What You Should Know About Property & Asset Division in North Carolina
First thing to understand is that North Carolina is a an equitable distribution state. This means that the court will divide your property in a way that is equitable, or fair, to both parties. The court begins the process with the premise that it is equitable to split the marital and divisible property equally.
The law does also recognize that there may be circumstances where an equal distribution would not be fair. To determine whether that is the case in your divorce case, the court will apply a set of factors to evaluate the past efforts and future needs of both spouses. By law, the result must be a just division; even if it seems unbalanced.
Factors of Division of Property in North Carolina
The court will consider several factors to split the marital, divisible and separate property equitably, as is required by state law. Some of these include the spouses’ ages, assets, income, health, and debts. Other factors such as the length of the marriage, the liquidity of the marital property, and how each spouse contributed to the marital property or marital assets.
Marital Property is all property acquired or earned during the marriage up until the date of separation, while Divisible Property is categorized as any change in the value of marital property that happens between the date of separation and distribution. Separate Property is property actively gained or lost after separation and any property that was owned before the marriage.
There are many other factors and circumstances regarding asset division in a divorce, talk to our attorneys today and find out how to keep what's yours and get what you need.
