If a court, rather than the couple themselves, is deciding how to divide assets, Massachusetts law (Chapter 208, Section 34) specifies that “the court may assign to either husband or wife all or any part of the estate of the other.” In other words, the court can take all the property of one spouse, even premarital, and give 100% of it to the other spouse! Massachusetts law states that the court, when dividing property, “shall consider” 15 factors, including the length of the marriage, the age and health of the spouses, and past, current, and future income earning potential of each spouse. In Massachusetts law, by contrast, a judge can throw all property, both premarital and marital, into the mix, and the court does not have to divide it evenly. In community property states, couples are obliged to follow an exact 50-50 split of community property. In community property states, premarital property is defined to be “separate property” belonging to one person, and all property accumulated during the marriage (with the possible exception of inheritances) is defined as “community property,” belonging equally to both spouses. Julia mediates divorces in ALL Massachusetts counties and courts, using live video chat on Zoom or Skype.īy law, Massachusetts is not a “community property” state, but in practice, even after litigation, most property settlements end up very similar to what they would be in community property states. Feel free to call or email Julia with any questions you have about division of marital assets when divorcing. Through divorce mediation, uncontested divorce, and qdro drafting, Attorney Julia Rueschemeyer has helped over 1500 couples to customize their division of property in ways that the couple (and the judge signing the divorce decree) have found fair and equitable.
This can empower couples to divide their property in the ways that work best for them, as long as both spouses find the division to be fair. This means they must be fair but do not have to be exactly equal.
Division of assets in Massachusetts must be “equitable”. All property, income, and debts acquired during the marriage are considered “marital”-it does not matter if one spouse made more money than the other or if the couple kept separate bank accounts and paid for expenses separately. Couples who are divorcing need to divide all their marital property and debts, assigning property, money, and debts to one spouse or another.
0 kommentar(er)
