Property division

1. Does it matter who came into the marriage with what? You always take out of the marriage a 50-50 split of what you accumulated during the marriage, unless you have an agreement otherwise. What you accumulated before the marriage belongs to you if you have a short-term marriage of less than five years, and it is split 50-50 if you have a long-term marriage of ten years or more. Between five and ten years, it can go either way.

2. Does everything have to be split fifty-fifty? You can agree to wear green socks every Thursday if you put it in writing and sign it. The law won’t interfere with how you divide your property if you’re both sane and not threatening each other. An unequal property division can compensate for other considerations. You can write an agreement that gives one person less property in exchange for more support, or vice-versa. Some people split property unequally so that one can afford to pay or receive more or less child support or spousal support or to achieve some other mutually beneficial purpose.

3. How do we value our possessions? For your household goods, you can either use a replacement value or a garage-sale value, but whatever method you use, use the same for everything. Note in your divorce agreement what valuation method you used.

4. Do we have to itemize every household good we own? Nobody cares who came into the marriage with the toaster or the hairdryer. Splitting what you want and then saying Husband will keep what he now possesses and Wife will keep what she now possesses is good enough. Most divorce agreements state similar language.