Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

No, any inheritance left to your niece is the share of your niece, provided that your niece does not commingle this with any marital assets. For example, if you leave your niece $100,000 she can't stick it in the joint checking account with her husband. If she does that and they decide to get divorced the next day after she does that, he may have a claim to a portion of it. Same thing if the niece uses the funds to buy a new home and she puts the husband on the deed. By commingling, she turns separate property into marital property.

A couple of things you could do - if you trust her leave it to her with specific instructions about never commingling. If you are really worried, set up a revocable living trust or a testamentary trust for your niece and have someone else parcel out the money just to your niece.

Talk with an estate planning attorney about this to make sure that your wishes concerning the property are handled correctly and have the attorney draft the will or trust for you. Doing it yourself might save time and money now but may create many more costly problems later if something is not worded correctly.