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
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under marital under minnesota law rather
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is an equitable division of property
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equitable doesn’t mean equal
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it just means equitable
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so
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an example of that say somebody the the
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husband is a brain surgeon and makes
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eight hundred thousand dollars a year
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the wife stayed home and raised the kids
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she has a couple hundred thousand in a
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401k that she had before they got
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married
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there’s two million dollars in the
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husband’s retirement account
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well
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what’s going to happen is that
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the parties might decide to give
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the wife
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more of
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the property
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in lieu of a higher amount of spousal
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maintenance so that she can have those
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investments and then
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the
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product and interest and the profits on
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those investments can be used to fund
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her her living standard but equitable
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generally in most cases
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uh
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property will be divided right down the
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line it’s uh it’s pretty simple now
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there are none there’s non-marital
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property and there’s marital property
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if there’s a 401k that one of the
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parties had
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that they started that 401k 10 years
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prior to the marriage
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and the parties have been married 10
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years
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so now they’ve been doing this 401k for
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20. he’s been contributing for 20 years
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well the first 10 years of his
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contributions are considered non-marital
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those are his and the profits from that
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10 000 are his
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the other
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half of it the other
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200 000 or the other 100 000 is
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considered marital property because he
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was using
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marital funds money he earned during the
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course of the marriage to put into this
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401k now
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that part the other half of it is
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divided
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uh pretty much equally
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and a non-marital tracing is done on the
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first non-marital part of that to
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determine how it grew
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so that that part can be separated from
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the overall fund and then what’s left
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over is divided it sounds complicated
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but
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that’s how property division in a
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nutshell is done the rest of it
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courts don’t want to get involved in who
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gets the couch who gets the lamp who
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gets the you know the the towels and the
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plates they don’t care about that
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if people can’t agree on that they get
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referred to an arbitrator and they pay
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another three thousand dollars to have
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that done
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now really valuable properties such as
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antiques artwork
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firearms
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those types of things
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generally will be appraised by a
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professional appraiser put on a balance
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sheet along with the real estate
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with the
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retirement funds with the checking
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accounts with the brokerage funds and
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divided in an equitable way that’s going
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to be the most convenient for the
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parties to
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put into effect
Minneapolis, MN family law attorney Michael Fink explains how marital property is divided under Minnesota law.
