Question Details

No question body available.

Tags

canada inheritance marriage

Answers (2)

Accepted Answer Available
Accepted Answer
November 8, 2025 Score: 2 Rep: 193,927 Quality: High Completeness: 30%

Several things to keep in mind as you consider a consultation with a family law attorney:

The thing is that my wife and I are in a high trust relationship, we're both kind people, and I don't suspect things would get nasty if we split up.

Divorces do get ugly despite your best intentions. Divorces are fueled by negative emotions like (in no particular order) the feeling of betrayal, anxiety, jealousy, anger, worrying for the kids, desire to get back at the other spouse for whatever real or perceived grievances, and the desire (or need) to get ahead and ensure your own future at the expense of the other spouse. It is a zero-sum game, at least in terms of assets.

Canada, where I am, there is a post-nuptial agreement

Pre-nups and post-nups can be helpful, but they must follow certain rules and terms to even be enforceable and even if they are - the courts don't always have to follow them. These contracts may be invalidated, recanted, and mutually claimed to have been violated or rendered null and void. In the end, you may end up settling on these claims just to save time and legal fees even if you'd prevail by the letter of the law, which is one reason people some time attack nuptial agreements during divorces (they don't really have a legal basis, but the risk of extending the costly legal battle may not be worth it to fight it to the other side).

My wife and I are both going to receive a pretty sizeable inheritance from both of our parents

Canada is generally following the community property rules, i.e.: all communal property is divided equally. Different provinces may have different flavors of what the community property is, but generally inheritance donated to one spouse remains that spouse's separate property, so are gifts. However, in some provinces, any income generated during marriage may be community (e.g.: in the US - Idaho), while in others income generated from separate property is separate (e.g.: in the US - California).

However, commingled property (separate property mixed with community property) may become "tainted" and cause problems during the divorce. Was the commingling an evidence of gifting it to the community? Does the community have to repay parts of income generated by the commingled property? Etc.

My question is: is this a reasonable avenue for us to go in our planning and what would separation of our estate look like if we weren't to create a post-nuptial agreement?

You need a lawyer

Note, that in many cases pre/post-nuptual agreements require separate representation - i.e.: each spouse has to have their own lawyers, who advise them.

November 8, 2025 Score: -2 Rep: 31,822 Quality: Medium Completeness: 70%

The answer below is based on US tax law but the downvote (presumably from someone more knowledgeable about Canadian law) suggests that Canadian law is quite different. In the US, inheritances are specifically excluded from marital property as long as the inheritance is kept in an an individual account and not in a joint account, but judges in divorce proceedings might anyway award some or part of this property to the spouse. Reference: American Bar Association website.

But, is Canadian law all that different as @KateGregory suggests in a comment? Well, it might depend on the Province that the OP resides in to some extent, but at least one website says

"The value of this next list of assets isn’t usually part of the family property to be split between partners:

  • Assets a spouse owned before the marriage
  • Assets inherited or received as gifts from a third party during the marriage (emphasis added)
  • Damages or awards for personal injuries
  • Assets the spouses agreed in a domestic contract not to include in the division of family property."

Original answer begins here and I stand by it as being reasonably accurate.
Perhaps the simplest thing to do would be for each spouse to deposit their respective inheritance into an individual account instead of into a joint account as you seem to contemplate doing. Or mostly into individual accounts with just enough going into the joint account to max out the tax-shielded investment vehicles or to pay off your house if you are so inclined. Should, God forbid, there be a divorce in your future, the judge may decide to give some part of your inheritance to your spouse or vice versa but that's not worth worrying about right now.