In this video I will be discussing the topic of what happens if you place your spouse’s name on property that you own prior to marriage. To start, unless you do something to change this rule of law, or unless lump sum alimony is awarded, which is a separate video that I’ve done, property that you own prior to marriage remains your separate non-marital property, and will not be awarded to your spouse in a divorce.
In simpler terms, you owned it before marriage, you will continue to own it after marriage. Your spouse will have no interest in it. However, and it is a frequent occurrence, that after marriage a spouse – say the wife – will put her husband’s name on the title of the property that the wife owned prior to marriage. She will do so with good intentions, and think nothing of the legal consequences if the parties ever get a divorce and unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on which side of the issue you are on, there are indeed major legal repercussions to this act.
In general, no matter your intent, unless there is strong evidence that placing your spouse’s name on the title of the property was not meant as a gift, under Georgia law, your placing your spouse’s name on property you owned before marriage will be seen as gifting him or her the property. What this means is that you will lose your non-marital interest in the property, and the entirety of the property will suddenly become marital property, as if you never owned it before marriage. It works like this. Say husband owns a house prior to marriage that has $200,000 of equity in it.
Husband marries wife, and a few years into the marriage, husband puts wife on the title to the home, so they own the home jointly. Then, a few years later, the parties get a divorce. What is the effect of putting the wife’s name on that title? Well, if husband had not put his wife’s name on the title, at the time of the divorce, the $200,000 of equity would remain his premarital property, and wife would not be entitled to any of it, because it’s all husband’s premarital property. Nor would she be given any credit for any of the appreciation that may have accrued over the years on the property.
However, now, because he did put his wife on the title of the property, she is now entitled to 50% on the entire equity in the home, plus 50% of any appreciation on the home, and 50% of any mortgage pay down that occurred during the marriage. The long and short of it is do not place your spouse’s name on property that you owned prior to marriage without first consulting an attorney.
As to legal impact this might have on your rights to that property, if you do not intend a gift, if you intend to transfer to protect the home from creditors, a transfer of title to your spouse can be accomplished in a way that does not potentially gift your non-marital interest away. Each divorce is different, and the circumstances unique, and in each divorce there are traps like this that can be taken advantage of by a divorcing spouse. At Shaw Law Firm, we understand the nuances of family law very well, and we welcome your inquiries and telephone calls. Thank you.
In this video I will be discussing the topic of what happens if you place your spouse’s name on property that you own prior to marriage. To start, unless you do something to change this rule of law, or unless lump sum alimony is awarded, which is a separate video that I’ve done, property that you own prior to marriage remains your separate non-marital property, and will not be awarded to your spouse in a divorce.
In simpler terms, you owned it before marriage, you will continue to own it after marriage. Your spouse will have no interest in it. However, and it is a frequent occurrence, that after marriage a spouse – say the wife – will put her husband’s name on the title of the property that the wife owned prior to marriage. She will do so with good intentions, and think nothing of the legal consequences if the parties ever get a divorce and unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on which side of the issue you are on, there are indeed major legal repercussions to this act.
In general, no matter your intent, unless there is strong evidence that placing your spouse’s name on the title of the property was not meant as a gift, under Georgia law, your placing your spouse’s name on property you owned before marriage will be seen as gifting him or her the property. What this means is that you will lose your non-marital interest in the property, and the entirety of the property will suddenly become marital property, as if you never owned it before marriage. It works like this. Say husband owns a house prior to marriage that has $200,000 of equity in it.
Husband marries wife, and a few years into the marriage, husband puts wife on the title to the home, so they own the home jointly. Then, a few years later, the parties get a divorce. What is the effect of putting the wife’s name on that title? Well, if husband had not put his wife’s name on the title, at the time of the divorce, the $200,000 of equity would remain his premarital property, and wife would not be entitled to any of it, because it’s all husband’s premarital property. Nor would she be given any credit for any of the appreciation that may have accrued over the years on the property.
