Will your child's spouse be entitled to assets inherited from you?

Speaker 1: I'm 85 my wife, 81. We have a son, 42, who is married, has one child. All our assets pass to him upon our death. Will is prepared and everything. My question is, while we are living, should he and his wife divorce, does his wife have the ability to attach his inheritance even though he hasn't yet received it?

Attorney Tom Olsen: Absolutely, positively, no. First of all, you're talking about them getting divorced before he inherits those assets from you. No way, but even better news is that is, if you both passed away and he inherited your assets, those assets are still his to keep if they get divorced as long as he keeps those assets in his name only. What I'm saying, Allan, is that, if he inherited $200,000 from you and he kept that $200,000 in an account in his name only, he gets divorced, he's leaving with that $200,000.

If he takes that $200,000 and puts it into a joint account or uses that money to buy a home and puts that home into both their names, and they get divorced, she's going to leave with one half. If this is concerned you, Allan, when you have a quiet moment with your son, have a conversation with him, tell him, Hey, Attorney Tom Olson said that some day when we pass away, you're going to inherit our wealth. We suggest that you keep that wealth in your name only, not jointly with your wife.