Property Division Attorney in St Louis

We help clients with the following property division issues:

• Property and debt distribution
• Tax repercussions of property partition and divorce settlement
• Searching for hidden assets
• Impacts of prenuptial agreements
• Asset assessment for enterprises, pension plans, stock options, benefits for employees, homes, and vacation homes

Marital Property and Separate Property

Regardless of where you reside, the first rule of property division in divorce is that only marital assets are divided. Your distinct property will remain yours and your spouse’s sole property will remain theirs. Unless you and your spouse signed a legal agreement, like a prenuptial agreement, to keep some or all of that property separate, any money or other assets that either spouse earned or acquired during the marriage is generally considered marital property.

Separate property may include:

• Properties a spouse may have possessed before getting married
• Gifts to one spouse from another
• Personal injury settlements

Property Division in Missouri

Suppose you and your spouse can’t agree on how to divide property and debts through negotiation or mediation. In that case, the courts will divide your assets according to one of two main plans: community property or equitable distribution. The major distinction between community property and equitable distribution is that with community property laws, all property acquired during the marriage is distributed equally. In the case of equitable distribution, more assets may be deemed “marital property,” but the division is not always equal. Missouri is an equitable distribution state, and the court will distribute assets fairly but not necessarily equally between the parties.

Types of Marital Assets

There could be a number of important assets at stake during a divorce. Our property division attorney has assisted customers in dividing a variety of assets. Among the most typical are:

• Family homes
• Vehicles
• Money in banks
• Retirement accounts
• Investments
• Businesses
• Additional properties
• Classic cars or art collections
• Joint debt

Whether there is vast or very little marital property involved, our attorney will help you keep your fair share. We’ve partnered with forensic accountants who will help us determine a proper valuation for businesses involved, locate assets that may be hidden, and help us to provide you with the right options regarding your retirement accounts.