Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

The contents of the house, if they were willed along with the house to your 2 girls ("I give my house and its contents to my daughter for use during her life, and remainder to my grandchildren". If your wife was given a life estate only in the house, the contents may have gone to her outright, without passing on to her and your daughters. In that event, she may be able to claim that the contents are not marital property, since they were inherited during the marriage.

There is no "community property" concept in Virginia. Upon divorce the "marital property" can be divided by the court, if the parties have not reached an agreement on how it is to be divided. Generally speaking, marital property is defined as everything that was acquired after the marriage and up to the date of separation, no matter how it was titled, except property which is deemed to be separate property, which includes property given to a party by someone other than the other party, property inherited during the marriage, and property acquired during the marriage with proceeds of sale of premarital or otherwise separate property. But, if separate property has been commingled with marital property, and cannot be traced back to the separate property, it will have become marital property subject to division.