13. How is property divided?
In the state of Massachusetts property is allocated to spouses on an equitable
division of the property.
What this means is that a Court will consider certain factors in allocating property, such as:
· The conduct of the parties during the marriage;
· The length of the marriage;
· The opportunity of each party for the future acquisition of capital assets and income;
· The contribution of each party in the acquisition, preservation or appreciation in value of their respective estates;
· The age, occupation, health, station and amount and sources of income, employability, estate, liabilities, vocational skills and needs of each of the parties.
An equitable division does not mean an equal division of the property, although an equal division is fairly common.
Equitable division simply means that the property will be divided fairly.
14. What happens to
retirement funds in a divorce?
In a divorce situation, retirement funds are place into two different categories; those that were acquired before the marriage and those that were acquired during the marriage.
Retirement funds that were owned at the time of the divorce are usually not subject to division in a divorce proceeding.
However, growth of the funds in an account owned prior to divorce will be treated as acquired during the marriage.
Retirement funds which were acquired during the marriage are subject to an equitable division as any other asset of the marriage is treated.
Example, in assuming the husband had a 401K account which he had prior to marriage which had a value of $100,000.00; during the marriage the husband contributed an additional $100,000.00.
The account also increased in value due to the market, as well as interest by an additional $50,000.00 giving the total retirement asset a value of $250,000.00.
Under circumstances such as these, the value of the retirement account would be subject to division, except for the $100,000.00 the account was valued at before the marriage.
In addition, retirement funds which are subject to division may require a special court order to divide the asset.
If this is the case, the Court will issue a
Qualified Domestic Relations Order which is commonly referred to as a QDRO to divide the asset.
The QDRO must be prepared by the parties and the party that controls the retirement assets will most likely need to be consulted.
For any other questions on
Massachusetts
divorce law, call
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