As you and your spouse move through a divorce, you know that you will have to divide the assets that you own. You may be business owners, you may have real estate like a family home or a vacation home, and you may have to split up millions of dollars worth of income, savings, investments, home furnishings, vehicles, jewelry collections and more.
But a large part of your net worth comes from an inheritance that you received from your parents. It is worth millions of dollars, and it essentially means that you have financial stability for life. Do you get to keep the inheritance during the divorce, or do you need to split it with your former spouse?
Was the inheritance commingled?
It often depends on what you did with the inheritance. When you initially received it from your parents, unless they indicated that it was for the two of you as a couple, it is likely a direct gift and therefore a separate asset. In other words, it does not have to go through property division because it is something that you own personally.
But if you commingled the inheritance, that can make it become a marital asset, meaning you would have to split it with your spouse. Commingling could include giving your spouse access to the fund, storing the inheritance in a financial account along with other money that the two of you earned or invested together, or even using the inheritance to make a joint purchase, like buying a house.
In high-asset divorce cases, with so much money on the line, conflicts are very common. It is crucial that you understand all of your legal rights at this time.