This is “general” information and not a substitute for legal advice. Only an attorney can apply the general principles of law to your specific case. Please call for a consultation regarding your specific case.

Marital Property Is

• All property acquired from date of marriage regardless of how titled
• Increases in property owned before marriage and inheritances, acquired and kept in one name
• Property owned before marriage or inherited that later is titled into joint names
• Gifts between spouses (including gifts in expectation of marriage like an engagement ring)
• Not gifts to just one of the spouses by third parties
• Not property excluded by the terms of a Pre-Nuptial or Marital Agreement
• Not awards or settlements for claims which happened before marriage or after final separation
• Not property purchased after final separation unless marital monies were used for the purchase

Marital Property can be divided either :

• By mutual agreement (usually formalized in a writing and made a Court Order), or,
• By the court through a multi-step legal process which includes possible appeals.

Courts consider these factors in deciding how to divide property :

• the length of the marriage
• prior marriages of either party
• age, health, station, income, vocational skills, employability, assets, debts and needs of each party
• contribution by one party to the education, training or increased earning power of the other party
• opportunity by each party for the future acquisition of assets and income sources of income, medical, retirement, insurance and other benefits for each party
• the role each party played in the increasing/decreasing of marital property including homemaking
• value of property set aside as nonmarital to either party
• standard of living established during the marriage
• economic circumstances of each party at the time of the division of the property
• tax ramifications associated with the assets distributed
• expense of sale, transfer, liquidation of assets
• whether either party will serve as the custodian of any dependent children