Legal Question in Family Law in Connecticut

My sister and I are part of a family trust involving a piece of real estate in Massachusetts, she is going to be getting divorced in Connecticut (she is a CT resident) and I wanted to know if her husband can lay claim to the family trust real estate asset even though he is not in the family trust? Should she step out of the trust and make me the sole trustee of this vacation home?


Asked on 10/18/11, 8:36 am

3 Answers from Attorneys

John Heffernan Heffernan Legal Group, LLP

There's no easy answer, but usually property gifted to a party (your sister in this case) or inherited by her, or brought by her to the marriage, is not awarded to her husband in a divorce. There are (very rare) occassions when this general rule might be abrogated. If this is the only asset in the marriage and the husband is destitute without acces to it, or if the husband contributed a lot of money to the property for repairs or improvements, then maybe, but that's highly unlikely.

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Answered on 10/18/11, 10:31 am
Bonnie Lee MacDonald Law Office of Bonnie Lee MacDonald

There is not an absolute answer to this question. Property division during a divorce depends on the assets owned by parties, contributions during marriage, the needs of the parties and other factors including who brought what to the marriage. The trust document may be the controlling factor as to the real estate. If your sister retains 100% of the property in MA, the court may consider that your sister retained this asset when distributing other assets.

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Answered on 10/19/11, 10:46 am
Linda Subbloie Linda A. Subbloie, Esq.

First of all, if your sister conveys her interest to you at this time when the divorce is pending, her husband could argue it's a fraudulent conveyance, implead her into the divorce and ask the court to vacate the conveyance.

Her husband can make a claim for a portion of her interest in the trust. Whether he would win is another story. I don't have enough information to give you my opinion on that.

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Answered on 10/23/11, 6:13 pm


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