Marital Property

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.