Working With Families for an Amicable Separation
Each divorce is unique. It is as simple as that. Your friend who has gone through a divorce has great intentions, but the advice they received for their divorce may not be good for your divorce. Their marriage may have ended after a relatively short run, whereas yours is ending after a decade of building up assets and properties with your spouse. They didn’t have kids; you and your soon-to-be-former spouse had kids early in your marriage.
There are so many variables that can affect a marriage, and those same variables will come into play for a divorce as well.
You and your partner have built up your properties and assets together. Now that you are going through a divorce, you may be worried about how the division of property process will work in regard to your unique situation.
How Does Maryland Define Marital Property?
Marital property is any property acquired by either party during the marriage. This property can be in one or the other parties’ name or both parties’ name. Marital properties include but are not limited to:
- Marital homes, houses, rental properties, vacation properties, and timeshares
- Cars, boats, motorcycles, and recreational vehicles like campers
- Bank accounts, investments, and brokerage accounts
- Personal properties, including collections, firearms, furniture, and decor
- Interests in the family business, including shares
Maryland also defines a property that would be considered non-marital or separate property. The following are some instances of non-marital property:
- Property acquired before the marriage, such as retirement benefits from a prior job
- Gifts and inheritance
- Property protected by a prenuptial agreement or other contract
- Property that is directly traced to one of the above, such as items purchased using inherited funds
There are instances of property that could be considered partly marital and partly pre-marital property. A good example of this would be owning a house before you are married but using marital assets to pay for that house. When property is commingled, both marital and separate property, the court may determine that the property is now marital. Equitable distribution is how the court will divide property should you and your spouse be unable to divide the property without court assistance.
How is the Division of Martial Property Handled?
When you start working through your divorce, you will need to figure out several things by working together. If you and your spouse are unable to work together, you may be able to work with a mediator, a neutral 3rd party professional, to help you divide your assets. If that is not an option, you may need to seek litigation, relying on the court to make these difficult decisions with input from both parties.
Whether or not you and your spouse are able to work the division of your property out together without outside assistance, you will start your divorce proceeding by listing out your assets. This will be all of your assets, marital and separate.
If you can work together to come up with a fair distribution of your properties, then great! However, it is more common to need outside input on the fair division of your hard work. If you and your spouse are unable to come up with a fair division of your properties, and you don’t work with a mediator, then the duty will fall into the hands of the divorce court.
Divorce court in Maryland uses equitable distribution to divide a couple’s property during a divorce. Equitable distribution attempts to divide all properties and assets as fairly as possible, usually following a 50-50 distribution system.
The court will consider many factors for your divorce, including the duration of your marriage, the value of the marital property, each spouse’s contribution to the marital property, both spouses’ earning capacities, and the economic circumstances of both spouses after the asset division.
An instance may arise where the courts can not equally distribute a shared property, so they may require you to sell the property and divide the proceeds.
As you can see, if you rely on the courts to divide your assets for you and your spouse, it is very clinical. The court will only look at hard data like numbers and property values. While your inheritance rights will not be considered marital properties, how will the courts consider these inheritances to impact your economic standing? You will be reduced to statistics and numbers. While it may look fair on paper, it may feel unfair in reality.
How Can a Property Division Attorney Help Your Situation?
Here’s a fact: even if you and your spouse are able to amicably divide your property without the help of divorce court, you can’t be certain that your soon-to-be ex isn’t already working with a divorce attorney who understands the process better than you do. You may think you’re getting a great, fair deal, but are you confident that you won’t be left wondering if that deal was all that fair later on?
Don’t leave the division of your property and your future financial circumstances up to chance. Call 240-616-6968 to speak with an experienced property division lawyer who knows the ins and outs of splitting your assets during your divorce.
By calling 240-616-6968, you can schedule your consultation with a compassionate lawyer who will work with you and your soon-to-be-ex spouse to ensure you both get what is fair and walk away from your divorce without animosity, but instead with an equal distribution of all of your combined hard work and the ability to rebuild your lives.