Will My Spouse Get My Inheritance After We Divorce?

Will My Spouse Get My Inheritance After We Divorce?

When a loved one dies, their property is distributed based on the will or, if there is no will, pursuant to the Oregon probate laws. A will is a document that contains a person’s instructions on how to distribute their property at their death. A will does not go into effect until the death of the person. The property that someone receives from a will is called a devise or a bequest.

In contrast, a person receives an inheritance of a deceased person’s estate if that person died without a legally valid will. An inheritance may consist of the deceased’s real and personal property such as cash, jewelry, automobiles, real estate and stocks. Someone who dies without a valid will will have their estate distributed by the state’s intestate succession.

Under Oregon laws, property belonging to a married couple is equitably distributed between the spouses in the divorce. The real and personal property owned by the spouses is separated into separate property and marital property. Separate property includes property each spouse owned or acquired during the marriage and property a spouse receives by inheritance. Marital property is all property acquired during the marriage, and it is jointly held by spouses or individually by one spouse unless the law recognizes the individually held property as separate property. In a divorce, separate property belongs solely to the spouse it was given. An inheritance belongs to the spouse it is given to; therefore, the other spouse cannot get it in the property distribution after the divorce.

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