My father in law who passed away managed my husband and I retirement accts. IRA's, money market, stocks and bonds. My husband and I separated and divorced 1 year prior to my father in law passed. Due to medical problems I waited for the division of marital assets in which we are doing now. I had found out that 90% of our retirement accounts were in my ex husband and father in laws name only. My ex husband is now stating it was his & my father in laws retirement accts only. I was on active duty and had no access to any of the accts because I trusted my father in law with everything since he was a senior bank officer over stocks and money markets. What can I do to prove I am entitled to half . My ex has No will or estate from my father in law.
Charles Christopher AdkinsFamily Law AttorneyHuntersville, NC ·
N.C.G.S. 50-20(b)(1) defines marital property as all real and personal property acquired by either spouse, or both spouses, during the course of the marriage and before the date of separation of the parties, and presently owned, except property determined to be separate property or divisible property. In North Carolina, marital property also includes: (i) Income derived from, and the increase in value of, marital property; (ii) Interspousal gifts made during the marriage - unless the gift is made with the express purpose of being separate property; (iii) Gifts made from a third party jointly to both spouses; (iv) The value of vested and unvested pension plans, military pension plans, retirement accounts, and deferred compensation rights, which accrued during the period of marriage; and (v) Any recovery from a lawsuit related to actions that occurred during the marriage. Marital property is subject to equitable distribution. You should probably schedule a consultation with a family law attorney to review the specifics of your case.
Unfortunately this has great potential to be a very complicated, convoluted mess, especially if your husband has in fact intentionally tried to do wrong by you, including possibly fraudulently holding and/or transferring of assets. It's also complicated because you say you have already divorced, which typically any "equitable" rights you would have to certain things have now been extinguished and it WOULD only go by whose name is on the account. But in this limited forum we cannot tell you one way or the other for sure and would involve reviewing several of your documents, timeline of events, and knowing more facts.
As the other attorney suggested please do consult with an attorney right away. You can use the Find a Lawyer tab on