However, now, because he did put his wife on the title of the property, she is now entitled to 50% on the entire equity in the home, plus 50% of any appreciation on the home, and 50% of any mortgage pay down that occurred during the marriage. The long and short of it is do not place your spouse’s name on property that you owned prior to marriage without first consulting an attorney.
As to legal impact this might have on your rights to that property, if you do not intend a gift, if you intend to transfer to protect the home from creditors, a transfer of title to your spouse can be accomplished in a way that does not potentially gift your non-marital interest away. Each divorce is different, and the circumstances unique, and in each divorce there are traps like this that can be taken advantage of by a divorcing spouse. At Shaw Law Firm, we understand the nuances of family law very well, and we welcome your inquiries and telephone calls. Thank you.
Again that depends on whether it’s a non-contested divorce with all terms settled or whether it’s a contested divorce. Contested divorces go anywhere for $2,500, $20,000, $30,000 or higher. I would say that if you have a contested middle class divorce, the average is between $5 and $20,000. If you have a contested divorce with an estate in the seven figure range, you’re probably talking $20 to $50,000 in cost. If you have an uncontested divorce in which all the terms are agreed to, we can usually do that for a flat fee of around $2,000.
By: Scott Shaw
Again that depends on whether it’s a non-contested divorce with all terms settled or whether it’s a contested divorce. Contested divorces go anywhere for $2,500, $20,000, $30,000 or higher. I would say that if you have a contested middle class divorce, the average is between $5 and $20,000. If you have a contested divorce with an estate in the seven figure range, you’re probably talking $20 to $50,000 in cost. If you have an uncontested divorce in which all the terms are agreed to, we can usually do that for a flat fee of around $2,000.
By: Scott Shaw
In a divorce proceeding, debt is often a very big issue – who’s responsible for what debt. It’s often one of the most difficult issues to deal with, because first you have to figure out what the debt was, who incurred the debt, what the debt was incurred for? Was it incurred for a girlfriend? Was it incurred to raise the family? Who should actively be responsible for the debt?
Once you’ve determined who should be responsible for what debt, it’s very important to remember that although the court can order one party to pay your debt, the court cannot order the party who owns that debt to not hold you responsible for liable. For example, if the court orders your husband to pay off your credit card, but your husband files for bankruptcy, you’re suddenly liable for that debt. It’s issues like that that we have to address in order to protect our clients, and make sure that the issue of debt is properly taken care of in divorce.
By: Scott Shaw
In a divorce proceeding, debt is often a very big issue – who’s responsible for what debt. It’s often one of the most difficult issues to deal with, because first you have to figure out what the debt was, who incurred the debt, what the debt was incurred for? Was it incurred for a girlfriend? Was it incurred to raise the family? Who should actively be responsible for the debt?
Once you’ve determined who should be responsible for what debt, it’s very important to remember that although the court can order one party to pay your debt, the court cannot order the party who owns that debt to not hold you responsible for liable. For example, if the court orders your husband to pay off your credit card, but your husband files for bankruptcy, you’re suddenly liable for that debt. It’s issues like that that we have to address in order to protect our clients, and make sure that the issue of debt is properly taken care of in divorce.
By: Scott Shaw
An equitable division of property in a divorce in the state of Georgia, one of the most important complicated issues is often if there is a family business. Can you keep the business running? How do you divide the value of the business? And rest assured, a family business is a marital asset that can be divided, and it’s one of the most contested issues you will come into. Sometimes it’s as simple as just getting an appraiser and putting a value on it. Of course how you value the business, that’s another issue. And sometimes you can be creative.
For example, we had a case where my client inherited the business when they got married. It was a 20-year marriage, so 20 years ago. It was her family’s business. And her husband actually was president of the business for 20 years, and he demanded a certain amount of money to be paid for his share of the business that would have bankrupted the family business that she inherited from her parents, that her parents inherited from their parents.
