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Worried about your finances, wealth and assets getting divided during divorce in Omaha or anywhere in Douglas County? Call the talented divorce lawyers at Vacanti Shattuck Finocchiaro Attorneys for guidance and advocacy.
Separating two entwined lives and their finances is no easy task, yet every day in Nebraska, divorcing couples have to do just that. Whether you have been married for just a few short years or many decades of common living, saving, and spending to untangle, dividing up assets can be complicated, but the process is always vitally important.
Nearly a third of Nebraska’s population lives in Douglas County alone, which can make getting a divorce here a particularly slow process if you need to go through the court system at every step of the process. To save time and money, most couples will want to work out a divorce settlement that resolves such thorny questions as what happens to your house or the shares of a common business.
Coming to an agreement that will be accepted by the court requires more than just making difficult decisions, and reaching an agreement that protects your best interests and rights is twice as difficult. This is where experienced divorce lawyers like Vacanti Shattuck Finocchiaro Attorneys come into play. With careful guidance and tenacious advocacy and negotiation, our divorce lawyers will help you protect your rights, property and finances in your divorce settlement, or in court if necessary.
In some states, the division of assets is made easier by following a strict 50/50 split where each spouse gets exactly half of the combined marital property during divorce. Nebraska, however, is not one of them. In Douglas County, like the rest of the state, the division of assets must be Equitable, which means they aim for a more “fair” division, based on the behavior, contributions, and needs of both spouses.
Like all states, Nebraska’s division of asset laws distinguishes between marital and non-marital property. Non-marital property is anything that each spouse owned before the marriage, or acquired through specific means, like inheritance, over the course of the marriage. Everything else is generally assumed to be marital property.
Over the course of a long marriage, however, this distinction can become blurred, which is why Nebraska also recognizes the possibility of non-marital property to be “transmuted” into marital property if the assets are suitably comingled. Thus, even situations that might seem simple or straightforward can quickly become complicated, which is why it is vital to work with skilled divorce attorneys.
While there are many sources of complication in any given divorce, from tense emotions to minor children, many of the most contentious and complex issues to resolve are financial. If you and your spouse own or are dealing with any of the following, you will probably want (and need) to speak with an experienced divorce lawyer to make sure your interests and rights are protected in a divorce settlement or court battle.
While a bank account can be neatly divided, and most couples can agree on who gets which car, dividing up a house is a lot harder to do. Especially when it is a home with significant emotional and financial investments from both spouses.
Things get even more complicated when the home does not fit neatly into the category of marital or non-marital property. For example, imagine a husband who bought a home in Douglas County before getting married, but paid off the mortgage over the course of the marriage in part with marital funds that included his wife’s income.
Recent case law in Nebraska (Stephens V Stephens and Stava V Stava) helped clarify such situations, by deciding that due to the source of funds for the payment being marital, the property, or at least both a share of it and of its increase in value, belongs to the couple, and thus needs to be fairly divided in the divorce.
Not all debts are paid off by the time of a divorce, however. Younger couples, especially, are likely to have as much, if not more, debt than wealth when divorcing. Unfortunately, debts are treated like other assets, too, which means that marital debts have to be equitably divided and shared.
But what counts as a marital debt? This can become a tense debate when one partner feels like the other bears a greater responsibility for the debt. For example, if both you and your spouse had access to a credit card, but your spouse consistently maxed it out, while you were cautious and rarely used it, you might hope that the debt from it falls on them. Unfortunately, that is rarely the case, but a skilled lawyer may be able to help you minimize the harm from unfair debts.
Another deeply divisive area involves dealing with a business owned or started by one or both members of the couple. Businesses are often a life’s work and something we invest considerable time and effort into seeing succeed. Dividing it up and giving away a portion to a spouse who was not directly involved in running it can feel deeply unfair.
Fortunately, because of Nebraska’s equitable (rather than equal) division of assets principle, you might not have to give up as much as in other states, depending on how careful you were to avoid spending marital funds on the business.
The division will also depend on the valuation of the business, which is a key step and hardly simple. It can even be a source of conflict. If you plan to buy out your spouse’s eventual share of the business, then you will want the lowest possible valuation, but your spouse will push for the highest.
Getting an experienced lawyer on your side could be the step that makes all the difference in this or any other complicated and divisive divorce asset division debate.
Vacanti Shattuck Finocchiaro Attorneys | Protecting What Matters Most In Your Divorce
Every year in Douglas County and across Nebraska, spouses are cheated of their fair share of assets by signing divorce settlements that do not fairly divide the combined assets of their marriage. Either by giving away too much, or by accepting too little. Regardless of whether this happens because of deceitful practices by one spouse or because of ignorance from both, it is always an injustice if it happens to you.
Unfortunately it is much more difficult (but not always impossible) to modify a divorce settlement once it is signed, so if you want to avoid getting into a bitter fight, or being deprived of your fair due, it is always better to discuss the division of your assets with an experienced Douglas County divorce lawyer.
Here at Vacanti Shattuck Finocchiaro Attorneys, we strive to protect what matters most to you during divorce, from the fate of your children to that of your property or business. We will make sure your rights and interests are safeguarded. To schedule a consultation, please call (402) 345-7600 or reach out online to share your situation and needs with us.
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