Families acquire many assets during a marriage. If they later decide to divorce, someone needs to determine how to separate those assets so that both spouses retain their fair share. In a typical divorce, families need to divide their home, financial savings, cars, and personal items. But what happens when your family has more complex assets? If your family has high-value or complex assets, you likely need more comprehensive legal advice and support. In order to protect your interests, you need to work with a skilled Fairfield complex property division lawyer who understands your needs.
Contact our dedicated property division attorneys today for a free consultation.
Courts divide a family’s assets equitably, regardless of whether the spouses acquired the property during or prior to the marriage, or whose name the property is in. Although courts may give parties a 50-50 split of their assets, that is not the legal standard, and instead, a court will distribute property in a manner that gives both spouses their fair share. When dividing a couple’s assets, the court considers several factors to determine a fair and equitable distribution.
These include the length of the marriage, each spouse’s earning capacity, occupation, and contributions to child-rearing and homemaking. For example, if the marriage was brief and one spouse entered it with substantial savings while the other brought in debt, the court may have grounds to not divide the savings equally. In contrast, if the marriage lasted many years and one spouse remained at home to raise the children, that spouse could receive a larger share of the assets due to their domestic contributions, their diminished earning capacity, and the duration of the marriage.
Experienced Fairfield attorneys can explain how property division might work in your case and can help you divide your simple and complex assets.
Dividing complex assets requires skill and experience.
In order to divide assets, a couple or court needs to fully understand their full value. While the value of some assets is simple to determine, such as by looking at the balance on a savings or checking statement, other items are more complicated to value.
Some of the more complicated assets to separate include the following:
A qualified Fairfield attorney can help you determine the true value of your complex properties by using their experience and working closely with accountants, financial planners, property appraisers, business valuators, and forensic investigators and accountants.
After determining the full value of the assets, divorcing couples need to determine how to fairly divide them, especially when the assets are more complex than cash. For instance, if one spouse plans to stay in the family home, they might need to buy out the ex-partner’s interest in the house, assume the mortgage, and have their ex-partner transfer the title to the house in a deed.
Some assets have complicated rules that regulate when and how a person can divide them. For instance, to divide the interests in a retirement account, you might need to obtain a court order known as a Qualified Domestic Relations Order. Seasoned attorneys can use their experience to explain how to smoothly transfer your more complex assets.
Dividing assets during a separation often involves emotional and logistical challenges. When the assets include complex holdings, the process becomes significantly more difficult. To help ensure fair representation of your interests, consider working with a Fairfield complex property division lawyer who has experience handling complicated asset structures.
Talk to our dedicated legal team today to discover how we can help during a free consultation.
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