What is my best course of actions in divorce proceedings - marriage of 26 yrs, separated since March of 2018?
My spouse initiated the divorce and since then my mother died. I will inherit part of her estate. Does he have any rights to an inheritance received 8 months after he initiated it? An additional factor is he lives and started the divorce in NC, I have lived in NM since March 2018. My mother did not want him to have any part of her estate. Do I need to set up a trust to protect the inheritance?
He is also asking for alimony and support despite his voluntary acceptance of a sales job paying 100% commission and being laid off from his job. He substantially out-earned me for all of our marriage until I moved (creating the separation date) and took my current position. I stayed at home for 12 years of our marriage to raise our (now adult and independent) children. We also co-owned 3 properties. He is asking for unequitable asset distribution and has already taken all of the money from his layoff, all equity from sale of one property, liquidated our joint accounts, run up credit cards and is likely hiding $ in a business account he set up after our separation. He is traveling all over the world(also paying for the kids/their friends to fly all over) and can defer business payouts to claim lack of income. Can he pocket all the equity in our rental property, his layoff payout, fly all over the place, run up debt and still claim he deserves alimony and spousal support with unequitable distribution when I never earned more money than him until after we were separated? I used my company’s legal plan attorney and it has been a huge nightmare and I still don’t have a plan of how to shut this down or finish this divorce. Two other factors - he may be putting money in an offshore account or with friends, having his friend and business partner defer business payouts and there may be criminal activities involving one of his friends. I have provided all my answers to his attorney’s request for documents and interrogatories.