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Father makes $100k, has $50k in assets" “Stepmother makes $600k, has $500k in assets” The assets might be in a joint account with $550k in it, but in this case the F and Step know who owns the assets. If they do not know or the assets can’t be easily divided, assign half the value to Father and half to Step (so each ‘owns’ $275 of this $550k asset).
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Somehow, I don’t think it’s going to fly to have a “joint account” and claim that a much larger portion is “owned” by the step parent. In many states, if not all states, once you mingle money in an account, it becomes a marital asset… I doubt H is going to be ok with money being in one account and the family claiming that a huge share is really only the step’s money.
Of course, there could be some game-playing where blended families will put large assets into an acct with only a step’s name on it in order to make H think that the bio parent has few assets.
Maybe a better question to ask is something like: Have the remarried parents been married less than X years. If so, please provide documentation. …at least then H would be less likely to consider the step’s income/assets.
That said, H needs to reword their instructions because many are going to think that H is only asking for bio parents info.