Financial matters often dominate the process of preparing for divorce. Spouses need to collect records about household finances. Reviewing income records and credit card statements can help people spot discrepancies in disclosures and identify attempts to hide assets.
Financial records can also play a critical role in the protection of separate property. Spouses generally need to divide the marital assets that they own jointly or acquired with marital income. They retain their separate property if they have financial documentation validating its status as separate.
What resources can people preserve as their separate property when they divorce?
Assets owned before marriage
Marriage in the late teens and early twenties is less common now than it was a few decades ago. As such, many people entering into marriage are already-established professionals with a variety of resources. If people can show that they have maintained those assets separately from marital resources, they can often retain the property they owned before marriage after they divorce.
Inheritances and gifts
People can acquire certain property during marriage that they do not need to divide when they divorce. An inheritance left for one spouse remains their separate property even if they receive the inheritance during the marriage.
Gifts from third parties, including parents and friends, are usually also the separate property of the spouse who receives those gifts. Those hoping to retain assets as separate property when they divorce typically need documentation showing the origins of those resources and establishing that no commingling with marital property occurred.
Collecting financial records and reviewing them with an attorney can help people identify and retain their separate property during asset division negotiations. An understanding of property division proceedings can prove invaluable for those preparing for divorce and feeling concerned about rebuilding their lives after the end of a marriage.