Yes, Your Freeloading Spouse Has the Right to a Fair Share of Marital Property
If you are serious enough about divorcing your spouse that you have asked Google about it and listened as its AI mode read the paragraph-long response it synthesized from the search results available to it, then you know that the goal and the result of divorce in Florida is the equitable distribution of marital property. Perhaps you are so fed up with your spouse that you listened until the chatbot voice of your choice told you that equitable distribution means dividing the assets and debts in the fairest possible way, based on the parties’ financial prospects and anticipated needs after the divorce; equitable distribution may or may not result in an equal division of marital assets. Marital property means all the income earned and property bought during the marriage. It does not matter which spouse’s name is on the pay stub, the bank account, or the title to the asset. Equitable distribution is not always proportional to how much each spouse earned during the marriage, so even if your spouse did not have any employment income the entire time you were married, your spouse might get to keep the marital home after the divorce, or you might have to pay alimony. If you are getting divorced after a marriage in which you were the only source of employment income, contact a Boca Raton divorce lawyer.
Your Stay-at-Home Spouse Built Equity in Your Hard-Earned Wealth Just by Being Married to You for as Long as Your Marriage Lasted
Florida law assumes that any property that enters a married person’s possession belongs to both spouses, and it is subject to equitable distribution if the couple gets a divorce; the exceptions are inherited property and the proceeds from a personal injury or workers’ compensation claim. The only way to exclude other property from being marital is to sign a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement and designate that property as separate.
As for how much marital property your spouse gets if he or he was not in the workforce during your marriage, it depends on several factors. First, it depends on your spouse’s separate property. If she owns her own house and has done so since before you married, but she moved into your house during the marriage, you will not have to pay enough alimony for her to rent an apartment. If she would be destitute without alimony, you will probably have to pay all her bills for a while, but not forever, since Florida abolished permanent alimony; how long you must pay alimony depends on how long you were married. Finally, the duration of the marriage matters; if the marriage lasted less than five years, then the goal of equitable distribution is to restore both spouses to their former financial situation as if the marriage had never happened.
Contact Schwartz | White About Filing a Divorcing a Financial Leech
A South Florida family law attorney can help you if you are divorcing your spouse, who never worked during your marriage. Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.
Source:
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