How is property divided?

This is not a substitute for legal advice. An attorney must be consulted.

ALABAMA

The court?s division of property in a divorce need not be equal, but it must be equitable. In making an equitable division of property, the court considers all relevant factors including the financial condition of the parties, their ages and health, their station in life, the length of the marriage, and the conduct of the parties. Marital misconduct, or fault, is one of the factors to be used by the court in making a division of property. The court may not take into consideration any property acquired prior to the marriage or by inheritance or gift unless the judge finds from the evidence that the property, or income produced by the property, has been used regularly for the common benefit of the parties during their marriage.

The judge may exercise her discretion in awarding to either spouse the present value of any future or current retirement benefits in which a spouse may have a vested interest or may be receiving on the date the action for divorce is filed, provided that the following conditions are met: 1) The parties have been married for at least ten years during which the retirement was being accumulated; 2) the court shall not include in the marital estate the value of any retirement benefits acquired prior to the marriage; and 3) the total amount of the retirement benefits payable to the non-covered spouse shall not exceed 50 percent of the retirement benefits that may be considered by the court. Alabama Code 30 - 2 - 51.

ALASKA

The court shall order a division of property between the parties, including retirement benefits whether joint or separate, acquired only during marriage, in a just manner and without regard to which of the parties is at fault. However, the court in making the division may invade the property of either spouse acquired before marriage when the balancing of the equities between the parties requires it. The division of property must fairly allocate the economic effect of divorce by being based on consideration of the following factors: 1) the length of the marriage and standard of living of the parties during the marriage; 2) the age and health of the parties; 3) the earning capacity of the parties including their educational backgrounds and employment skills and custodial responsibilities for children during the marriage; 4) the financial condition of the parties including the availability and cost of health insurance; 5) the conduct of the parties including whether there has been unreasonable depletion of marital assets; 6) the desirability of awarding the family home to the party who has primary physical custody of children; 7) the circumstances of each party; 8) the time and manner of acquisition of the property in question; and 9) the income producing capacity of the property and the value of the property at the time of division.

AS 25.24.160.

ARIZONA

In this state, the court divides the property of the parties according to the concept of "community property." The majority of states follow the concept of "equitable distribution" of property, which means assets and earnings accumulated during marriage are divided fairly at divorce. The concept of community property is followed in the following states: Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. Generally, all property acquired during the marriage is considered community property. In contrast, individual or separate property consists of any property acquired by either party prior to the marriage, gifts and inheritances specifically made to one spouse but not the other during the marriage, personal injury awards received by one spouse during the marriage, proceeds of a pension which had already vested before marriage, and property received by reason of the death of another including, but not limited to, life insurance proceeds. Individual property includes property exchanged for other individual property or purchased with the proceeds from individual property. Property can be a combination of community and individual. For example, a business owned by one spouse before the marriage would remain that spouses individual property, but the other spouse could argue that a portion of the value of the business should be considered a part of community property because the value was increased during the marriage. Generally, property divided by the court in community property states is handled as follows: individual property remains the property of that party and community property is divided equally.

According to Arizona law, all property acquired by either husband or wife during the marriage, except property acquired by gift or inheritance, is the community property of husband and wife. All property owned by a spouse before marriage, and property acquired after the marriage by gift or inheritance, and also increased rents and profits of such property, is t...

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