PROTECT YOUR INHERITANCE BY AVOIDING COMMINGLING IT WITH MARITAL ASSETS
If you received an inheritance of money prior to or during your marriage and did not protect the inheritance via a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement, then it might be considered marital property if you used the money to buy marital assets, if you added your spouse’s name to the account, or if you added marital funds to the account. In fact, any person who is contemplating marriage who either has already received a significant inheritance or anticipates doing so should consider a carefully crafted prenuptial agreement or postnuptial agreement which can help navigate asset division should a divorce occur. The only other way you can protect your inheritance, making sure you are allowed to retain an inheritance in the event of a divorce, is to diligently avoid commingling it with other assets. This means you should always keep your inheritance completely separate from your marital assets. Avoid adding your spouse’s name to a bank account holding money you received from an inheritance, or adding your spouse’s name to the property you received from an inheritance. If you plan on making improvements to an asset received as an inheritance, be aware that if you use marital funds to make those improvements, your spouse may be entitled to at least a portion of the inheritance. If you have already engaged in commingling your inheritance while married, there are specific methods to track contributions, determining what portion of the inheritance is now marital and what portion remains your separate property-or, whether or not it was merely a loan that was repaid evidenced by a written agreement.
