Marital Assets Often Overlooked in Divorce

Check for these Overlooked Marital Assets during a divorce

Wisconsin is a community property state, which means that all marital property is divided equally between the divorcing spouses. Some types of marital property are often overlooked. If you are considering or in the process of getting a divorce, be careful not to forget about the following:
Rewards for Credit or Travel
If you earn reward points for hotel stays or credit card usage, or miles for airline travel, all of that is part of your marital property. Most of the time one spouse will buy out the difference from the other, but you need to account for this when listing and dividing marital assets. Often the card, hotel, or airline will put a monetary value on the points, making the division or buyout easier to calculate.
Stocks and Bonds
If one of you has a retirement or other brokerage account, this is part of your marital property. Here, valuation can be tricky; stock values change daily and ideally are expected to increase over the long term. You will need to agree on a method for determining the worth and determine the most beneficial way to divide the asset.
Household Debts
The total value of the marital estate includes more than just assets. While you are unlikely to forget about the mortgage or auto loans, credit card debt and other loans factor in as well. These negative value items also get divided between you and your spouse, so you should make sure you account for this in calculating and dividing the marital estate.
Over the course of a marriage, you can accumulate a great deal that you might not think of as critical to the value of the marital estate. However, because it all pools together, understanding what is at stake is critical to reaching a fair division of assets and debts in your divorce.
This post was originally published at https://www.eisenberglaw.org/marital-assets-often-overlooked-in-divorce/.