Marital Property
Categories: Real Estate, Incorporation
Marriage is a partnership. Say, "I do," and you're a partner. So, while every state has different tweaks as to how they define asset ownership in a marital partnership, in most cases, for assets you accumulate along the way, the proceeds upon their disposal gets split 50/50 in the marriage when you part ways.
Why the distinction between marital and otherwise? Well, in some states (like New York), what you owned coming into the marriage is yours, even if you split. That ranch upstate? It's yours even if he splits. He can't force you to sell it (usually) and then take half of whatever Zillow says it's worth. In other states (California), you have what you had when you came into the marriage...but if those assets grow after "I do," then you split the gains 50/50.
So...a tech nerd comes in with 10 grand to her name. She marries a deadbeat with negative net worth...just school and car loans. Her company ends up being worth $200 million...and they split. Well, he gets half of that 200 (the rest of the assets are almost rounding errors so they don't get a lot of focus).
Bottom line: think hard before you smash that wine glass. It can be an expensive piece of glassware.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What is a partnership?23 Views
finance a la shmoop. what is a partnership? a marriage. joint ownership
of a bar. when two dudes put up half the dough each to share 50/50 in a time [two different people offer money for keys]
machine. well a partnership is just the merging
of two individuals in doing a given business deal or setting up a business
structure. if both are owners then both are liable for you know bad things
should they happen. partnerships carry a lot of financial danger if one partner
goes off the rails and decides to commit fraud in the name of the company or that
evil partner enters into a stupid company bankrupting contract, well then [bad contract sold to unsuspecting victim]
both parties pay for it. the innocent partner pays just as much in the form of
whatever financial damages befall the partnership as the evil one, and
partnership liabilities include personal assets if the partnership is structured
like a general partnership with limited partners having no personal liability so [ liability structures defined]
for all the good that a partnership can have it can get bad and ugly so you got
to enter partnerships carefully. spend lots of dough on lawyers before you set
it up so you don't have to after. [money exchanged for partnership contract ]