Protecting the Inheritance

• If someone left you an inheritance, you must examine what you've done with the asset since you received it to figure out if it is safe in a divorce. If it's a cash investment or trust account and you've always held the account solely in your name, you're probably safe. Your spouse won't get any of it. If it's real estate and you've always held title to the property in your name alone, it's probably safe as well. But if you ever commingled it, you'll have to convince the judge that you did so unintentionally if you're going to keep it.
  
  

Commingling

• When you accidentally commingle a separate asset, it usually happens because you used marital money for its upkeep, such as to make repairs to inherited real estate. You might also have let your inheritance become "polluted" by marital money. If it's a cash or investment account and you put any marital funds into it, the account is generally no longer your separate asset. If you take any money out of your trust fund and use it for the benefit of both you and your husband, that portion of the money loses its immunity from distribution in a divorce as well.
  
  

Fixing Your Mistake

• If you accidentally commingle your inheritance with marital assets, you have the burden of proof to convince a judge that you did it unintentionally. In the case of using marital money to support a real estate inheritance, you might not have much of a case. But if you can identify marital money placed in an investment account holding your inheritance, and if you never spent it so it still exists there, you might be able to return that deposited money to a joint account and convince a judge that your inheritance should not be shared with your adulterous spouse.
  
  

Joint Inheritances

• If you and your spouse receive a joint inheritance, it's marital property and its distribution in a divorce could possibly be affected by your spouse's infidelity. Generally, courts consider several factors when allotting marital property between spouses. Adultery alone might not convince a judge to give you the entire inheritance. Judges usually can't take away a spouse's property to punish him for marital wrongdoing. However, he might award it to you if your spouse spent significant marital money on his new girlfriend. Giving you the entirety of the inheritance might balance that out, because you could have expected to receive half the money he spent if he hadn't cheated and caused the divorce.
  
  

Tips

• Whether you've commingled your inheritance or managed to protect it through your marriage, or if you're worried about keeping a joint inheritance that was given to both of you, you should seek the help of a lawyer. The matter could very well come down to a good argument made to the judge, and you'd probably be better off with a professional to do that on your behalf. State laws are rarely black-and-white on the issue of property distribution in a divorce. The decisions are often up to the opinion of the judge.