The short answer is no. The long answer is, it depends.
Texas is a community property state. That means that a husband and wife have community property and separate property. Separate property is everything acquired before marriage and everything acquired during marriage by gift or inheritance. Everything else is community property. At the termination of the marriage by divorce or death, all property is presumed to be community property. The person claiming that some property is separate property has the burden of showing that it is separate. If he can’t, it is community property because of the presumption.
It is easy to show whether real property is separate property or not. The same is true for heirlooms. It may be hard to show that cash or others items that are not distinct are separate property. If someone inherits $100,000.00 and puts it in a community account where it is commingled with community property. It will be harder to prove what part is separate and what part is community.
If the party claiming that something is his or her separate property, such as inherited property, proves that it was received as an inheritance then the other spouse does not get any part of that property on divorce.
If you have questions about your inheritance rights and would like to talk to an estate planning attorney or a lawyer who is familiar with inheritance and probate law to advise you about your inheritance rights, click on the picture in the upper right under “Visit our website.”