So we got creative, and we had the business appraised going back from 20 years ago, the value at the time she inherited it and was married, and we adjusted it for the rate of inflation. And sure enough he still mismanaged the business, that over 20 years the business adjusted for inflation only increased by $25,000.
So that’s what we offered him, and the judge agreed with us. So on the right case you can be creative, and you can save the family business. But in general, if you have the family business to deal with, you have a lot of complicated issues that have to be addressed, and you need someone who knows what they’re doing to address them. And at Shaw Law Firm we are happy to take your telephone calls or inquiries. Thank you.
By: Scott Shaw
An equitable division of property in a divorce in the state of Georgia, one of the most important complicated issues is often if there is a family business. Can you keep the business running? How do you divide the value of the business? And rest assured, a family business is a marital asset that can be divided, and it’s one of the most contested issues you will come into. Sometimes it’s as simple as just getting an appraiser and putting a value on it. Of course how you value the business, that’s another issue. And sometimes you can be creative.
For example, we had a case where my client inherited the business when they got married. It was a 20-year marriage, so 20 years ago. It was her family’s business. And her husband actually was president of the business for 20 years, and he demanded a certain amount of money to be paid for his share of the business that would have bankrupted the family business that she inherited from her parents, that her parents inherited from their parents.
So we got creative, and we had the business appraised going back from 20 years ago, the value at the time she inherited it and was married, and we adjusted it for the rate of inflation. And sure enough he still mismanaged the business, that over 20 years the business adjusted for inflation only increased by $25,000.
So that’s what we offered him, and the judge agreed with us. So on the right case you can be creative, and you can save the family business. But in general, if you have the family business to deal with, you have a lot of complicated issues that have to be addressed, and you need someone who knows what they’re doing to address them. And at Shaw Law Firm we are happy to take your telephone calls or inquiries. Thank you.
By: Scott Shaw
Probably the next most common question I’m asked about equitable distribution is how do you handle 401ks, IRAs, and other retirement accounts? Well one thing to know is if you have a 401k account, it is subject to be divided during divorce at least the marital portion of it, and it can be divided tax free through what’s called a Qualified Domestic Relations Order or a QDRO.
IRAs on the other hand can be divided tax free again, but you don’t need a QDRO to do it. You can do it administratively and normally through whatever brokerage account holds your IRA account. Other pension plans say like a fixed benefit plan where you get a certain amount per year after you retire, those two are subject to be divided once you determine what the marital portion is, and usually those are divided again through a QDRO that is called the same thing but it’s a bit different than a QDRO used to divide a 401k. All these assets can be divided tax free in a divorce.
Probably the biggest issue is just determining what the marital portion of these accounts are. Do not assume just because you don’t have a 401k that your spouse does not because you have an equitable interest in any 401k amounts of money accumulated during the marriage.
By: Scott Shaw
Probably the next most common question I’m asked about equitable distribution is how do you handle 401ks, IRAs, and other retirement accounts? Well one thing to know is if you have a 401k account, it is subject to be divided during divorce at least the marital portion of it, and it can be divided tax free through what’s called a Qualified Domestic Relations Order or a QDRO.
IRAs on the other hand can be divided tax free again, but you don’t need a QDRO to do it. You can do it administratively and normally through whatever brokerage account holds your IRA account. Other pension plans say like a fixed benefit plan where you get a certain amount per year after you retire, those two are subject to be divided once you determine what the marital portion is, and usually those are divided again through a QDRO that is called the same thing but it’s a bit different than a QDRO used to divide a 401k. All these assets can be divided tax free in a divorce.
Probably the biggest issue is just determining what the marital portion of these accounts are. Do not assume just because you don’t have a 401k that your spouse does not because you have an equitable interest in any 401k amounts of money accumulated during the marriage.
By: Scott Shaw
You begin your divorce by contacting a good attorney who knows what they are doing, and your attorney will consult with you, advise you whether you should even get a divorce, talk about the relevant issues you have to deal with, whether now is even a good time to file, what sort of planning you need to do, and the attorney will instruct you how to proceed forward.
