Finally have the money to leave but he will just take half won't he?

[icantwaitforsummer]

Hi all,

Looking for some advice.

I have been wanting to leave my abusive DH for a while now. But never had the financial ability to do it.

A parent died this year leaving me some inheritance. So in my head I thought I can now get my ducks in a row and go.

But he will just take half of that won't he?

Am I able to protect my inheritance as it's within the last year if we divorce?

As far as I’m aware, inheritance is just yours (unless you use it to pay down your joint mortgage, or for a joint asset). Keep it in account under your name only, not a joint account.

When I inherited from my mother the bequest was my money, not DH's, and I put it in my own bank accounts. DH is a good husband so I paid off our joint mortgage and discuss what I am doing with the money with him as we share assets. However, your DH is abusive so you don't have to share with him or give him access to the money.

It may come up in the divorce settlement when you both have to declare assets, but your DH can't take it from you at the moment.

I have got it in my name and in a bank account in my name but when I declare all assets on that Form E and say what is in my savings doesn't that get just merged into the marital pot?

How long is it protected for?

It depends on a number of factors such as whether you're both adequately provided for, I think. Are you in England?

AFAIK it goes into the marital.pot.
The only thing you could do is give it to someone and get it back afterwards?

@icantwaitforsummer seek a free solicitor session asap.

You will need to declare it. How it then gets treated as part of the divorce will be part of the settlement negotiations and agreement.

English divorce law accepts that some assets and liabilities (like an inheritance) that are held separately and not used in pursuit of the marriage don’t get shared. However they can materially change your needs position and reduce your share of the marital split. Whether that happens depends on what is the marital pool and if needs can be met from the pot.

For example, a couple have 1m in assets to share but one has an inheritance of £50k. They earn the same and have the same housing need. The 1m would still be shared 50:50 as the share would be enough to meet needs and the 50k is kept by the recipient.

However if the pot was 50k and the inheritance was 1m, you have different outcome. There won’t be a 50:50 split and the non recipient of the inheritance would get the 50k and might make a case for a share of the 1m.

Get legal advice and financial advice - get details of all your assets, joint, separate accounts, Pension, investments, etc. You can do this under the guise of updating your wills - end of year is a natural point to look at these things.

If the inheritance is classed as joint, you might want to negotiate that you won't make a claim / charge against his pension when you divorce if he doesn't claim on your inheritance pot - however do seek financial advice on whether this would negatively impact your finances.

Whatever you do, keep it in that separate account. Get professional advice.

I think that inheritance is considered separately as its not a "marital asset".

But you can't put it in a joint account or use any of it towards joint family things like hone improvement.

They would only considered splitting an inhheritance if that's the only possible way for the other person to survive. Eg if the sale of the joint property is not enough for either person to put a roof over the childrens heads.

Get legal advice asap

My FIL died while we were still married and now ex h got his inheritance before I filed. He kept it and I got a bigger share of the house and pension. As he had lost all his money he had to use some inheritance to give me the lump sum but in theory he got to keep it. Think about where the money could go.

edited for typo.

Would it be depriving assets if you bought a shit ton of vouchers for home decoration places / Next to furnish your soon to be upcoming home? You will need those vouchers.

Inheritance is very strange. I was surprised to find it is not necessarily included in the marital pot on divorce. It does depend on the size of the pot and the inheritance.

Is it a lot? Could you reasonably start spending if to set up your new life eg deposit plus 6 months rent on a flat, new furniture.

Get financial advice and get cracking with the divorce.

It's only part of the marital assets if it hasn't been spent.
What do you need the money for?
If for example you used it to pay for deposit and 6 months rent on a new place to live, it would be gone and not part of the assets to be split.
Similarly if you used it to pay for legal advice, furniture for the new place etc...

https://osborneslaw.com/blog/inheritance-and-divorce/

Is it an amount that you envisage using as a deposit to buy somewhere? Or to rent?

If the money is spent then they can't factor it into the marital assets.

Find a lawyer who does 30 mins free and ask them.

Then use some of your inheritance to pay your lawyer for the rest of the divorce.

The solicitors open again on the 3rd so will get an appointment and ask.

I would hope to use the money to buy him out and still live at home or buy another little place near the school.

You have to declare it, just don’t pay for anything in the house with it, keep it solely in your name only, and do not use or mix it with the joint account. Then it has not mingled in the marriage pot so to speak. It should remain with you but it depends on how much assets your other half has and what the judge seems fair. It is not part of the marital assets. It is separate but you must declare it on Form E if you got down the route of divorce

I had this when I divorced
My inheritance from DM was counted as part of the marital pot and after long game of ping pong solicitors, I got it back and ex got less
I truly hope it's the same for you.

What other assets are there?

if there’s not enough to provide fir both parties needs it’s likely the inheritance will be considered within the pot. Doesn’t mean it will be split 50:50

it will depend on your circumstances

Inherited a little flat which I'm now renting out (it's in my name and will give to DC) and chunk of cash that I could use to buy him out of our mortgage.

But does it all become marital assets.

Keep it entirely separate, do not use it towards any marital costs or the DC until you have sought legal advice.

It can be held/spent in a way that it is not a marital asset. It may be that you get less of the marital assets as you gave to the means to provide for yourself with less than the 50%.

Basically it does AFAIK. So you need to have it in either DC name now or put it out of reach

@Whyherewego no it doesn't, depends if you used to toward marital expenses like pay off the mortgage/pay for an extension, spent on day to day costs.