I have good news and bad news.
It is a beautiful sunny day here in Santa Cruz so we’ll start with the good news:
In California an inheritance is classified as “separate property” and not “community property.” Community property is shared equally by the spouses and, for the most part, divided equally in a divorce. Separate property belongs to the spouse that owns it and is technically not subject to division in divorce. But lawyers have to make their money and in divorce all of the fun is in picky exceptions and creative reimbursement strategies. (Any lawyer who tells you that the fun part is figuring out the least painful way to divide the kids time between two houses is clearly not me.)
Speaking of me, here is the part where I go into a tangent where I try to make my childhood memories relevant to your question.
