Hi all, I am asking on behalf of my Dad who is 71 years old and is experiencing the breakdown of a 21 year marriage.
My father is terminally ill and has not earned any money of significance in around 10 years, this is his second marriage and when he entered it he had not recovered completely financially from his first marriage of 16years so did not bring any property asets into the new relationship, however his wife had gained the family home from her previous divorce so she did bring a substantial property asset to the marriage.
Over the course of the twenty year marriage his wife has used her intial property to build an investment property portfolio to a point where she has more than 10 investment properties a various stages of mortgage repayments etc... two of which my dad hold a partial direct initial investment. but in reality my dad hasn't really contributed much to the building of the wealth.
pretty much he has been looked after by his wife financially for the last ten years or so.
My dad is a good guy and the relationship has turned toxic and he is considering leaving (finally), he is not interested in taking his wife to the cleaners or even pursuing a large share of the wealth he just wants to be ok and live out his last couple of years in peace and with dignity and preferably without a nasty court battle.
What i was thinking was that he may actually be entitled to more than he thinks and if this is the case maybe he could use this knowledge to leverage a small but reasonable settlement (he lives a humble lifestyle with humble tastes) during out of court negotiations.
My dad is kind of between a rock and a hard place because the assets in the marriage exclude him from a pension or any other centerlink benefit. He has a small credit card but has zero cash etc
I was just wondering any thoughts on this situation that I could pass on to my dad, I can hear the stress in his voice when we talk about it, I believe he fells trapped financially, and the emotional environment is definitely starting to affect his well being and self worth
Thanks for reading
My father is terminally ill and has not earned any money of significance in around 10 years, this is his second marriage and when he entered it he had not recovered completely financially from his first marriage of 16years so did not bring any property asets into the new relationship, however his wife had gained the family home from her previous divorce so she did bring a substantial property asset to the marriage.
Over the course of the twenty year marriage his wife has used her intial property to build an investment property portfolio to a point where she has more than 10 investment properties a various stages of mortgage repayments etc... two of which my dad hold a partial direct initial investment. but in reality my dad hasn't really contributed much to the building of the wealth.
pretty much he has been looked after by his wife financially for the last ten years or so.
My dad is a good guy and the relationship has turned toxic and he is considering leaving (finally), he is not interested in taking his wife to the cleaners or even pursuing a large share of the wealth he just wants to be ok and live out his last couple of years in peace and with dignity and preferably without a nasty court battle.
What i was thinking was that he may actually be entitled to more than he thinks and if this is the case maybe he could use this knowledge to leverage a small but reasonable settlement (he lives a humble lifestyle with humble tastes) during out of court negotiations.
My dad is kind of between a rock and a hard place because the assets in the marriage exclude him from a pension or any other centerlink benefit. He has a small credit card but has zero cash etc
I was just wondering any thoughts on this situation that I could pass on to my dad, I can hear the stress in his voice when we talk about it, I believe he fells trapped financially, and the emotional environment is definitely starting to affect his well being and self worth
Thanks for reading