That depends on when you become entitled to receive the inheritance.  If the party whose will or trust passes away prior to or within 180 days after you filed your Chapter 7 case, then any inheritance you are entitled to belongs to your Trustee, unless you exempt it under applicable law.  It has nothing to do with whether your bankruptcy case remains open or not.Exemptions are "protections" for value you have in certain assets such that they are "exempt" from collections.  Every state has different exemptions amounts available. Exemption laws are based on the state where you resided for the 2 years prior to filing your bankruptcy case or, if you lived in more than 1 state during that period, in the state where you resided for the greater part of the 180 days prior to that 2 year period.Mark J. Markus, Attorney at LawHandling exclusively bankruptcy law cases in California since 1991.http://www.bklaw.com/bankruptcy blog: http://bklaw.com/bankruptcy-blog/Follow Me on Twitter:  @bklawr