Property Division Attorney in Minneapolis, Minnesota
How is marital property divided under Minnesota law?
How is marital property divided under Minnesota law?
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the basic property division principle
under marital under minnesota law rather
is an equitable division of property
equitable doesn’t mean equal
it just means equitable
so
an example of that say somebody the the
husband is a brain surgeon and makes
eight hundred thousand dollars a year
the wife stayed home and raised the kids
she has a couple hundred thousand in a
401k that she had before they got
married
there’s two million dollars in the
husband’s retirement account
well
what’s going to happen is that
the parties might decide to give
the wife
more of
the property
in lieu of a higher amount of spousal
maintenance so that she can have those
investments and then
the
product and interest and the profits on
those investments can be used to fund
her her living standard but equitable
generally in most cases
uh
property will be divided right down the
line it’s uh it’s pretty simple now
there are none there’s non-marital
property and there’s marital property
if there’s a 401k that one of the
parties had
that they started that 401k 10 years
prior to the marriage
and the parties have been married 10
years
so now they’ve been doing this 401k for
20. he’s been contributing for 20 years
well the first 10 years of his
contributions are considered non-marital
those are his and the profits from that
10 000 are his
the other
half of it the other
200 000 or the other 100 000 is
considered marital property because he
was using
marital funds money he earned during the
course of the marriage to put into this
401k now
that part the other half of it is
divided
uh pretty much equally
and a non-marital tracing is done on the
first non-marital part of that to
determine how it grew
so that that part can be separated from
the overall fund and then what’s left
over is divided it sounds complicated
but
that’s how property division in a
nutshell is done the rest of it
courts don’t want to get involved in who
gets the couch who gets the lamp who
gets the you know the the towels and the
plates they don’t care about that
if people can’t agree on that they get
referred to an arbitrator and they pay
another three thousand dollars to have
that done
now really valuable properties such as
antiques artwork
firearms
those types of things
generally will be appraised by a
professional appraiser put on a balance
sheet along with the real estate
with the
retirement funds with the checking
accounts with the brokerage funds and
divided in an equitable way that’s going
to be the most convenient for the
parties to
put into effect
Minneapolis, MN family law attorney Michael Fink explains how marital property is divided under Minnesota law. He explains that under Minnesota law, the fundamental principle of property division in a divorce is equitable distribution. “Equitable” doesn’t necessarily mean equal—it means fair under the circumstances.
For example, if the husband is a brain surgeon earning $800,000 a year and the wife stayed home to raise the children, holding only a modest pre-marriage 401(k), while the husband has a $2 million retirement account, the division might be structured to give the wife a larger share of the marital property in lieu of higher spousal maintenance. This allows her to maintain a comparable standard of living through the income generated by those assets.
He emphasizes that property is categorized as either marital or non-marital. Using a 401(k) example: if a husband had been contributing to a 401(k) for ten years before the marriage, those pre-marriage contributions and the growth on them are considered non-marital and remain his. Contributions made during the marriage are marital property and are typically divided equally. Courts trace the growth of the non-marital portion to separate it from marital assets before dividing the remainder.
He notes that courts generally avoid getting involved in household items like couches, lamps, towels, or plates. If spouses cannot agree, the matter is often referred to an arbitrator for a fee.
For high-value items such as antiques, artwork, or firearms, professional appraisals are used. These assets are added to the overall balance sheet alongside real estate, retirement accounts, and bank or brokerage funds, then distributed equitably in a way that is practical and fair for both parties.
