In Michigan, the post-judgment equitable distribution of the marital assets is 50/50. Will the number of years of marriage affect the equitable division? So how long must you be wed before you receive half of everything? The length of the marriage is not the underlying issue. What should be regarded as marital assets is in dispute because they are the assets up for property division.
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Everything you bring into a marriage after getting married, including winning the lottery, becomes a marital asset. Whether you’ve been married for 18 months or 18 years, as soon as assets begin to amass, they are considered marital assets. The length of your marriage will not affect how much of the marital estate you receive after divorce.
Is It Before or After The Wedding
Before understanding what half of everything means, we have to understand where the halves are coming from. We also need to qualify what “everything” means. We need to talk about separate property and marital property.
Any property possessed by either party before the marriage as well as certain property received as a gift or inheritance during the marriage are considered separate property. Normally, the party to whom the separate item originally belonged retains it. Marital property can convert from separate property.
In general, what you consider separate property is not going to be subject to equitable distribution. For instance, if you receive a financial inheritance from your parents while you are still married, that money is still your separate property. A gift and any property you brought into the marriage are treated the same way. However, this rule is not always true.
Any assets or debts obtained during the marriage are considered marital property from the date of the wedding until the judgment of divorce is entered. You and your soon-to-be ex are going to be free to divide the marital property.
In the course of a marriage, houses are usually bought. The home would be considered marital property and be divided accordingly. Couples who are divorced sometimes decide to sell their house and divide the money. Or, to maintain an equitable property division, one spouse may keep the house while the other obtains other assets, such as money in joint bank accounts.
What Matters Before Or After The Wedding
As we mentioned above, separate and marital property definitions seem straightforward. It seems very clear cut what assets are separate and what can be marital assets. There are actually certain exemptions from these definitions.
When assets are divided, separate property that has been mingled or blended with marital assets may be treated as marital property.
A court is likely to determine that everything in a joint bank account that has money coming in and going out during the marriage, whether it be through an inheritance or a gift, is marital property.
Another exemption would apply if the other spouse ever made a contribution to the separate property. The spouse who made the contribution may thereafter be entitled to a portion of the asset. Imagine a situation where one spouse owned a home prior to marriage but never shared an interest with the other. However, during their marriage, the couple split the cost of home improvements. After that, the non-owner spouse can be qualified for a share of the gain in the home’s worth that can be attributed to the modifications.
The above are examples of commingling of property. What you now thought were separate properties are now considered commingled property.
The word “commingled property” refers to the blending of separate property with marital property. Why does this matter? In short, it can be challenging—and perhaps impossible—for a court to decide how much of the marital estate consists of separate property. As a result, the spouse who combined their separate property may discover that as a result of the combination, the property becomes liable to distribution during divorce.
This will complicate the already complicated 50-50 equitable distribution split.
Fifty-Fifty Isn’t Always Equal, So Is Being Fair
Michigan is not a community property state. Michigan uses the principle of “equitable distribution” in dividing marital property. Community property states aim to allocate assets as equally as possible or as near 50-50 split as possible. Equitable distribution states divide property in accordance with an assessment of what is fair in each case.
When a couple files for divorce in community property states, the law mandates that the court split the marital estate equally. Judges in jurisdictions with equitable distribution may deviate from a 50/50 division. Despite the fact that Michigan is an equitable distribution state, courts usually distribute assets fairly equally.
Only in exceptional circumstances may a court impose a more disproportionate division, such as more than 60/40. In Michigan, spouses are free to come to their own agreement and submit it to the court if they prefer not to have it decided by a judge.
In most cases, judges will respect a couple’s property division agreements unless they are grossly unfair to one spouse or the other.
In Michigan, equitable distribution is the standard for dividing property. In other words, the property will be shared “equitably” or fairly, as opposed to equally. There is a presumption that the division will be nearly equal, and if the court decides to depart from the “roughly equal” standard, it must give an explanation for its decision.
When distributing property, the courts take a number of things into account. Here some of the most typical factors we came across:
[1] The origin of the asset;
[2] The duration of the marriage;
[3] The needs of the children and the parties;
[4] The parties’ financial resources;
[5] Support with acquiring it;
[6] The reasons for the divorce
[7] Common principles of equity; and
[8] Any additional factors the court finds important.
The situations where courts most regularly deviate from the “roughly equal” model of property split are short-lived marriages without children, situations where there is a substantial amount of separate property, or situations where one partner is in greater need.
Courts are less likely to attempt to return the parties to their premarital status in longer-term marriages or those in which the parties have changed their positions in reliance on the marriage, such as by having children or foregoing career or educational advancement, and more likely to compensate one party for their sacrifice for the family.
Now, what really will matter is what ultimately becomes marital property as the marriage accumulates assets. It’s not the age of the couples, it is not how long they have stayed married. What will matter is whether by definition any asset that came in during marriage is a marital asset.
If it is a marital asset, you are entitled to half of it when the court equitably divides it. There’s no waiting period for your half. The half you rightly deserve and entitled to.
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