 (1989).

The Wisconsin Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act exists independently from the common law history of the law of fraudulent conveyances and fulfills a purpose quite separate from that of the fraudulent transaction exception to the rule of successor non-liability. Whereas the Act is designed to assist creditors in collecting on claims that may be frustrated by recent asset transfers, the fraudulent transaction exception is a doctrine that prevents successor companies from avoiding obligations incurred by their predecessors. This chapter has not supplanted the common law fraudulent transaction exception to the rule of successor non-liability. Springer v. Nohl Electric Products Corporation, 2018 WI 48, 381 Wis. 2d 438, 912 N.W.2d 1, 15-0829.