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Post by shevy on Jul 7, 2020 16:20:21 GMT
Say you have Jake and Kalina who are married. However, they're rocky and almost come to divorce twice in 10 years. Jake has 2 kids with a previous wife, Kalina has 2 kids from a previous husband and they have one child together, Nick.
Jake's family doesn't like Kalina. When Jake's father gets really sick, he structures his will to purposely give items to his kids; Jake and his sister Anna. At the time Jake and Anna's father dies, he was in the middle of putting his significant amount of money, life insurance, stocks into a trust that would only go to his 2 children and not spouses. This is how much Jake and Anna's dad did not like Kalina. Anna completed the trust and as the executor of his will, signed off and filed it. Anna and Jake get a certain amount of money each year from the trust.
Fast forward to 5 years later and Jake & Kalina are at the point of divorce again. Only this time Jake filed on Kalina. He has a really good job and throughout their marriage Kalina has worked off and on, gone to school to be a dental assistant (but was let go), gone to school to be a flight attendant (didn't make it through training) and in the last year has gone to school for pharmacy tech and gotten her license. She has been working in a pharmacy for about 6 months.
Kalina's attorney is trying to go after the trust that his sister filed on their Dad's money & properties.
Is it fair game for her? Will the trust be part of the settlement? She's also asking for $2K/month in alimony and $2k/month in child support, despite their 16 year old wanting to live with Jake, not Kalina.
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Post by workingclassdog on Jul 7, 2020 16:32:31 GMT
I highly doubt she will get anything from the Trust. The attorney will probably have to hire a forensic accountant to determine that. You said he was in the middle of putting money into different entities, so if that wasn't completed she might get some of that.
All that is probably dependent on where they live as well (for divorce rules and all that).
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Post by Linda on Jul 7, 2020 16:36:01 GMT
inheritances that are kept separate and not co-mingled into marital assets are often treat as separate and not required to be divided in a divorce. I would imagine that (subject to state law) the trust would fall into that
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Post by Darcy Collins on Jul 7, 2020 16:44:44 GMT
The actual trust is probably protected if set up properly. The income from the trust is probably more at risk - especially if it's been used for the upkeep of the family. But these laws are incredibly state dependent.
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Post by mom on Jul 7, 2020 16:52:03 GMT
Say you have Jake and Kalina who are married. However, they're rocky and almost come to divorce twice in 10 years. Jake has 2 kids with a previous wife, Kalina has 2 kids from a previous husband and they have one child together, Nick. Jake's family doesn't like Kalina. When Jake's father gets really sick, he structures his will to purposely give items to his kids; Jake and his sister Anna. At the time Jake and Anna's father dies, he was in the middle of putting his significant amount of money, life insurance, stocks into a trust that would only go to his 2 children and not spouses. This is how much Jake and Anna's dad did not like Kalina. Anna completed the trust and as the executor of his will, signed off and filed it. Anna and Jake get a certain amount of money each year from the trust. Fast forward to 5 years later and Jake & Kalina are at the point of divorce again. Only this time Jake filed on Kalina. He has a really good job and throughout their marriage Kalina has worked off and on, gone to school to be a dental assistant (but was let go), gone to school to be a flight attendant (didn't make it through training) and in the last year has gone to school for pharmacy tech and gotten her license. She has been working in a pharmacy for about 6 months. Kalina's attorney is trying to go after the trust that his sister filed on their Dad's money & properties. Is it fair game for her? Will the trust be part of the settlement? She's also asking for $2K/month in alimony and $2k/month in child support, despite their 16 year old wanting to live with Jake, not Kalina. This sentence could be important. Did he complete all the paperwork for the trust and was it set up correctly and completely? |
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Post by Mel on Jul 7, 2020 16:57:45 GMT
I know nothing about the trust part.
