Marital Property

Marital property is property acquired during the marriage. Examples of marital property include houses, cars, IRAs, bank accounts, pensions, and annuities. Exceptions exist for property which is a gift, property acquired after a judgment for legal separation, property excluded under a valid agreement between each party, property acquired prior to the marriage, or property acquired in exchange for property acquired before the marriage.

Generally, marital property is divided between the couples during a divorce, and the courts try to split property equitably, although this does not mean equally. There are various factors the court will use to determine how to divide marital property including the value of property assigned to each spouse, the length of the marriage, the dissipation of each spouse of marital and non-marital property, obligations of prior marriages, post-nuptial arrangements, the health, occupation, income and skills of each spouse and the custodial needs of children. Because property division is such a difficult and potentially contentious issue, it is good to talk to a lawyer.