Bought a car with inheritance money

[nalnk]

After 8 years of you posting about it...I simply don't buy the concerned-sister act.

If you feel that way, that is fine. Please don't chime in than. My brother's questions and my family's concerns are legit.

 

[Zigner]

If you feel that way, that is fine. Please don't chime in than. My brother's questions and my family's concerns are legit.

...just sayin'

 

[not2cleverRed]

He won't talk to an attorney (calls will be questioned from itemized bills) and if he gets seen walking out of an office in town... they live in small town PA where everyone knows your name. So he comes to me. He has admitted that he paved the way for this potential disastrous outcome and is at her mercy right now. He does as she says and he can't do anything about it right now.

Given the posting history Zigner reminded us of, you have been trying to drive a wedge between this couple from the start.

Rather than playing legal advisor, you should have been recommending marital counseling.

Rather than posting on here about your brother and his wife, you should have invested in therapy for yourself, to determine why you can't let go of your brother and let him have another woman in his life. It is clear from your posting history that you never welcomed this woman into your family. Such a negative attitude is poisonous; rather than be a healing force, you have been bent on destruction.

Had your brother not purchased the car, the inherited money might still be viewed as separate property.

However, PA is an equitable distribution state, not a community property state, so things are NOT automatically split 50/50; they are split equitably.

 

[nalnk]

I disagree. The OP told us that his/her brother used inherited assets to buy the car, so the car is not marital property. Repairs and improvements might give the wife a marital interest. The rest of it? No. The notion that using marital funds to buy gas will automatically give the wife a 50% interest in the car is absurd. That said, the concept of a marital interest in non-marital asset is not the subject of statute in Pennsylvania, and I haven't read any PA case law.

To the OP: I take it your brother is thinking about divorce? If so, he needs to consult with a PA divorce attorney. One thing he should be aware of is that, in a PA divorce, the court divides marital assets in a manner that is deemed equitable based on numerous statutory factors. If your brother is unwilling to look into this, then this whole thread is rather pointless.

My brother is not looking into divorce. However, the idea of her leaving is always in the back of his mind. My brother will come into a sizable inheritance and she knows approximately how much. She had set the tone years ago... she received a few dollars from an inheritance and basically said to my brother... now look here, i'm putting this money into a joint account so you have to do the same thing whenever you get money... (This coming from my brother's mouth)... He does as she says.

Someone posted that i dislike her.. Yes, I do! On their wedding day, i heard her say to her kids, we finally nailed "Joe". I kept my mouth shut because a wedding celebration would have been halted. I still haven't told my brother... but that day is coming. She also went thru a divorce prior to marrying my brother. She often spoke to her attorney while sitting next to me (I lived in PA at one time and often visited with my brother when she was also there).... Every conversation with her lawyer was about how to take her ex husband to be to the cleaners.. and so i think about this and watched another marriage happen. Mind you, this is a difficult spot for me to be in... My brother talks to me on the side and I can't offer him what I know and have overheard so I'm in a tough spot, I won't interfere. So, should I just do nothing and not help my brother out with info that i try to find out?

 

[Just Blue]

https://forum.freeadvice.com/threads/buying-a-foreclosure-what-if.608905/

 

[Zigner]

... I won't interfere.

Yet, here you are.

So, should I just do nothing and not help my brother out with info that i try to find out?

Give him the name of some attorneys.

 

[Ohiogal]

I am surprised anyone is wasting their time on this OP considering her attitude and history.

 

[adjusterjack]

I disagree. The OP told us that his/her brother used inherited assets to buy the car, so the car is not marital property. Repairs and improvements might give the wife a marital interest

Disagree with what? That's almost the same as what I wrote.

"Using marital funds (his earnings are marital funds) for those expenses is likely to give his wife a marital interest in the value of the car."

The notion that using marital funds to buy gas will automatically give the wife a 50% interest in the car is absurd.

Of course it's absurd. Don't you recognize a joke when you see one? I wouldn't have thought anybody would have taken that comment seriously. smh

 

[zddoodah]

Of course it's absurd. Don't you recognize a joke when you see one? I wouldn't have thought anybody would have taken that comment seriously. smh

Come on, Jack. You and I have probably 300-500,000 combined posts on various message boards over the past 20 or so years, and you know as well as I that sarcasm/joking intent is uncommonly evident in message board posts. Even if I understood it, someone not familiar with you and with no knowledge of the law might not.

 

[Just Blue]

Come on, Jack. You and I have probably 300-500,000 combined posts on various message boards over the past 20 or so years, and you know as well as I that sarcasm/joking intent is uncommonly evident in message board posts. Even if I understood it, someone not familiar with you and with no knowledge of the law might not.

You're kidding, right?

 

[stealth2]

I'll actually admit that it wasn't apparent to me that jack was joking.

 

[Shadowbunny]

...If my information is not clear, just ask without being judgmental... It's not that difficult to do that. People on the outside don't know all of the circumstances.

And that includes you. You have no idea what REALLY goes on in your brother's marriage. It's time for you to step away and let him make his own mistakes and live his own life.

 

[Just Blue]

And that includes you. You have no idea what REALLY goes on in your brother's marriage. It's time for you to step away and let him make his own mistakes and live his own life.

OP is so involved in her brothers marriage the SIL likely feels like she's having a ménage à trois .

 

[bcr229]

My brother is not looking into divorce. However, the idea of her leaving is always in the back of his mind. My brother will come into a sizable inheritance and she knows approximately how much. She had set the tone years ago... she received a few dollars from an inheritance and basically said to my brother... now look here, i'm putting this money into a joint account so you have to do the same thing whenever you get money... (This coming from my brother's mouth)... He does as she says.

If your brother is truly concerned that his wife will file for divorce immediately after he inherits, he can ask the (eventual) deceased to leave him his portion of the estate in a trust that pays him regular disbursements rather than taking a lump sum, with higher payouts for things like atypical medical expenses, and to name a trustee who will be willing to tell your SIL to take a long walk off a short pier if she fusses over it.

 

[Taxing Matters]

In other words, if he filled the gas tank with his earnings and got divorced, she'd be entitled to $15,000.

Not correct Jack. First, it appears you are drawing from principles of community property here (which is not surprising since you are in a community property state) and PA is not a community property state. Even if it were a community property state, putting in $22 of community property into a $30,000 car doesn't suddenly give the spouse half interest in it. It would perhaps give some community property interest, consistent with the community property contributed. (Although I think that would not result from putting gas in the car, so the gas was probably not your best example.) Community property works by giving the spouse an actual ownership interest in the community property at the time the interest is created. So even if the couple never gets divorced, the spouse owns that community property interest. In a community property state, half the earnings of the spouse during the marriage are generally community property, so using those earnings to

Equitable division states, like PA, on the other hand, work a bit differently. In those states, the concept of marital property only arises should the couple get divorced. At that point the court determines what the marital property is and then divides it. In a noncommunity property state, the earnings of a spouse remain his separate property. So using his own money to simply maintain his separate property does not make that property marital property in the divorce. However, it is possible that any increase in value of the asset during the marriage would be a marital asset. So if at the time of the divorce the car increased in value by $10,000, that $10,00 increase may be subject to division in the divorce.