Legal Question in Family Law in Oregon

Re: Inheritance effect on child support

YOUR QUESTION:

If a man recently received an inheritance. He has a child with his girlfriend that he pays child support for. Will the girlfriend be able to get any of this inheritance? He is planning on investing his money in life insurance, mutual funds, a roth IRA, real estate and the Oregon College Plan. Some of these are guarded from creditors such as life insurance. Are any of these also secure so that his girlfriend can not take some of these investments? If not are there any investments that are?

ANSWER:

The girlfriend is not entitled to any of the inheritance. However, if the man who received the inheritance is under a court order to pay child support, the inheritance will be considered as income to him and may result in his child support obligation being recalculated so as to account for the inheritance and, also, any interest, dividends and earnings he receives from the investments made with the inherited money.

Child support under Oregon law is based on the parent�s gross income. �Gross income� includes �income from any source including, but not limited to, salaries, wages, commissions, advances, bonuses, dividends, severance pay, pensions, interest, honoraria, trust income, annuities, return on capital, Social Security benefits, workers' compensation benefits, unemployment insurance benefits, disability insurance benefits, gifts, prizes, including lottery winnings, and alimony or separate maintenance received.�

The fact that certain types of investments are �guarded from creditors� does NOT mean that the earnings of those investments cannot be taken into consideration in determining the investor�s total gross income for child support determination purposes.

LAWRENCE D. GORIN

http://www.divorcesource.com/OR/pages/ldgorin.html

Law Offices of L.D. Gorin

521 S.W. Clay St., Suite 205

Portland, Oregon 97201

E-mail: [email protected]