If you are heading for a divorce, you may be wondering how the marital assets (and liabilities) will be divided. The short answer is that it depends on a few things, most notably how long you and your spouse have been married. The Court in Massachusetts views marriages as long term (twenty years or more) short term (five years or less) and mid-length – everything in between. Just to complicate things, the Court may consider a short-term marriage more mid-length if there are children.
The Court may also consider which part brought certain assets to the marriage, although this becomes less important the longer the parties have been married. The Court will consider the relative ages and health of each party, who was primarily responsible for the children and the home during the marriage and various other factors.
All in all, there are eighteen separate criteria the Court may consider in determining how to distribute the marital assets. These are the same factors a Judge uses in determining whether to order one part to pay spousal support to the other. These criteria are listed in Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 208, section 34.
The Court does tend to lean toward an equal division of assets when appropriate, but an argument can often be made that one party should receive more or less. For example, if you and your spouse own a home and when you married, you brought $100,000 to the table which was used as the downpayment, it is reasonable for you to seek to recoup some (or all) of that. If you and your spouse both have been working for twice the length of the marriage and were, throughout your careers, contributing to your retirement accounts, perhaps you should each retain the portion that was accrued prior to the marriage.
The law in Massachusetts provides that assets acquired or accrued from the date of marriage to the date of divorce are ‘marital.’ Further, unlike many other states, in Massachusetts, the Court may ‘reach back’ and allocate assets that a party accrued prior to the marriage.
Finally, while couples often wish to offset one party’s interest in real estate for the other’s retirement, handling this can be complicated. The present values must be compared (often by a financial expert) so that funds that were accrued pre-tax (such as retirement) can be compared to a post-tax asset like home equity.
At Newburyport Family Law, we have extensive experience in dividing assets equitably. We work closely with tax professionals and certified financial divorce planners when necessary to be sure the resulting division is fair and reasonable.
Give us a call to schedule a free consultation to further discuss how the laws may impact the division of assets in your case.