I inheritated my moms house and will be renting it out. My husband gave 10.00 to my son for something for the house and I gave him the 10.00 when he came home. He said " I took it from todays jobs, you don't need to give me it." I told him I am keeping anything for the house seperate from our joint accts.. The look was not a pleasant one, if you know what I mean. I told him I wasn't going to pay them bills out of our monies. But now it raises a question, when I collect the rent, how can I handle that tactfully. This will make waves. I was told to keep things seperately because once I put anything into OUR acct. it will comsidered joint property and if he flys the coop again and decides divorce, he can claim half. Any suggestions in handling this for now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He hasn't proved himself as trustworthy yet. Its only been 3 weeks since he was sending her mushy cards again........It probably is done, she has a live-in already, but if her live-in decides to leave her, she might come back to get him again, so I can't take any chances right now.

Well, you're right: Inherited property is considered separate (I'm in California, don't know where you are, so some things may or may not be different) but according the attorney I talked to after D-Day, there are some conditions to that rule. The first is that the inherited assets are given to YOU and only YOU. He said there's sometimes a loophole where the inheritance was given to one spouse with the intention of it being for both spouses use. Like, say, you get married and Granny Smith decides to cut you a check early for your part of the inheritance as a wedding gift. Then it's considered to be joint, because it was given with the intention of being used by both of you. If you two divorce, that money could be split as a result.

As for collecting rent on an inherited property, yes, get a separate account and put it in there. It's not so much that your H is entitled to it (I'm not an attorney, so I wouldn't want to give you legal advice in this matter), but that he may try to justify it as joint assets because you put the money in the joint account. If you're worried about this, play it safe. Definitely speak to an attorney to see what your options are, too.

I have a sizeable inheritance that has been coming to me in bits and pieces for the last 7 years or so. When D-Day happened, I wasn't thinking about protecting my assets, but everyone around me got very paranoid that H was going to try to get his hands on my inheritance if we divorced. H is a good soul and it didn't even cross his mind, but I got very paranoid as well and ended up discussing this with a lawyer to see what my options were if we split. In my situation, it's very cut and dried... We have separate bank accounts as it is, but even if I put the money in a joint account, it would still be considered separate property because it comes directly to me via my grandparents' estate.

lefty,

in your situation it is important to "think about yourself". Keep yourself and your belongings "safe".

A few months after d-d, I told my husband that I wished for him to put "my" name into his Life insurances.
It's a law here that if we did get divorced, his "new" wife would get his Life Insurance if something ever happened to him unless he puts a persons name as the receiver.

He did it without thinking twice.

I think this is "realistic" once someone is put into such a situation. Might sound greedy or whatever else for others but BS's are put into the situation of how possible it could be to "loose" this safety if it is not taking care of it and dealt with realistically.

If our WS are honest with us and if the marriage does recover, they have the pleasure to share this with us too, don't they????

take care
bb