Quora Answer: How & When Should I Tell My Significant Other about My Eight-Figure Trust Fund?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “To start, I have an eight-figure trust fund, and I hold quite the real estate, and investment portfolio.  How, when, or should I, even tell my significant other about my trust fund or my assets?”

Firstly, I am going to assume that “significant other” refers to your spouse.  If he or she is not a spouse, then they have no real legal relationship with you, unless they can prove they were equivalent to a common law spouse, if wherever you are allows such provisions.

Since it is a testamentary trust left by your deceased parents, it is most certainly an irrevocable trust.  Your trust fund is a distinct legal entity from you.  This means that it is not part of any marital settlement in the event of a divorce, and is protected from creditors claiming against you personally.

The question then, is why would you need to disclose it to your spouse?  Is it because these are the values of your relationship?  Do you consider that it would severely impact your marriage if your spouse found out that you are, in effect, a millionaire?  Or, would it be detrimental if your spouse found out eventually?

In general, it helps to have some disclosure in a marriage, since there has to be an element of trust.  You should tell your spouse that you have a trust, unless you do not intend to keep that marriage, or you are unsure of its stability.  What you should decline to do, however, is to disclose the total actual worth of the trust.  That is really no one’s business, and it would not be helpful.  This is especially so for a trust this large.  Wealth changes people, and seldom for the better.