Q: My mother in law died and left my husband and I over $200k. She didn’t put my name on the account.
Before passing, she showed me how to access the account and that she was glad it would help us. My husband didn’t know about the account value until I told him about it after she died. His grief pushed him over the edge, he got a girlfriend and left me after obtaining this account. Divorce has been filed. All family that knew my MIL would say she intended that account for us both and would have put me on as equal beneficiary had she known my husband capable of leaving. Is there anything in the California law that would make it possible to claim any of these funds or is it just “too bad, so sad” and he gets away with it? We have been married almost 21 years.
A:
If she never put your name on the account and never left it to you in a Will or Trust, then it belongs to him and him alone. Any inheritance like that is Separate Property and not Community Property, so you do not have any rights to it.
Sorry.
But if you are hiring a divorce attorney, see if he can do something with it.
Sean David Ethington agrees with this answer
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