Property you inherit is generally your separate property in Georgia and is not subject to equitable division in a divorce.
What the Court Held
In Bailey v. Bailey, 250 Ga. 15 (1982), the Georgia Supreme Court held that “property acquired during the marriage by either party by gift, inheritance, bequest or devise remains the separate property of the party that acquired it, and is not subject to equitable division.” So it does not matter that your inheritance arrived in the middle of the marriage. What matters is where it came from.
Why Inheritances Are Treated This Way
Equitable division reaches only what the marriage itself built. In Payson v. Payson, 274 Ga. 231 (2001), the Georgia Supreme Court explained that “[o]nly property acquired as a direct result of the labor and investments of the parties during the marriage is subject to equitable division.” An inheritance is not the product of either spouse’s work during the marriage, so it falls outside what a judge divides.
Putting Your Spouse’s Name on It
What you do with an inheritance can change that. In Shaw v. Shaw, 290 Ga. 354 (2012), a husband put money inherited from his mother into two brokerage accounts held with his wife as joint tenants with right of survivorship, and had inherited Florida land deeded to both. The Georgia Supreme Court explained that inherited property “may be converted into a marital asset by the actions of the recipient spouse, such as the recipient spouse transferring full, partial, or joint ownership in the property to his spouse,” and affirmed the finding that the accounts and the land were marital.
The husband argued that his wife never contributed to the accounts and that they were never commingled. The Court answered that “whether or not these allegations are true, they do not vitiate the evidence that the accounts were transformed into marital property.”
So how you hold an inheritance can matter as much as where it came from.
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This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!