I have inheritance money (from my late husband) and in my prenup it states that this is separate property (and anything purchased with it remains separate). I purchased a great deal of things throughout our 9 yr marriage – mostly from my inheritance money. Some of these things were bought as gifts for my spouse. I’m assuming that things I bought as gifts are then considered “marital” property, is this correct)? And how would it be proved WHAT things were purchased as gifts and what were not? Who’s burden of proof is it?
IF it’s considered marital property, then if my ex chooses to keep these items, then I’m entitled to HALF the value, correct? For items that were NOT purchased as gifts (that I paid for thru inheritance funds)…then I am entitled to them, right…and he gets no percentage?
How would I go about proving that big ticket items were paid out of my inheritance money? I have cancelled checks proving that I paid for them. But I transfer money from my “inheritance” savings account into my checking account to pay for these things. My checking account would be considered marital (we kept separate checking accounts). Would I have to show the transfer of monies…and then the check that I wrote to pay for the item? I guess I would have to go back 9 yrs and trace all these transfers to prove that I paid for stuff with my separate property? I only make $32,000/yr…so instead of going back and tracing each item…can I not show that on my salary, I could not have afforded to pay for these items from my salary alone? Just trying to figure out the easiest way to prove this.
Thanks so much for your invaluable help!
Donna