Let’s say that Mrs. Homie’s father died and left her $250,000 (not too unlikely, actually). Is there any sort of contract (that a court would honor) that could keep that money hers should we divorce?
DISCLAIMERS: You are not my attorney, I am not your client, blah blah blah. This is purely hypothetical, and if and when Mrs. Homie does inherit money from her dad, undoubtedly it will be shared by the two of us, etc.
California allows you to change the character of property (community vs. separate) under certain conditions. In some cases, you must have a writing to do this, but I think it would be wise to consult an attorney and put it in writing in all cases.
States also have varying rules about how inheritances are treated versus other types of income. IIRC, in California, an inheritance is usually considered separate property (it’s been awhile since I looked at this). As always, consult an attorney licensed to practice in your state who is familiar with these rules.
not too relevant but hey…I’ll post it to give ideas.
Here in Singapore, in the case of a house received as inheritance or a gift…
It “belongs” to the person it was given to unless some quite specific conditions are met:
It’s not a mid-nuptial agreement, it’s a post-nuptial agreement. Pre-nuptial means before you’re married, post-nuptial means after you’re married.
I don`t know details on jurisdictions where they are enforced or not or limitations, but they do exist.
Gifts and inheritances are generally considered separate property. To retain this characterization, you generally must keep the property separate, meaning that you shouldn’t put the inheritance into any account that the non-inheriting spouse has any ownership of or right to access. Once it is mingled with community property there’s no way to know what happened to it. If you put your $50,000 inheritance into a joint account that already has $50,000 and then spend $50,000, did you spend the inheritance or not? Keep it separate and inaccessible to the non-inheriting spouse.