KAREN E. DAVIS

Property in Divorce

You might lose physical custody of your kids in a divorce. But if circumstances change, you can always go back to court and get them back. Not so with the kitchen table.

What to do with the property is one of the main issues in a divorce. But unlike other issues, such as child custody and alimony, there is no going back after you split up your property.

Property includes more than just your furniture. You and your spouse will have to decide how to split the cash, the bank account, the stocks and the bonds. It also includes who's going to pay off the money you borrowed during the divorce.

The law around property settlements is designed to keep people from coming back again and again to argue over "stuff" that they should have been able to split from the beginning. The courts care about children. They want to make sure children live in the right home and if there is a change of circumstances, they want to allow a parent to come back and explain why the right home is now his (or her) home.

The same is true about alimony. The courts don't want one parent living high on the hog while another lives in poverty after an illness or downturn.

Unlike children and downtrodden ex-spouses, no one really cares about your stuff after the divorce is final. This make senses for all types of property, but one: retirement accounts and pensions. People often agree to split pension payments 50/50 when they retire. But they fail to take into account what happens if one spouse has to retire early. When that happens the retiring spouse has to start paying half of their pension to the one that's still working. And the one that's working pays nothing in return.

Good luck getting your ex to agree to let you hold off on paying up until their retirement.
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