Divorce and inheritance

Joebaxi

Hi all
Am hoping someone can answer this before I have to pay mega cash to a solicitor. 

The wife and I are discussing divorce after being separated for the last 6 years of an 18 year marriage. The problem is there are absolutely no assets to divide but I have recently received a substantial inheritance after my dad passed away last year. The check isn’t even in the bank yet. We are both housed in housing association properties and have equal residency of our youngest child,the rest are grown up. There is a difference in income as I work and she is on benefits as it’s always been throughout the marriage. It’s not a huge difference, about £400,so the court will definitely be looking for something to bridge this gap. My wife has said she doesn’t want to claim any of the inheritance but I am completely happy to give her a share of it. My question is can we work out an agreement ourselves or will the judge just say nope and throw the inheritance into the marriage pot to be divided as if it were an asset. 

Thank you in advance for any answers
Kind regards

Brie

I can't imagine a judge will say no to anything that doesn't disadvantage your wife.  But having savings may mess up her benefits so that might be something to consider.  Perhaps setting a portion aside for your child would be a better option.

elsien

Every situation is likely to be different, however in a sibling’s case when they and the ex separated a recent inheritance that one of them had received was not taken into account as a marital asset.
 This was a court decision - it was before the court because they were unable to agree childcare arrangements which had to be done before the finances were sorted. 

So if you were already separated long before the inheritance was part of the picture, it seems a reasonable presumption that it could be excluded from the arrangements.

Joebaxi

Brie said:

I can't imagine a judge will say no to anything that doesn't disadvantage your wife.  But having savings may mess up her benefits so that might be something to consider.  Perhaps setting a portion aside for your child would be a better option.

Thank you for your answer. From the research I’ve done when it comes to awarding lump sums to people on benefits then that is seen as the recipient’s problem. Benefits will cease and they have to live on the money. Refusing the money will be seen as deprivation of assets as would excessive spending to get back below the threshold 

Joebaxi

elsien said:

Every situation is likely to be different, however in a sibling’s case when they and the ex separated a recent inheritance that one of them had received was not taken into account as a marital asset.
 This was a court decision - it was before the court because they were unable to agree childcare arrangements which had to be done before the finances were sorted. 

So if you were already separated long before the inheritance was part of the picture, it seems a reasonable presumption that it could be excluded from the arrangements.

Thank you. This is very useful info. Maybe something along the lines of child maintenance could be arranged to bridge the income gap. Standard of living isn’t an issue as we’ve always lived in rented accommodation. If anything my needs are higher as I need a larger property. The inheritance isn’t large enough to get us both on the property ladder and any large lump sums the wife is awarded will cancel out any benefits she receives making it dead money which could be used as you say to benefit the children. 

Once again thank you

Spendless

Are you on social media and if so do you follow The Legal Queen? This situation has come up on there  (though it was a lottery win). What happens in any divorce is that assets are divided up to what is fair for each party according to their needs, which will take into account any children who are minors live with. You say there's no assets but any pension pots either of you have will be included when looking to split. As to your inheritance, this may be taken into account when dividing up purely because there's still a dependant child and nothing/very little else asset wise. You might have a large chunk (or even it all) ring-fenced due to the amount of time you've been separated but really you need professional advice. You do have a will in place don't you? If you don't get one because otherwise your ex will inherit from you should you die before a divorce is finalised.

Joebaxi

Spendless said:

Are you on social media and if so do you follow The Legal Queen? This situation has come up on there  (though it was a lottery win). What happens in any divorce is that assets are divided up to what is fair for each party according to their needs, which will take into account who are children who are minors live with. You say there's no assets but any pension pots either of you have will be included when looking to split. As to your inheritance, this may be taken into account when dividing up purely because there's still a dependant child and nothing/very little else asset wise. You might have a large chunk (or even it all) ring-fenced due to the amount of time you've been separated but really you need professional advice. You do have a will in place don't you? If you don't get one because otherwise your ex will inherit from you should you die before a divorce is finalised.

Hi thank you for your response. 

Yes I’ve watched quite a few of legal queens videos, she pulls no punches lol. 

I do have a frozen pension from before the marriage which at last inspection was only set to yield a couple of thousand at retirement age. Other than that no assets whatsoever. I am at the time of writing this waiting on a phone call to arrange a payed consultation with a solicitor. Have had a couple of free consultations but only get vague answers. I’ve been told by a friend they do that hoping you’ll panic and throw money at them. (It works lol). 

Thanks for the advice about the will I’ll get that sorted asap 
kind regards 

Kynthia

Do you mean you have a pension that promises to pay £2k year for the whole of your retirement, or that you have a pension pot with £2k in it?

The former has more value than you think and you might need to request a CETV for divorce purposes from them.

VyEu

Inheritance is prima facie deemed to be a non matrimonial asset but can be brought into the marriage if it is intermingled with matrimonial finances or there is not enough in the matrimonial pot to meet need.

Here, she doesn't even want it, so that's easy enough.

You can definitely agree arrangements outside of court. You do however need a solicitor to draw up a financial remedy order and a D81 (statement of financial information). The d81 sets out the parties finances pre and post implementation of the draft order. There are also some boxes on it (either in the notes section or box 13) which you can use to explain why you're keeping your inheritance (and that's why you have more cash than her on the face of the form) and/or why you're giving X amount to her from that inheritance.