Five years ago, this 55-year-old man married his wife, who’d inherited a small fortune for her and her own kids after the death of her first husband.
But his wife’s property has always remained hers alone, so now, his 29-year-old son is furious that, once they eventually pass away, his stepchildren are just going to get all the inheritance.
To give you some more background, his wife and her first husband had a son and a daughter together, who are currently 16 and 12, respectively. Then, while traveling overseas for work, her first husband passed away in an accident.
His death triggered the distribution of a lofty life insurance policy, of which his wife was the sole beneficiary. Apparently, her late husband’s employer was required to pay for it, and she wound up with just over $5 million from that policy alone.
And on top of that, she and her late husband also had a smaller, personally funded policy worth almost $1 million. So, his wife received that, too.
“She and her children got settlements from his company, and she also gets monthly social security survivor benefits for her children. She has all this money invested and gets periodic payments from it. All that is her separate property,” he explained.
It’s also crucial to note that, currently, he, his wife, and his stepkids are living in a home paid for and maintained entirely by his wife. That’s why she owns their house by herself.
Now, you’re probably wondering what he spends all his money on. He makes about $60,000 per year and, prior to tying the knot, rented an apartment and drove an old car. So, ever since marrying his wife, his lifestyle has drastically changed, but he still likes to pay for as many of his own expenses as he can.
That’s why he and his wife have come up with ways to keep their salaries separate. Again, she covers all the costs associated with their home’s upkeep.
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Then, expenses that benefit both them and his wife’s kids are split appropriately, with his wife paying 75% and him covering 25%. Lastly, any costs that only benefit him and his wife as a couple are divided evenly.
“Sometimes, she pays for everything if it’s something that is mostly for the kids’ benefit. Like if we go on a vacation, she’ll pay for the accommodations and activities, and we’ll just split the food,” he pointed out.
“If you count all her income (salary, separate property, and social security), my salary is only about 20% of our combined income.”
However, one person feels they’ve been sort of left out of this equation: his own 29-year-old son. This came out about one month ago, when his son admitted to thinking he was going to get half the house as an inheritance one day, leaving his wife’s kids to get 25%.
Moreover, his son was also under the impression that he, and therefore his son, was entitled to part of his wife’s estate when he died.
Obviously, though, that’s not the case, and he tried telling his son that his wife paid for the house, meaning her own children would inherit it. As for the rest of her investments, they were always kept separate, so he and his son could never claim any part of them.
Once his son found out about the true division of their finances, it seemed like his son was genuinely concerned for his well-being in the event he lived longer than his wife.
That was until he told his son that he’d be fine in that scenario; there just wouldn’t be money allocated for anyone aside from himself and his stepchildren.
“She has granted me the right of use of the house and that I would get a monthly income from her investments, but that her children would inherit the house and money after we both died,” he shared.
This revelation made his son have a breakdown and accuse him of blowing all his money on his stepkids. His son believes that he should’ve “insisted” on using both of their salaries to fund the home so his name could be on the property, as well as forced his wife to spend her money on other expenses. And now, they’re not even speaking over it.
“My son will get something. He’ll definitely get a whole life policy ($25,000) and whatever cash I have in my checking account (usually a few thousand dollars),” he vented.
Nonetheless, their fight has left him wondering whether never negotiating with his wife to ensure his son got a larger inheritance was justified or really did make him a jerk.
Do you think his son, who was already 24 when he married his wife, should be entitled to any of her money? What would you do in his shoes?
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By Katharina Buczek
Katharina Buczek graduated from Stony Brook University with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Digital Arts. Specializing in... More about Katharina Buczek
