I came into this marriage with a good chunk of change from working two to three jobs, investing and buying and selling a couple of homes. My husband came in with a fraction of the money but then two years into the marriage he got a settlement from a lawsuit. Nothing all that major…believe me. My question is whether or not that settlement gets split as marital property even though the case started a couple of years before we got married but then settled two years after we were already married. The lawsuit was for “Loss of profit and operating expenses” The lawsuit was actually between this couple and a company, my husband appointed himself to the board and got some options. Operating Expenses including paying back shareholders, companies that were owed money for services and the attorneys. Their loss of income was just a couple of months salary where they received unemployment. The loss of profit was basically what they could have gotten had the compnay been successful someday. So is this amount all his and should I pull my stuff prior to the marriage out or what? Thank you!
If the settlement was money paid to rectify a situation that occurred prior to the marriage the settlement money is his separate property, unless he co-mingled it with martial funds or if it has since been spent during the marriage on marital property. The same is true for the money you came into the marriage with.