I had just moved out of my husband’s house and filed for divorce when I received a call from the county court. “Mrs. Gilroy,” the clerk said, “we have a bad news-good news situation here.”
“Sure,” I said, bracing myself for whatever was coming next.
The bad news is that you need to make an appointment to talk with our attorney about how you’re going to divide up your finances during the divorce proceedings.
Pensions
A pension is a form of financial asset that can be divided in a divorce. Pensions are typically divided on the basis of need. This means that one spouse may receive all or most of the pension, while the other gets less or none of it. However, this does not always happen if there is a difference in size between the pensions and both parties want to keep their entire retirement savings. In this case, it’s possible for courts to take into account factors like length of marriage when deciding how much each party should receive from their shared assets.
In addition, the court may consider how much each spouse contributed to building up their pension. For example, if one person was the only breadwinner during a marriage, or if they worked longer than their spouse before retiring and therefore received more benefits from their pension.
In general, pensions are considered marital property and must be divided during divorce. However, there are exceptions. If one spouse earned the pension while they were single and before they got married, then that spouse may keep their own pension when getting divorced.
Property
The first thing to decide is whether you want to keep the house. The answer may be yes, or it may be no. If you’re going through a divorce, chances are that one of you won’t want to keep the house because it will mean moving away from your community and friends.
If one of you does want to stay in the home, then there should be some discussion about how you’ll pay for maintenance and upkeep on both sides of ownership (or if one party gets sole ownership). You’ll also need to decide whether there’s anything else being done with any savings or investments that have been liquidated as part of asset division – do these get divided along with other assets?
If you decide to sell the house, then you’ll need to come up with a price that’s fair for both parties. If you’re planning on keeping the home, then there should be some discussion about how much money from any sale will go into savings or investments that have been liquidated as part of asset division and how much will go towards maintenance and upkeep on both sides of ownership (or if one party gets sole ownership).
Savings and investments
If you and your spouse have savings or investments, these can be divided in a divorce. The court will determine how these assets will be divided based on the circumstances of your case. For example, if one spouse worked during the marriage and earned more money than the other, then the court may award him or her more of those assets.
The length of time that you’ve been married can also influence how your savings are split up in divorce. If you’ve been married for less than 10 years, then most states consider everything acquired after marriage to be marital property that should be split evenly between both parties unless there are extenuating circumstances that would warrant otherwise (for example: one party had an addiction problem before they were married).
If you’ve been married for 10 years or more, then most states consider half of all assets to be marital property that should be split evenly between both parties unless there are extenuating circumstances that would warrant otherwise (for example: one party had an addiction problem before they were married).
Some states have a community property law, which means that all assets and debts acquired during the marriage are considered to be marital property by default. In these states, a judge has no discretion in dividing property between spouses.
Businesses
If your business is worth a lot of money and was created during the course of your marriage, you’ll need to decide how it’s going to be divided. This can be very complicated, so I recommend hiring an attorney with expertise in business law to help you handle this. You’ll likely also have to decide how your business will be run after the divorce is finalized. For example, if one spouse wants to leave his/her job and take over running the business full time (or vice versa), that spouse may have difficulty getting a loan from a bank unless he/she has personal assets under his/her name or has someone willing to cosign for him/her.
If there are children involved in running or working at the business in any way (for example, as employees), then both parents will probably want their children included in this decision-making process for safety reasons: there could be safety hazards on site such as chemicals or heavy machinery that could cause injury if not handled properly by someone who knows what they’re doing; if there are no other employees at all besides family members then chances are good that whoever takes over management duties will need training first before assuming full responsibility as boss; etcetera…
If the business is a sole proprietorship and only one spouse is listed on the business license, then that spouse will have to decide whether he/she wants to keep running it or sell it off. If you don’t want to go into this by yourself, then consider having your spouse sign over his/her portion of ownership rights so that you can take over without any legal problems down the road (this is called a “quitclaim deed” in some states).
You must make a formal agreement to divide your finances if you don’t have an existing court order.
If you don’t have an existing court order, you must make a formal agreement to divide your finances. This is known as a consent order and can be done by making a claim to the court or by making an agreement with your ex-partner.
If you choose to make an application for consent orders in the Family Court, it’s important that both parties sign their agreement and file it with the court before applying for consent orders. If you’re applying for consent orders without first having signed any agreements, then one of the following needs to happen:
- you need to get all other issues resolved; or
- you need to file your application without any attached documents (like agreements).
The court can refuse to make consent orders if you haven’t taken these steps, so it’s important to get them right. Once the application is filed with all necessary documents attached, there’s no need for any further paperwork or forms to be submitted unless something changes in your circumstances.
If you want to make an application for consent orders without first having signed any agreements, then one of the following needs to happen: you need to get all other issues resolved; or you need to file your application without any attached documents (like agreements). The court can refuse to make consent orders if you haven’t taken these steps, so it’s important to get them right.
Your divorce is an important and personal decision. You should make sure that you are well-informed about the options open to you before making any decisions. If you are unsure of what sort of asset division agreement would be best for your situation, a lawyer can help guide you through the process.