The state basically decides the amounts of the child support & if there is any spousal support or not. I didn't ask for Spousal support but the child support is based on a % of his income. My SO's ex asked for spousal support because she had "given up" so much to be a stay at home mom to their daughter. The daughter was 20 at the time of the divorce and hadn't lived at home in about 3 years. The judge basically laughed at her and said she was a healthy 38 year old woman who needed to grow up and get a job. That was 5 years ago. Ex-wife did get 1/2 of his 401K which was a pretty significant amount of money that she blew through in about 6 months.
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Post by mom on Jul 7, 2020 17:00:53 GMT
On the custody part --- at 16, in most states, the kid can live where they want to as long as the other parent is considered 'fit'. In Texas, child support is based on 25% of income for the first child. A parent just doesn't get to decide the child support amount they want. Its based on income.
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Post by jubejubes on Jul 7, 2020 17:01:47 GMT
My lawyer always advises that only children of a parent are to be mentioned in a will. Spouses may come & go. Grandchildren may also be mentioned, but not by name, as there could also be a death of a grandchild.
So, in my dad's will, my siblings were mentioned by name, but not our spouses. The grandchildren were mentioned by stating that after everything was paid, they would each get a specific $amount or a % of what may be left.
No spouse should ever be offended that they are not mentioned, as they are not the actual children of the "dad".
And NEVER co-mingle inheritance assets into marital assets, unless you are fine that this money/stuff will be now "joint assets".
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Post by silverlining on Jul 7, 2020 17:12:49 GMT
My parents and my in-laws did exactly the same thing. Every child gets the same percentage, whether they are married or single, and spouses are not listed. These documents were drafted years ago and haven't needed to be changed as single siblings got married and married siblings got divorced.
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Post by shevy on Jul 7, 2020 17:28:13 GMT
This sentence could be important. Did he complete all the paperwork for the trust and was it set up correctly and completely? It wasn't all completed prior to his death. He had made it verbally known to both Jake and Anna and others in his life, but the paperwork wasn't filed prior to his death as he ran out of time. And as Anna is the executor, she was allowed to complete it and file it with the Court. The income from the trust that Jake receives was probably used in the maintenance and support of the household in some ways. I believe that the last time Jake and Kalina were having issues is about when Jake's dad started getting really ill and was given less than a year to live. And I believe that Kalina came back to Jake and agreed to participate in counseling and work on the marriage only because she knew how much money Jake's father had and that she would benefit from it. But I can be really cynical like that sometimes. |
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twinsmomfla99
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,992 
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Post by twinsmomfla99 on Jul 7, 2020 17:29:49 GMT
My brother was divorced in November 2019. Most of the farm property was property he owned before he got married, and it included oil/gas royalty. He also had several acres of royalty on my mom's farm that she had gifted to him. None of this was ever put into his spouse's name. In the divorce, none of this separate property was included when determining the amount of property to be split. However, my brother was told that it income from separate property could be used for the basis of determining alimony and child support. It is all very complicated and dependent on state laws. Here is a good summary: www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/separate-community-property-during-marriage-29921.html. |
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Post by lisacharlotte on Jul 7, 2020 17:35:49 GMT
We just set up a trust this year. Everything goes to the spouse. If we die together, to DS. If me, DH and DS all die together, a lump sum goes to care for my uncle, the rest is divided among our 4 nieces. We also have a remarriage clause to prevent a new spouse from inheriting over DS.
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Post by tuva42 on Jul 10, 2020 2:02:50 GMT
It is not odd that a person would only list his children as his heirs or as beneficiaries of a trust. I would be much less common to list an daughter-in-law or son-in-law as an heir.
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MerryMom
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,539
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Post by MerryMom on Jul 10, 2020 2:37:13 GMT
My son is listed as my beneficiary and not my step-daughters. My husband lists his 3 children: our son and his 2 daughters from his first marriage. His 2 daughters have a mother and a father that they will inherit from.
My husband didn’t list his son in law in the trust.
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