Archive

Section 3501(a)(5) of the Pennsylvania Divorce Code allows marital property to be removed from the marital estate if the property has been sold, granted, conveyed or otherwise disposed of in “good faith” and “for value” prior to the date of final separation.  However, pursuant to section 3505(a) of the Pennsylvania Divorce Code, a transfer of […]

Pursuant to section 3501(a) of the Pennsylvania Divorce Code, all debt acquired from the date of marriage, until the date of final separation, including credit card debt, is “marital debt.”  No matter which party opened or used the credit card, credit card debt from the date of marriage, until the date of final separation, is […]

A marital debt is defined analogously to a marital asset. If the debt was acquired during the marriage and prior to separation, the debt is marital and subject to division in divorce. All debt, however, is not created equal. There are at least two issues when dividing marital debt in a divorce. First, how will […]

The quick answer: possibly, but unlikely. There are two reasons why assets and debts are not equally divided 50/50 in a divorce. First, it is generally not efficient to divide each asset and debt. Dividing each asset results in a high number of transactions and high transaction costs. Second, the Pennsylvania Divorce Code provides that […]

When calculating a party’s child support payments, the first step in the process is to determine each party’s income. Income includes all types of income, including, but not limited to salary, bonus, interest, rents from investment property, investment gain, and profits in a business. Although the lump sum inheritance (also called the corpus) is not […]

Most people understand prenuptial agreements—the agreement that is signed before people get married. Many do not know that after marriage, it is not too late to establish how finances would be handled if the married couple is faced with separation or divorce. An agreement prepared after marriage, and not part of divorce proceedings, is often […]

Whether a spouse’s bonus is marital property subject to division in a divorce initially depends on timing. Generally, if the bonus is received during the marriage before the parties separate, the bonus is marital property, and if the bonus is received after separation, the bonus funds are non-marital. The Pennsylvania Courts in Gordon v. Gordon […]

Many Pennsylvania courts have held that “commingling” marital and non-marital assets “transmutes” the non-marital assets into marital assets. This means that funds or an asset, which would otherwise not be subject to division in a divorce, become marital and subject to division in a divorce. Courts have rationalized this legal concept, as in Winters v. […]

Unless the parties have an agreement (such as a prenuptial agreement) to exclude stock options, stock units, or restricted stock units in a divorce, these types of assets are potentially subject to division in a divorce. The Pennsylvania court decision in Fisher v. Fisher, compared stock options to that of pension benefits. Like pension benefits, […]

Student loans are required to be considered in a divorce. However, Pennsylvania courts do not always handle student loans like other loans. The first step in the analysis is to determine if the student loan is a marital debt or a non-marital debt. If the student loan was incurred during the marriage, it is a […]