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Getting a divorce is never easy, and couples who are separating may experience stress while wondering how their assets will be split. In Ohio, marital property can be divided equally if both parties contributed an equal amount of property or assets.
You’re entitled to half of everything in your divorce, but it’s up to you and your spouse to work together on listing out what you want to divide.
Dividing Property
During a divorce, you will have the opportunity to come to an agreement and split your assets. If you and your spouse want to divide your property, you can write a separation agreement, which outlines how you want your property divided between you two.
However, if you can’t agree on what to split, the court will divide your assets based on equitable distribution. This means the court will determine what is a fair split of your assets and may not always result in a 50/50 split. If the court takes control over making the decision for how your property is distributed, your assets will fall under marital property or separate property.
Marital Property
In the event that you and your spouse can’t agree on how you want to divide your property, you will need to let the court know what assets you have together and how much there is.
If you and your spouse were married for at least 25 years, which is considered a long-term marriage, the court can categorize your property as marital property even if you had it before you got married and brought it into the marriage.
Marital property can include:
Personal property you obtained while you were married.
The income you made while you were married.
Retirement benefits that you acquired while you were married.
Putting a value on your marital property is a challenging process, but an experienced attorney can help you find the value of your property.
Separate Property
Separate, or nonmarital, property is considered to be anything you owned before you got married. If your marriage was short and lasted less than five years, any property you and your spouse had before you were married will go back to you after your divorce.
Separate property can include:
An investment property you bought before the marriage.
Any property you bought after a legal separation.
A gift that was only given to you that wasn’t intended for you to share with your spouse.
Once you are divorced, your separate property remains separate as long as your spouse can’t prove they’re entitled to half.
Get Help From a Columbus Attorney
If you’re thinking about getting a divorce or writing a separation agreement with your spouse, our attorneys at Law Offices of William L. Geary can help you evaluate your assets.
Contact us at (614) 289-1227 to schedule a consultation.