Residents of Maryland considering divorce for various reasons may be apprehensive about their future. Not surprisingly, the one thing that concerns people the most is their financial well-being, especially the uncertainty that comes with a new single lifestyle, loss of dual income, and the prospect of getting an unfair deal in property division. The single-income issue might be something a divorcing person has to learn to live with for at least some period of time, but with the help of an experienced family law attorney, many property division fears can be alleviated.
In Maryland, divorcing spouses are each entitled to an equitable division of marital property. Basically this means that each party will get a fair share, which may or may not be exactly half of everything, but will be reasonably similar in value based upon the particular situation and the desires of each spouse.
Oftentimes getting exactly half doesn’t make perfect sense in real-life situations, where people have sentimental attachments to tangible objects that go beyond their monetary value. Rarely in divorce is it a pure liquid asset division situation, as the reality is that things such as the family house, cars and possessions all have fluctuating value, as well as sentimental value, so divorcing individuals need to identify the most important things to them in property division and aggressively pursue a settlement that meets their desires.
The major things people get concerned about in a divorce are those things that are unknown, but a lot of the unknown can be eliminated by working with an attorney with experience in complex property division. It may be possible that Maryland residents can actually get a pretty clear picture of their post-divorce financial situation before even signing the divorce petition, which can go a long way in putting common financial fears to rest.
Source: Chicago Tribune “Going through a divorce? 3 Common fears and how to eliminate them,” Robert Pagliarini, Sept. 4, 2013