Future inheritance and divorce

What happens to assets I receive in the future after a divorce?

This depends partly on whether financial issues between you and your spouse have yet been resolved as part of the process of divorce, which in most circumstances should have been recorded in a court order.

If there is not yet a final court order, then 'future' assets that one member of the couple acquires after the separation and that are non-matrimonial property (i.e. the assets do not arise from the endeavours of one or both spouses during to the marriage and instead come from a source outside of the marriage, such as inheritance) may be retained by the spouse who owns them.  

However, depending on the circumstances of an individual case, a court may think it necessary or fair for some of this non-matrimonial property to be divided between the spouses in order to ensure that both spouses are able to meet their financial needs going forwards.  (See how are assets split as part of divorce for more on 'needs').  It could also be the case that an asset initially looks like matrimonial property because it is received after the separation but in fact relates to the endeavours of one of the spouses during the marriage, such as deferred compensation.  

Assets received after a final court order are very rarely available for division between the parties, even on the basis of need.  However, in very limited circumstances, the receipt of further assets may provide a basis for "setting aside" or cancelling a final court order.  It will usually be necessary for there to have been some form of fraud or non-disclosure, or the whole basis of the order must have been undermined shortly after it was made.

When it comes to income earned during or after a divorce, the English court's approach is not to divide or share it equally (which is its approach to assets).  But it may still order one spouse to pay some proportion of their income to the other on the basis of need. (See will one of us have to pay spousal maintenance to the other following a divorce?).  An increase or decreased in the payer's income may provide a justification to vary a spousal maintenance order, but the principle of needs will still apply.