Divorce Financial Settlements.

The divorce financial settlement is an agreement that aims to fairly divide the financial assets during or after divorce. A divorce settlement will require both parties to disclose all their marital assets and then dictate how they are split.

What assets are considered marital assets?
Marital assets are assets that have been purchased or gained during marriage. Some examples of marital assets are:

• Properties
• Debts (including mortgages)
• Stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other investments or financial products
• Businesses
• Pensions
• Overseas property and investments
• Cash and savings in the bank
• Vehicles
• Furniture and appliances

Assets that you acquired prior to marriage may or may not be considered marital ssets, depending on your individual circumstances.

Yes, you can. You can also agree to split your finances informally without court intervention, but going down either of these routes means you risk your partner claiming for finances at a later date.

The most common example of this is with the family home where many couples will informally agree to split it 50/50. However, when one person’s financial situation changes, or their outgoings increase, they may re-think this and this is where arguments begin. They are fully entitled to do so as there is no formal arrangement.

Formal financial arrangements agree a full and final split that can only be varied further down the line through the court. However, the likelihood of success of this variation is slim.

Not normally. The court doesn’t look at who did what to whom. It only seeks to divide finances on a needs basis.

The only exception where the court will modify the divorce financial settlement is if there is domestic violence involved that has affected the victim’s long-term ability to work.

One of the main assets to come into question during a financial settlement is the marital home. The marital home can be dealt with in many ways, including:

• Selling the property and splitting the money.
• One person buying the other out of their share, commonly referred to as the transfer of equity.
• Deferring the sale of the property through a mesher order. A mesher order commonly dictates the sale of the marital home in the future, after a certain amount of time or at a specific event. An example of a specific event can be when the youngest child reaches the age of 18.
• Leaving the ownership untouched. In this circumstance, one partner will remain living in the house, and the property ownership remains shared.
• Partial transfer. In this instance, one person transfers part of their share into the other party’s name. This reduces the departing party’s percentage ownership of the property.

How the marital home is split will depend entirely on you and your partner’s current circumstances.