A 78-year-old man in Beijing lost his savings after marrying a maid 33 years younger

China After marrying a maid 33 years younger than him, Mr. Zhang, 78 years old, in Beijing discovered that his savings had disappeared, his wife was often away from home, and divorce became difficult.

Mr. Zhang, 78 years old, uses a wheelchair after his wife passed away in 2012 and has no children. In 2014, the family hired a 45-year-old woman to take care of him. Two years later, this person proposed to live together, so the two registered their marriage.

Because he had no children and saw that the maid took good care of him, his grandchildren initially supported this marriage. However, after registering the marriage, the wife's attitude changed. She no longer cooks often and often comes home late or is absent from home. At the same time, the savings of tens of thousands of yuan that Mr. Zhang kept in his house also disappeared.

"The money was kept in a high place, out of reach of people in wheelchairs. By the time we discovered it, the money was gone," his nephew said.

When asked about his caregiving responsibilities, the wife said that if Mr. Zhang couldn't take care of himself, he should find someone else. It took more than half a year for Mr. Zhang to tell his family the incident because he still hoped his wife would change.

After that, he proposed a divorce, accepted monetary compensation to be free, and moved back to live with his nephew. However, the wife did not agree and often left for a few days every time the family mentioned divorce.

Mr. Zhang's family sought a lawyer but were warned that the legal process could be lengthy, posing risks to the elderly with poor health. In order to protect the house worth more than 10 million yuan, the family took him to the China Will Registry. After checking his civil capacity, Mr. Zhang completed three procedures including: making a will to leave personal property to his nephew, appointing a guardian and keeping records.

According to Chinese law, separate property acquired before marriage does not automatically become common property after marriage. Appointing a guardian helps protect the elderly's assets in the event they lose cognitive ability.

Currently, Mr. Zhang still lives in the old house. The grandson comes to take care of him every few days, and the wife only comes by occasionally.

Mr. Zhang's case was just mentioned by the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court in a report on family cases related to the division of assets of the elderly, published at the end of July.

According to the report, in the period 2021-2025, the rate of this type of cases increased from 4.4% to 15.5%. Of these, 18.1% of elderly people have transferred assets to a caregiver or unrelated person.

The 80-89 year old group accounts for 64.3% of cases related to property disposition. Real estate appears in 94.6% of cases.