When you decide to get divorced, you typically get to keep separate assets, and you have to divide marital assets. Separate assets may have been purchased prior to your wedding, but everything after the date of your marriage likely counts as a marital asset – with a few exceptions for an inheritance, some family heirlooms and things of this nature.
People often start splitting up marital property by looking at the simplest examples. Maybe they have a shared checking account with a few thousand dollars in it that they use to pay the bills. Maybe they have a savings account where they’ve been putting money aside for a vacation. All of these types of things need to be split up as couples close shared accounts and open their own.
Don’t overlook these assets
But there are other assets that may be far more valuable than a bank account, and you shouldn’t overlook them. Be sure to consider things like:
- Real estate, like the family home or a vacation property.
- Business ownership percentages, either when running a family business together or if your spouse is a business owner.
- Retirement accounts, like a pension plan or an employer-sponsored retirement plan, which can be split up using a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO).
- Stock options and investments.
- Expensive collections like art collections or jewelry collections.
Some of these assets will be more complex to divide than others. For instance, using a QDRO may mean considering the length of your marriage and determining what percentage of the future pension payments should go to you. But the court can help with this process, and that’s why it is so important to know all of your legal options so you can protect the assets you deserve.
