Overview

Generally, all property and debt earned between the date of marriage to the date of separation is divided 50/50. The idea is that marriage is a joint venture with two equal partners. Now that the venture is being dissolved, the earnings of the venture need to be divided between the partners.

It doesn't matter which spouse is on the title to a car, house, account, etc. or who earned it; only whether the property was earned during the marriage. There are three steps to equitable distribution: (1) Classify (2) Value and (3) Distribute.

Classify

Generally, each item of property or debt is classified as "marital" if it was (a) earned, (b) after the marriage date, but (c) before either spouse moved out of the marital home. In most long marriages, almost everything is classified as marital and needs to be split 50/50.

Value

Once something is classified as marital, the value of the item needs to be determined, so we can later calculate the total value of the property each spouse is taking. This can mean getting real estate appraised, using Kelley Bluebook for vehicles, or appraising jewelry.

Distribute

Finally, each "marital" item is given to one spouse or the other. It's ok if one spouse takes a lot more property than the other. A cash payment called a "Distributive Award" is paid to balance things to 50/50.