wife has a inheritance while married

[badomen]

hello i am in michigan my question is my wife filed for divorce we have maried since the 80s but been not living togeather as man and wife for over 13 yrs and have not talked in 3yrs our 3 children are grown and gone
she has a 7 yr old from another relationship and now she wants 1/2 of a 401k that i have from a job i have only been working for 10 yrs while we were married i had a diffrent job but was layed off in 2000 and in 2005 i got my pay out of 30,000 from that jobs retirement plan and it was spent on paying of credit cards and fixing up a house that i morgaged and shared living in she in the lower half and me in the upper aparti had actual custody of the kids then she was actually with her now 7 yr olds father in the lower half i ended up filing bankrupcy and lost every thing she moved on and so did i but now since she recieved a 150k inheirtance from her brother she is filing divorce and going after my 401k she has bought a home and still has a large sum in banks and my real question is i know the 401 is almost certianly going to be considerd marital property and split but what about the inheritince can that be concidered marital property i really dont want any of it but would like to use it as a bargining tool to keep my 401k the 401 is only worth 33k and she has 3 times that already in her possession i still work a 14 an hour job and need to work for 13 yrs more before i retire and even then with the full amount i still will not retire with much of a check and that 15 k she would get would most likely make me work till in to old to enjoy any kind of retirement while she already has more than i will ever recieve even if i work the rest of my life she never worked and still does not work so i am afraid she will appear broke to the courts if she does not have to disclose the money she has inheirted i cannot afford much of a attorney due to my obligations car payment rent bills ect and am representing (my self i know crazy) but hopfully cheaper i am in the process of doing the interrogorys she we already filed disclosure and the houseand inheirtiance was not on hers but according to HER attorney all my stuff is up for grabs any help will be quite welcome

 

[army judge]

You need an attorney, if you want to avoid getting fleeced.

In a divorce case, Michigan Courts have the discretion to treat inherited property acquired during the marriage as either marital or separate property.* When inherited property has been commingled with marital property or used jointly by the parties, or if the spouse of the one who received the inheritance has contributed to the acquisition, improvement, or accumulation, the courts will generally view the property as marital property and thus subject to division. Ross v Ross, 24 Mich App 19 (1970).* Zimmers v Zimmers, 346 Mich 28 (1956).
However, if the inheritance received by a married party is kept separate from the marital property, the courts generally deem it to be separate property not subject to division. *Lee vs. Lee, 191 MichApp 73 (1991). *Generally, Courts hold *that the longer the marriage, the more likely the property will be considered to be joint and thus subject to division.* Ross v Ross, 24 Mich App 19 (1970).
Inherited*property*that is held separately from*marital*property*is generally considered separate*property*and generally should not be invaded.*Dart v Dart,*460 Mich 573, 584-585 (1997). However, this general rule is subject to certain exceptions, including circumstances in which*marital*assets are insufficient for suitable support and maintenance, MCL 552.23(1), and when the non-inheriting spouse made a contribution to the acquisition, improvement, or accumulation of*property, MCL 552.401. The court may also award one of the parties part of an inheritance if both parties reasonably anticipated that an*inheritance*would be available for retirement purposes and it was necessary to sustain the other's standard of living during retirement and if the anticipation that the inheritance would fund a retirement caused one to not create a nest egg for retirement. Lowrie vs. Lowrie (Mich App, 2008).