By: Scott Shaw
You begin your divorce by contacting a good attorney who knows what they are doing, and your attorney will consult with you, advise you whether you should even get a divorce, talk about the relevant issues you have to deal with, whether now is even a good time to file, what sort of planning you need to do, and the attorney will instruct you how to proceed forward.
By: Scott Shaw
Hello. My name is Scott Shaw, founder and principal of Shaw Law Firm, LLC. A law firm I founded in 1995. Child custody along with divorce and other areas of family law are our only area of legal practice. We don’t accept any other types of cases. In this video I will be discussing the topic of Lump Sum Alimony. When most people think of alimony, they think of a monthly payment to the other spouse.
Lump Sum Alimony is different though. It is different because it is a one time award of assets to the other spouse, and it’s a very dangerous thing to play around with. Lump Sum Alimony is so dangerous, because it is a way for a court or a jury to punish the other party, or to otherwise do equity. Because in a divorce, what usually happens is that each party is awarded their non-marital or premarital assets, and then the parties divide up the marital assets.
But what happens when most of the assets are one party’s non-marital assets, leaving very little to divide to the other party? In such a case, the court has the power to invade your non-marital estate even if you inherited it, owned it before marriage or whatever, and award some or all of it to your spouse. And a court can do so just because, in the right case it is a huge weapon and it should be scary to you.
One case where this came into great effect for me involved a jury trial in which the opposing party, which is the husband in that case, brought a few million dollars into marriage. And he married my client, where the time of marriage was a six figure per year consultant, while he is having an affair with another woman. A few years into the marriage, my client gave up her career in order to have a baby. The opposing party was still having this affair with this other woman, and in fact had another baby with this woman unbeknownst to my client.
Five years past, and by the time my client figured all this out, her job skills had antiquated. Yet most of the assets in the case were still the husband’s non-marital assets that he brought into the marriage to begin with. He thought he was looking pretty, and my client had no ability to be awarded those assets. Since most of the assets in this case were non-marital, there wasn’t a whole lot to claim as marital property. We could ask for monthly traditional alimony, but instead of doing that we in addition demanded a Lump Sum award of alimony from his non-marital estate. And we demanded the jury award it to us. Long and short, this case ended up settling because the husband’s attorney saw the very large liability he had for the jury awarding a portion of his client’s non-marital assets to my client.
This could have been millions of dollars and possible liability for him, because we had a great case for an award of Lump Sum Alimony under these circumstances. This is one of the nuance factors of family law and divorce law that most people aren’t even aware of. And at Shaw Law Firm this is all we do, and we welcome your inquiries and questions. Thank you.
By: Scott Shaw
Hello. My name is Scott Shaw, founder and principal of Shaw Law Firm, LLC. A law firm I founded in 1995. Child custody along with divorce and other areas of family law are our only area of legal practice. We don’t accept any other types of cases. In this video I will be discussing the topic of Lump Sum Alimony. When most people think of alimony, they think of a monthly payment to the other spouse.
Lump Sum Alimony is different though. It is different because it is a one time award of assets to the other spouse, and it’s a very dangerous thing to play around with. Lump Sum Alimony is so dangerous, because it is a way for a court or a jury to punish the other party, or to otherwise do equity. Because in a divorce, what usually happens is that each party is awarded their non-marital or premarital assets, and then the parties divide up the marital assets.
But what happens when most of the assets are one party’s non-marital assets, leaving very little to divide to the other party? In such a case, the court has the power to invade your non-marital estate even if you inherited it, owned it before marriage or whatever, and award some or all of it to your spouse. And a court can do so just because, in the right case it is a huge weapon and it should be scary to you.
One case where this came into great effect for me involved a jury trial in which the opposing party, which is the husband in that case, brought a few million dollars into marriage. And he married my client, where the time of marriage was a six figure per year consultant, while he is having an affair with another woman. A few years into the marriage, my client gave up her career in order to have a baby. The opposing party was still having this affair with this other woman, and in fact had another baby with this woman unbeknownst to my client.
