Other assets that are exempt initially are gifts that are given to you personally individually, not joint gifts to you and your spouse, but gifts that are given to you personally, or premarital monies or premarital properties, houses that you may have owned prior to the marriage date, prior to your anniversary date. Again, those exempt assets stay exempt unless you take your premarital house and you refinance it during the marriage and you put your spouse’s name on it. Now the house is titled in joint names. If the divorce complaint is filed two or three weeks later, that house is still going to be 100% yours. If the divorce complaint is filed five years later, the equity in that prior exempt asset which has now become commingled, the equity in that asset is up for grabs in the divorce case, and your spouse may get anywhere from 0% to 50% of the equity. For sure, after five years of being commingled, that exempt asset will indeed be divided in some fraction with your spouse.
Are you going through a divorce and have questions about the commingling of assets? Let one of our experienced Divorce Lawyers in Morris County help you.
This educational blog was brought to you by Salvatore Simeone, an experienced New Jersey Divorce Lawyer.