Inheritance and Divorce Question?

Windfalls like inheritance are NOT community property in the state of California. In California, inheritance is the sole and separate property of the beneficiary. However, once a beneficiary co-mingles assets received by inheritance with marital assets then the separate assets BECOME marital assets and fall under the community property laws.

1

It sounds like your are in Britain. I do not know anything about British Law but in California an inheritance is considered "sole and separate" property not marital property. Also the fact that they are already divorced would seem to ensure that the inheritance is hers alone. It seems to me that the solicitor is saying that "once married always financially joined" and that just doesn't sound correct to me. If that is so then can your friend claim a portion of her ex husbands future income if any? It all sounds a bit fishy to me. Could it be that hey shared the same solicitor for the divorce and the solicitor was retained by her ex husband? If that is the case, the solicitor may be biased or really just representing the ex. If I were your friend, I would get a second legal opinion because it sounds like this solicitor has bats in his belfry.

You need a lawyer to investigate how the money was recorded. You will have to prove that the money came from your father BEFORE you were married. Technically your husband has no claim to that, but the stickler is that you both the house in both your names. I would fight to the death and only divide the profit from the sale of the house. You can stipulate that you will divide the profit when you sell the house in the future which could be in 10 years from the divorce date. Be sure to get a lawyer who is a Barracuda.

It depends where you live and whether you bought the house before you got married or not. In the law here, they do consider marital assets together, but when dividing them up in the case of a divorce, they can consider if one party contributed significantly more to the joint property, and if that is found to be the case then you could potentially be awarded a larger share of the property. But it depends on the length of the marriage, and the ways in which he contributed in other ways, like paying the mortgage, paying for repairs or refurbishments, supporting you if you didn't work, etc.

You would have to talk to your lawyer to work this out.

Harriet

It depends on whether you live in a community property state, the type of community property law, and whether you purchased the home before or after you got married. Most states recognize assets purchased after a marriage, regardless of the source of funds, as joint marital property, unless you established ownership in some other form, such as joint-tenants-in-common. Consult your attorney for more information.

Since the house is in both of your names, it belongs to both of you. When you purchased the home, you had every intention of living in it and building a life together. While your situation has changed, the fact that your intentions were to spend the rest of your life with him are evident, so there aren't a lot of judges who are going to sympathize with you. Unless you can prove that he somehow forced you into using your money (and that's nearly impossible to prove) to purchase the home or forced you to put his name on it, i'm pretty sure that you're just going to have to take this as a lesson learned.

Take your half, and if you decide to get married again, get a prenup.

No.

All that kind of stuff is considers "community property". It doesn't matter whe the funds actually came from. Any "windfalls" like inheritences or lottery winnings are also considered community property. When you got married, it all "went into one pot".

Your only possible protection is if you had the house in your name alone -- which you obnviously didn't do.

Anything purchased after you were married is 50/50. when you say I do what is yours is his and his is yours. No matter where you get money its still half his. should of bought house b4 married then it would all go to you . This is based on Indiana laws so contact a Lawyer and see what laws are there

I don't believe so, at least, not here in California. The gift was given prior to your marriage - you CHOSE to use it for the house, which I presume you both own jointly as community property. I would also presume, he/you have kept up the mortgage payments - that he works and is part of that support. So my guess is, its 50/50 down the middle under these circumstances.

Sincerely,

Grace

Sorry. You are out of luck. You are right that inheritance is NOT considered marital property (to be divided). However, you need to keep it in your name alone. Once you bought the house (and put it in joint names), you GAVE it to your husband. It's no longer just yours.