Five years past, and by the time my client figured all this out, her job skills had antiquated. Yet most of the assets in the case were still the husband’s non-marital assets that he brought into the marriage to begin with. He thought he was looking pretty, and my client had no ability to be awarded those assets. Since most of the assets in this case were non-marital, there wasn’t a whole lot to claim as marital property. We could ask for monthly traditional alimony, but instead of doing that we in addition demanded a Lump Sum award of alimony from his non-marital estate. And we demanded the jury award it to us. Long and short, this case ended up settling because the husband’s attorney saw the very large liability he had for the jury awarding a portion of his client’s non-marital assets to my client.
This could have been millions of dollars and possible liability for him, because we had a great case for an award of Lump Sum Alimony under these circumstances. This is one of the nuance factors of family law and divorce law that most people aren’t even aware of. And at Shaw Law Firm this is all we do, and we welcome your inquiries and questions. Thank you.
By: Scott Shaw
The process for filing a divorce is, at least with our firm, we issue a divorce questionnaire to you which is about 26 pages. But don’t worry about it, it’s not as hard as it seems. What we try to do is get an idea of what the marital state and now marital state is. And we also get personal information.
From there we draft up a divorce complaint. The divorce complaint is drafted, and we usually email it to you, because there is a page at the end of the divorce complaint called the verification page, that the client needs to execute and then return the original to us.
Once we have that back, then we file with a clerk at court. The case will be filed in one of two places, either in the county where the other party lives, or if the other party lived in a marital home within the past six months, the county where the marital home is. So the case will be filed in one of those two counties. Then the case will either be put off for sheriff service, service per by the process server, or we will ask the other party to voluntarily acknowledge service, which is the friendly way to do it. But that doesn’t work in every case.
By: Scott Shaw
The process for filing a divorce is, at least with our firm, we issue a divorce questionnaire to you which is about 26 pages. But don’t worry about it, it’s not as hard as it seems. What we try to do is get an idea of what the marital state and now marital state is. And we also get personal information.
From there we draft up a divorce complaint. The divorce complaint is drafted, and we usually email it to you, because there is a page at the end of the divorce complaint called the verification page, that the client needs to execute and then return the original to us.
Once we have that back, then we file with a clerk at court. The case will be filed in one of two places, either in the county where the other party lives, or if the other party lived in a marital home within the past six months, the county where the marital home is. So the case will be filed in one of those two counties. Then the case will either be put off for sheriff service, service per by the process server, or we will ask the other party to voluntarily acknowledge service, which is the friendly way to do it. But that doesn’t work in every case.
By: Scott Shaw
Dividing automobiles is sometimes simple. If the automobile is in each respective parties names and each respective party owes the debt in the automobile, then that’s not a problem. The problem comes, not from the title on the automobile which can easily transfer, the problem comes by whose name is on the debt that financed the automobile because absolutely, unless there’s no other choice, you do not want to give your ex-spouse the car that you’re liable to owe the money on. That just leads to bad consequences and that’s an issue we need to address in many divorces.
By: Scott Shaw
Dividing automobiles is sometimes simple. If the automobile is in each respective parties names and each respective party owes the debt in the automobile, then that’s not a problem. The problem comes, not from the title on the automobile which can easily transfer, the problem comes by whose name is on the debt that financed the automobile because absolutely, unless there’s no other choice, you do not want to give your ex-spouse the car that you’re liable to owe the money on. That just leads to bad consequences and that’s an issue we need to address in many divorces.
By: Scott Shaw
A Judge Can Order a Parent to Attend Counseling in Arizona
A Judge Orders a Parent to Attend Domestic Violence Counseling in Arizona Can a judge order a parent in a child custody…
Read MoreArizona Dissolution of Marriage
In divorce, many issues require a resolution. Those issues can be resolved either by you or by the court before you can…
Read More
