Once you make the choice to move forward with divorce, you will then need to decide how to prepare for what your financial future will look like. You naturally want to make sure that you have what you need for your financial security. You also want to protect what is rightfully yours, which includes an inheritance you received from a family member.
Learning that you are the recipient of an inheritance can be exciting, but you also understand the importance of making sure that you protect that money. Your divorce will represent significant financial changes in your life, and you may fear what that could mean for the inherited assets. It can be helpful to learn more about property division in divorce and how you can pursue the future you deserve.
Is it separate property?
One of the most important distinctions when deciding what will happen to a specific asset during divorce is understanding whether it is marital property or separate property. Marital property includes anything that you or your spouse earned or accumulated while married. Most of the time, this even includes things that one of you bought with your own money. It also includes things like retirement savings, digital assets and more. It can be a monumental task to determine what counts as marital property.
As you can imagine, property division is often one of the most contentious parts of a divorce. The good news for you is that an inheritance given to just one spouse is usually separate property – this means that it is likely that your spouse will have no legal grounds to claim part of your inherited money in your divorce. You may have to prove that you had no intention of sharing these assets with the other party.
Comingling of assets
There may be a time, however, when inherited property could be subject to division in a divorce. This may happen when one spouse used his or her inherited property in a way that makes it difficult to distinguish whose is what. Comingling assets can make the process of protecting your inheritance very difficult.
Fighting for what’s yours
The property division process can be quite complicated and emotionally charged. You will find it beneficial to discuss your concerns with an experienced Texas family law attorney and discover what assets you may be able to keep and what you can do to fight for a fair final divorce order.
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Author: On behalf of Katie L. Lewis of Katie L. Lewis, P.C. Family Law