Questions on combined marital assets

[secondchance]

My spouse has deposited a very large sum of inheritance into the "joint" marital account and is allowing free access to support both of our monetary needs and interests. Needless to say, this recent blessing of money has not changed their attitude or changed my feelings of discontent with the marriage or our household.
I do not see any other recourse except to file for divorce in the near future, however I fear that my spouse will try to hide or remove the money from our joint-account. I have been told by another attorney that I am entitled to and or should remove at least 50% of the account's total value, 24 hours prior to filing for divorce and then vacate the marital home.
My question and or fear is that a family law judge may frown upon this and penalize me financially for removing the money later down the line. What are the chances that I will be allowed to keep a reasonable amount of this money so that I may provide for myself and our children? And, am I actually entitled to 50% of it's value? Both my wife and I are gainfully employed in a full time job and have no debts.

[Attorney Cheri Hobbs]

Once non-marital monies (i.e., inheritance) are co-mingled with marital monies it makes the Equitable distribution of same change. As in, you may withdraw 50% of those monies in the joint bank account and the judge may look favorably or unfavorably on you for that in the future (unfortunately each judge is different in their decision making). Both of you will have to provide bank statements and records dating back about three years so that money will not be "lost" if you do not remove it.

You may want another consultation with an attorney before deciding on what to do.