Marital-property definition
Marital property is defined as the money and the things that were acquired during a marriage except for.
Items that were given as gifts to one party.
Items that the two partners formally agree in writing is the property of only one person.
noun
During a divorce proceeding, one of the court's tasks is to divide the marital property between the two parties. Two situations may occur depending on the state of residence:
- A small number of states consider all marital property to be "community property."
noun
The rest of the states treat marital property as simply jointly owned property that must be split in an equitable manner.
noun
Community property states deal with the allocation of property in the divorce in a strictly mathematical way:
- Each partner equally owns each asset or piece of property that is not separate property.
noun
The split is handled on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
noun
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The partners can divide the total assets by trading their share of one asset for the partner’s share of another.
noun
Large assets, such as a house, can be sold and the money obtained split equally between the two.
noun
Within the states that do not treat marriage property as community property, it is up to the court to divide the property equitably between the two parties. In general:
- The split does not fall into an equal split but is instead more or less than 50% to each party.
noun
The court takes into account many things in determining the split of property including the length of the marriage, the earning power of each party, custody of any children in the marriage and the future earning power of each party.
An example of marital property is a house a couple bought after their wedding.
noun
All property acquired during marriage, regardless of how titled, that will be divided between the spouses in the event of a divorce.
noun
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