Are Assets That You Acquire While Your Divorce Is Pending Marital Property?
From your perspective, getting divorced is about finding a new normal, recovering from a broken heart, and finding a way to live your best life with limited resources. From the court’s perspective, though, divorce is the dissolution of an economic partnership. Its goal is to divide the property that the couple owned when the marriage ended, assigning each former spouse his or her fair share. The court normally interprets the day that one spouse filed the divorce petition as the day the marriage ended. It takes at least a few months for a divorce to become final, though. When people’s financial situations change while a divorce case is pending, they usually change for the worse. The value of the marital property becomes less as the same amount of money must now maintain two households, to say nothing of the costs of paying two divorce lawyers. If you know that your financial circumstances may change for the better, and you have filed for divorce or plan to do so, the best way to stop your newfound fortune from complicating your divorce is to sign a postnuptial agreement that designates any assets you acquire in the future as separate property. If you or your estranged spouse got a windfall while your divorce case was pending, contact a Birmingham divorce lawyer.
Husband Buys Lucrative Business and Lives Large After Filing for Divorce
Even as Beverly and Cedric drifted apart emotionally during their 18-year marriage, their commitment to their family businesses kept them together. In the last year of their marriage, Cedric’s adultery and violent temper weighed heavily on Beverly, but she barely had time to think about it, because the couple had just bought a company that had gone through bankruptcy, and both spouses spent long hours getting the business up and running again.
When Beverly filed for divorce, Cedric fired her from the family business. She continued to run one of the couple’s companies by herself, while Cedric operated the others. With this reduction in income, she downgraded her lifestyle. She rented a smaller house, stopped traveling for leisure, and did her own housework and painted her nails at home with supermarket nail polish, whereas she had hired housekeepers and visited nail salons during the marriage. Meanwhile, Cedric bought another company valued at more than $500,000. He continued to live in the former marital home, with its seven bedrooms and its swimming pool.
During the divorce proceedings, Beverly requested a share of Cedric’s newfound wealth. Cedric argued that, since Beverly already had an income-generating asset in the form of one of the couple’s former marital businesses, she did not need it. The court ordered Cedric to pay Beverly an equalizing payment because, whereas he had been able to keep his pre-divorce lifestyle, she had not.
Contact Peeples Law About Divorce in Prosperous Times
A Birmingham family law attorney can help you if you have become wealthier since your spouse filed for divorce. Contact Peeples Law in Birmingham, Alabama today to schedule a consultation.
Source:
scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=11400980708344491282&q=divorce+pool&hl=en&as_sdt=4,61,62,64&as_ylo=2015&as_yhi=2025
