Property Division
Tracing separate property and dividing community property can be a difficult and complicated process. When working through the property division process, you need to be sure that every detail of the division is addressed properly and that your best interests are protected.
Sally Bybee offers comprehensive guidance to clients dealing with property division concerns. She will work to ensure that separate property is correctly traced, that community property is correctly identified, and that you receive the division of the community estate you deserve. Contact her office online or call 972-419-8308 to discuss your property division situation.
The court analyzes many factors in making a property division determination. Sally’s goal is to protect your interests in this process and ensure that the division is fair. To reach that goal, she provides detailed advice on various property and asset related issues, including:
- Tracing and segregating separate property obtained prior to the marriage; during the marriage by gift, devise or descent; or by personal injury recoveries
- Identifying the assets and debts of the parties
- Addressing business valuation and division
- Properly valuing and dividing stock and stock options
- Dividing retirement funds and benefits
- Obtaining outside advice on analyzing applicable tax issues
Recent changes to the law have made the identification of separate property assets more complicated in some cases. Sally keeps current with these changes and can provide the advice you need to address your issues in a detailed and efficient manner to ensure the proper distribution of all assets.
Whether you are able to settle your property division issues amicably, through mediation or informal negotiation, or you require court intervention to resolve the issue, she can provide the information and guidance you need to manage the process as quickly and painlessly as possible.
Asset Divison
Each party is awarded his/her own separate property assets provided they can be identified. Community assets are divided, but they are not necessarily divided equally. If the parties are unable to reach an agreement with respect to the division of the community assets, the court will make a division in a manner that is just and right. When making a division of the community assets, the court can take into consideration many different factors including, but not limited to, fault in the break up of the marriage, the earning capacity of the spouses, the health of the spouses, the age of the spouses, the size of the community estate, the size of either party’s separate estate, and who has primary custody of the children.
Separate Property
A spouse’s separate property consists of:
- The property owned or claimed by the spouse before marriage;
- The property acquired by the spouse during marriage by gift, devise, or descent; and
- The recovery for personal injuries sustained by the spouse during marriage, except any recovery for loss of earning capacity during marriage.
Community property consists of the property, other than separate property, acquired by either spouse during marriage.
