Ok - My wife is ready for a divorce after 7 years. Her father just recently past and left her with a sizable inheritance. According to California law I'm not intitled to any of this money. Is this true? Over the past 5 years my wife has spent more than a year out of state caring for her father. I was left to take care of all the financial burdens when she was away mortgage, insurance -home-heath-auto, taxes etc. Not to mention all the airfare. This just doesn't seem fair. I feel I should get at least something out of this.

What are your thoughts?

If your father-in-laws will states specifically that his money is to be given to his daughter, and not his daughter & her husband, then legally the money belongs to her. Monies from an estate is a separate issue to monies held jointly in a marriage. That doesn't mean that you can't cite that in your divorce papers as a reason for you to be able to keep more than 50% of your joint assets, such as the house, car,. I would suggest you find yourself a good divorce lawyer and have a discussion with him/her. There are a lot of aspects you need to discuss here and get out on the table with a lawyer. Prior to your wife taking on the responsibility for caring for her dying father, did she contribute to the household finances? If so, yes, you did take care of finances for one year, but there were 6 years in which she did contribute. California is a tough state when it comes to divorce laws. Sorry I can't give you more uplifting news.