Depletion and Depreciation of Marital Assets in Marriage and Divorce

Some couples, even after they take wedding vows promising to stay together for richer or for poorer, file for divorce when financial hardship pushes their relationship to the breaking point.  Others have an unspoken agreement not to judge each other for spending beyond their means, and it works well for them until they decide to divorce, at which point they must face the truth about their finances.  All of this means that divorce courts are used to dividing marital assets that are worth a fraction of their former value.  Likewise, equitable distribution applies to marital debts as well as to marital assets.  This means that, even if your marital estate is insolvent when you file for divorce, the court will still have to decide which spouse is responsible for which share of the financial fallout after the divorce becomes final.  If you and your ex-spouse disagree about the value of your marital property and the court is holding you responsible for money you don’t have, contact a Boca Raton divorce lawyer.

Persuading the Family Court That Your Finances Are a Wreck

A Florida couple married when times were good.  The wife moved into the husband’s house, which was his separate property, and where the mortgage was within $30,000 of being paid off. Shortly after the wedding, he borrowed against the home equity to buy and renovate a new property.  By the time the couple filed for divorce six years later, their finances were in tatters.  They had negative equity in their real estate properties, and the husband’s engineering business was bringing in a fraction of the revenues it had generated early in the parties’ marriage.

Financial problems rarely occur one at a time.  The wife drove a car that was titled in the husband’s name, and after an accident, the car was no longer roadworthy.  Instead of using the money from the insurance claim to repair the car, the couple spent it on other expenses.  This is business as usual for many couples, some of whom stay together through it all, but this couple divorced, and all of these issues became points of contention in their divorce case.  The court’s decision about the couple’s finances pleased no one, and the husband filed an appeal.

The simplest issue for the appeals court to resolve was the marital bank account, which had $53,000 in it when the parties filed for divorce; the trial court subjected that amount to equitable distribution.  On appeal, the husband persuaded the court to divide the bank account based on its balance when the divorce became final, which was just over $3,000.  The husband had depleted most of the money in the account during the pendency of the divorce, paying temporary alimony to the wife and covering attorneys’ fees.

Contact Schwartz | White About Divorce in Hard Times

A South Florida family law attorney can help you if your financial situation took a turn for the worse during and shortly before your divorce.  Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.

Source:

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