Divorce Advice for Men | Fathers Rights Divorce | Child Custody

By Erik Braunitzer

Douglas Elliman Real Estate Company, Agents for Bronx Rentals

If you and your spouse have decided to call it quits on your marriage, you'll be joining the line of about 50 percent of other couples that decide to go their separate ways.

The process of a divorce is not an easy one, and usually the hardest part of it is figuring out what property belongs to whom.

We're not just talking about who gets the fine china from the wedding, but even big purchases such as the marital home and vehicles are all considered and depend on the court for who gets what.

Some property is considered community property (or marital) while other property is classified as separate property.

It is important to know the difference to make sure you get your fair share at the end of your divorce case, including what to do when separate property becomes community property and how asset tracing can help your case:

By Tara Lynne Groth

Special to DadsDivorce.com

Requests for advice on divorce typically start with the heavy hitters (child custody, division of assets, etc.), but not much further down the list are questions about the family pet.

Though you probably treat your pet with the same love as you would a person, in most states pets are regarded as property. (Read our related divorce article "Who Gets The Family Pet?")

If a pet was acquired before the marriage they remain the property of the spouse who purchased him/her.

Pennsylvania is one such state that sees a dog more or less as a piece of furniture; the state does not acknowledge shared custody agreements because those arrangements are not enforceable for property.

However, not all states see family pets as just another piece of property sprinkled in amidst a laundry list of furniture.

By Jennifer Paine

Attorney, Cordell & Cordell

If you received an inheritance, you might think all of it is yours – after all, your name appears in your generous Great Aunt Bertha's will, not your wife's.

Well, not necessarily.

In general, any property you acquire between the date of your marriage and the date of your divorce is considered marital property eligible for division (for those of you living in community property jurisdictions, the same rule usually applies).

An inheritance might be your separate property, but only if you did not commingle it with marital property or treat it as marital property during your marriage.

And that is tough to do.

Question:

I'm looking for legal separation advice. While my wife and I were separated but still married, I paid off two loans using money I cashed in from my 401k. I was told I would be the one solely responsible for the taxes on the 401k withdrawl.

At what point in a separation leading to a divorce are assets and debt still considered marital property? Should we both be responsible for the tax money owed?

By Matt Allen

Editor, DadsDivorce.com

Distribution of property in a divorce is handled differently depending on the state you live in.

In a previous article, we looked at how community property states divide property. Now let's examine how the majority of states handle property: equitably. (Find out if your state is community property or equitable distribution.)

In states that use an equitable division of assets, all property acquired during the marriage is distributed equitably, or fairly. Not necessarily equally.