Upcoming inheritance

[MikeB]

LOL well it sounds as though your wife's lawyer is working for you....

This was my first dealing with lawyers and its nothing but a game to them. My lawyer was constantly in the driving seat and hers was just countering, which surprised me as my wife had initiated the whole process. Six hours of mediation. We offered no spousal support at first so they were glad to settle on 8 months.Its just a mind game with your whole future at risk. Took me 2 days to recover!

[arabian]

LOL well it sounds as though your wife's lawyer is working for you....

[MikeB]

Is this a "final" agreement or an "interim" agreement?

What do you mean "it can be revisited"?

Good news about agreeing to list home.

If you are happy with the agreement that is a good thing!

Yes this is a final agreement. So the wording for spousal support reads:
After 8 months- `thereafter spousal support will cease but the Wife will have the liberty to apply for further spousal support'.

Her lawyer said to my wife that it would be costly to reapply for further ss beyond the eight months and assuming the house is sold and she has the inheritance difficult to substantiate.

[arabian]

Is this a "final" agreement or an "interim" agreement?

What do you mean "it can be revisited"?

Good news about agreeing to list home.

If you are happy with the agreement that is a good thing!

[MikeB]

So just an update. We had a four way mediation last week and signed an agreement. My lawyer went straight on the attack and asked for disclosure of the inheritance. Without disclosing the amount my wife and lawyer accepted 8 months of ss (or sooner if probate is settled) at 2/3 the saag rate(it can be revisited ) and equalization of assets. House to be listed by April 1st and i bought her out of my public pension plan. I feel a little light in the pocket right now but i`m happy with the outcome. Its not all doom and gloom out there. A strong lawyer seems to be the answer.

[MikeB]

Compensatory is to compensate, usually for a loss incurred by the recipient (sacrifice of career).

Non-compensatory is based on need.

Ok Definitely non-compensatory. I paid for her to go back to school 5 years ago to re train as an aesthetician but she can`t find or does not want to find full time work. So she`s needy alright!

[OrleansLawyer]

what is the difference?

Compensatory is to compensate, usually for a loss incurred by the recipient (sacrifice of career).

Non-compensatory is based on need.

[MikeB]

It will depend if support is being paid on a compensatory or non-compensatory basis.

Ok, pardon my ignorance but what is the difference?
Thank you for your reply.

[OrleansLawyer]

Your wife's inheritance has nothing to do with SS.

It will depend if support is being paid on a compensatory or non-compensatory basis.

[arabian]

Your wife's inheritance has nothing to do with SS.

Your wife's inheritance is not part of matrimonial property and therefore not part of equalization. She can give all of the money to charity and/or become a crazy cat lady.

Probate can be lengthy simply because there are very few people at CRA in the probate department. An estate attorney will advise you as to how long it is taking nowadays. 2 years is not unusual at all even on seemingly straight-forward estates.

The only way the inheritance might play into things is if SS was purely based on "need."

As you don't know the details of the estate (money owed by estate) you don't know how much your ex will inherit after everything (including lawyers of course) is finalized.

If the probate goes through within the next 12 months (unlikely but not impossible) it will be another year before your ex is obligated to report investment income. So I'd estimate that by 2019 you might see a fluctuation in your ex's tax return (based on 2018 investment income).

With this in mind I think your best option would be to move to a motion to get the matrimonial home sold and equalization performed.

Check out other cases on CanLii.

Here is a case from BC Court of Appeal

https://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcca/do...resultIndex=34

Money inherited was deemed not to be a family asset.


this is an interesting case:

https://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcca/do...resultIndex=33


" Assuming for the moment that Ms. Q.’s entitlement to the house in Calgary and other non-family assets can be analogized to a “windfall”, I agree that where the support is intended to be compensatory, the fact that the receiving spouse has other assets available to her should not affect the amount of compensation."

I guess this could be interpreted in more ways than one.

You will have much research to perform.

Good luck

[MikeB]

Thanks for all the replies! My wife is 55 and we carried no debt. The inheritance she gets will be all hers to invest less a small amount to the boys. Hopefully probate should`t take too long. Her name was on most of her Mums accounts and her mums condo was sold back in September, which was in joint names. She got bad advice and took her name off of most of the accounts she had held jointly with her mum thinking i could go after the money or that she would have to declare them on her financial statement. Basically she was trying to hide the money but it would`t have made and difference anyhow i believe. It just means more probate fees for her to pay now. She dosen`t want to keep the house but as everyone has moved out and now her mum has died( even though she said she never liked her mum) the house is the last thing she can hold on to from the past so its probably going to need a court order to get her to sell. From what i have read here it looks unlikely i`m going to get away with paying no support but if at least some of the `windfall` is taken into account i will be able to survive. Arabian, i read the court order you sent a link to and yes there are similarities but he was earning 500k a year and i am earning 50k. She will be sitting on a million plus in assets, that has to be taken into consideration surely, if not then.........wtf?

[dinkyface]

Be careful of overstating how much she can expect as a yearly return on that investment. These days, one can hope for a measly 5-6% for a moderate portfolio. After taxes and fees and 2% inflation (assuming you are preserving capital), you're then left with 2-3%, or $16k - $24k.

How old is she? (I.e. if close to retirement, then she might have less success in saying she has to preserve capital)
Are there any major debts she would pay off using her inheritance? ( ie reducing the invested amount)

[standing on the sidelines]

it didn't take that long to settle my fathers estate..He and my mother were joint on everything so it was fairly easy. Now I am joint with my mother on everything and in her will I am the beneficiary.

Have you asked the ex if she wants to buy you out of the house?

[arabian]

Here is a decision from BC, which change for SS was dismissed as SS was primarily compensatory (using your argument):

https://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcsc/do...&resultIndex=4

Your lawyer might put forward the argument of imputing income based on investment income of the inheritance, however, I believe that because it could be several years before your wife receives the inheritance, and the amount after estate is settled is unknown, this might be best dealt with by way of a review of the SS agreement in the future.

It really all comes down to whether or not the SS claim is based on compensatory, non-compensatory or needs. Of course, annual exchanges of financial information is imperative.

[MikeB]

Thanks for the reply. Yes the lawyer bills are a constant worry and i can see them only getting worse as things drag out. One thing my lawyer did point out and this was before her mom died is that when she does inherit, there is no reason why she can`t invest that money to supplement her income thus reducing the difference in our incomes to almost zero which should cancel out support payments. I can only hope this will be the case.