Inheritance am I entiltled to any of it

Hi Hope someone can help, getting divorced and my wife’s mother has died leaving her £ 300K, am I entitled to any of this money as the divorce isn’t final. We split 3 years ago and still not settled.

Thanks in advance

Bacco,

this is a bit of a grey area...my understanding is this..

Inheritances that come after separation will in general be awarded to the recipient (i.e. you wont get any of it directly).

However, the fact she received it does considerably reduce her needs (300k is quite a decent sum)

So the court will now very likely be more generous to you than they would have when it comes to dividing up your other assets and on maintenance.

So you may get a bigger share of the FMH than you had expected, also you may get away with paying her zero maintenance (whereas without the 300k she maybe still needed to pay the mortgage and could claim maintenace from you).

As you provided none of your income / assets details all this is guesswork....but you get the general point.

This brings up an interesting point, one I haven't thought of before. My x2b's family is poor, mine is not. My sibling and I will likely split an estate in excess of a million dollars.

My x2b can't make a claim on that, can he? He can't hit me up for it 20 years down the line? UK divorce laws are so weird it wouldn't surprise me if he could. I wish I'd been able to file in Texas; we have quickie no-fault divorces here. In and out in 60 days.

My brother divorced 2 years ago.

Prior to even separating from his wife, her grandfather died. My brother always assumed that he had left his wife something in the will but she was adamant he did not.

They went along the court route to get their divorce.

My brother cashed in an endowment policy that he had been paying into since he left school at 16. He cashed this in 8 months after they separated to pay off his legal fees (privately funded bill). As this was declared on his form E, the wife, straight away made a claim to half of it.

She in turn declared no inheritance or cash settlement on her Form E.

My brother (knowing the type of person she was) was not happy about this so he did a bit of digging. Wills are freely available for public record after probate has been granted subject to paying the mandtory fee.

Turns out that she was in fact left money in her grandfathers will, however this was kept by her mother for her until such time as she had left my brother and then this was released to her.

Turns out that as her sum and his sum were virtually the same amount, his solicitor did advise, "although this is a grey area, we will ask for it to be included into the pot and be offest against your endowment which they want putting into the pot"

The request for half of the endowment soon got dropped by the wife's solicitor.

And you all thought people gave full and frank disclosure on Form E and swore it in on oath like it meant something....

Fiona wrote:

Yes, whether or not inhertiances are alloted to the 'pot' they are relevant and need to be disclosed.

disruptivehair, as I said on your thread yesterday you need to ensure the finances are settled legally so no future claims can be made against you. If you and your x2b are in agreement this can be done by your sols drawing up a "Consent Order" which providing it's fair and you both are informed will be approved by the court.

What I would prefer is for him to withdraw the petition in the UK so I can file in Texas. It's much easier and I do not want to be subject to UK law in all of this, particularly since I am not in the UK anymore and have zero desire to return there even for a visit. I don't have a solicitor and I would prefer to not have to pay to hire one, and I certainly am not about to take a trip to the UK to settle this. Here in Texas I could get the whole shebang done for $1000 and all he'd have to do is sign a service waiver, then divorce papers. Easy peasy. Nobody would have to go anywhere and the thing could be settled by scheduled teleconference.

Bacco. Turn this around and think about if it was your mother that had died leaving you £300K. Would you want your ex to have any? It all depends how amicable the split has been and whether she has p*ssed you off the the point of wanting to take as much from her as you can. I think legally you have a claim part of the inheritance but your wife may then say she has future claims on any money you inherit which could keep the legal claims going for years.

Your call, good luck with it whatever your decision

M441