Hello,<BR>My mother has been married 14 years and this is her second marriage. Her h is wanting the divorce. He worked 1/2 year at GE and 9 years following their marriage. He has 51K in stock and is wanting it all. Is she entitled to any of this or not? Is there some type of freeze she can put on the assets they acquired throughout their marriage until a final decision has been made? They live in the state of Ohio. I know whe whould see an attorney but she is devastated and is praying for a reconcilliation. I'm afraid he will walk away with way more than he deserves. Any advice will be appreciated. tess

This probably won't help but in CA - a community property state - filing for a divorce puts an automatic freeze on any assets until the judge reviews it and splits it. <P>But here it is 50/50 - I don't know about Ohio - sorry. <P>J

J,<BR>I am pretty sure that everything in Ohio is pretty much 50/50 but I am wondering if he did something like put the stock in his sister or childrens name, how would this effect things?<BR>Thank you tess

If he does it without her co - signature - I would imagine a judge would frown on that. <P>I would suggest a lawyer be contacted asap - to protect her rights. If it is a 50/50 state then she should recieve it. <P>A lawyer may recommend filing though. I ask as soon as possible. <P>J

I live in Ohio and when H walked out I did see a lawyer to find out my rights in case he did somehting funky with the money or stopped paying the bills. She will be entitled to a portion (not sure how much) of his retirement earned during their marriage. Any money H makes "disappear" from joint bank accounts will have to be accounted for if there is a divorce. My H removed a substantial amount of $$ from one of our accounts (said he was afraid I'd "do something" with it). The lawyer told me that since there was a record of that money being there, then gone, he would have to explain where it went and I would still be entitled to half. The bank would not freeze the accounts. I'm not sure if they will if a divorce had been filed. Also I found out that in this state you can file for divorce and still contest it, even though you filed. You explain to the judge that you don't want the divorce and just filed to protect yourself financially. That is about all I know since we never got to the point of filing anything (my H never even spoke with a lawyer).

Thanks fairydust,<BR>My mother will be meeting with a lawyer soon. Hopefully, he'll clear up some questions she has.