Equitable Division of Marital and Non-Marital Assets and Debts
One of the newer family law blogs is the Florida Family Lawyer Blog, which is published by Koch & Trushin, P.A. in the Miami area. The articles published on their blog appear to be very well written, and it's great to have yet another quality resource available on the web.
One of their recent posts dealt with the issue of how marital and non-marital assets and debts are handled during a divorce. South Carolina and Florida both use a form of equitable distribution, and although there are some differences between our respective states, their article provides a good analysis of what are / aren't marital assets and debts, which included the following excerpts:
Martial assets and liabilities include: (1) assets and liabilities incurred during marriage, either individually or both spouses; (2) increased value and appreciation of non-martial assets due to the efforts of either party during the marriage or because marital funds contributed to that increased value; (3) gifts one spouse gives to the other during that marriage; and (4) all vested and non-vested benefits, rights, and funds that came due during the marriage (including retirement, pension, profit-sharing, annuity, deferred compensation, and insurance plans). It is also presumed that all real and personal property held as tenants by the entirety is marital, regardless of whether the property was purchased before or during marriage.
Nonmarital assets and liabilities include the following: (1) assets and liabilities incurred before you got married; (2) assets acquired individually by either spouse by non-interspousal gift, bequest, devise, or descent, or any exchange for these assets; (3) all income received from non-marital assets during the marriage unless that income was used or relied on by the spouses as a marital asset; (4) assets excluded based on a valid written agreement made by the parties (think: pre-nuptial agreement!); and (5) liabilities incurred by one spouse as a result of the other’s forgery or unauthorized signature of that spouse’s name.
Source: "Equitable Distribution – What Are My Martial Assets?" by Douglas Schapiro, published at the Florida Family Lawyer Blog.
I am an attorney, so I am not seeking legal advice, but instead I came across an interesting scenario that has since been resolved by being ignored. I would like to hear your insight:
In a divorce between husband and wife there was a life insurance policy the husband had on his life. The policy was taken out by the husbands father for the husband. So, the fathers name was on the policy since he bought life insurance on his son's life - obviously the son later became "husband" who is now being divorced. The Husband paid all premiums on this policy. Father has since died (only recently). Husband says it is not his policy, it was his fathers. Wife says we paid all the premiums and it is your life that is insured.
What do you think is marital property. The cash value of the policy or just the premiums paid by the husband and wife. OR, it could be nothing since his father took out the policy - it may belong to his estate once husband dies.
I thought it was interesting, but never got a ruling on it - I would like to hear your thoughts.
Jim O'Connnor, Lexington