Legal Question in Family Law in Massachusetts

He can leave anything he wants to her under the Will, but you have the right to claim your statutory rights, which is the first $200K and 50% thereafter.

The problem becomes more difficult if he puts the condo in her name as joint tenants. If he does that he will circumvent your rights under the statute.

Moreover, by law he has to make you at least a 50% beneficiary of his 401K or similar retirement policy.

If you are going to reconcile I recommend for both of you a Marital Agreement or what is sometimes called a Post-Nuptial Agreement. This will protect you both from the actions of children to get one or the other to do something that would have a terrilbe impact on the other.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Regardless of what he does with the will you can elect your spousal share pursuant to MA Law.

Both of my colleagues are correct. Should a spouse attempt to disinherit a surviving spouse, the law provides for a certain minimum protection for you. However, as the others have also mentioned, a dishonest spouse might try to transfer his interest away or somehow re-title things to put them out of your reach.

If you are afraid that your spouse, who you are entrusting with your marital assets and property, is going to try to disinherit you or somehow deprive you of part of the marital estate upon his death, my advice would be to commence divorce proceedings and protect yourself while he is still alive.

The question raises concerns, and makes me think that you may want to have counsel to look out for your interests, whatever you decide to do next.

You absolutely do not want to wait until your spouse has passed on, and you then find yourself in the position of commencing expensive and difficult litigation against his family members to try to get back what you believe to be yours.