Experienced Divorce Attorneys in Scottsdale, Arizona – (480) 994-8824

During divorce proceedings, parties may sometimes have a hard time deciding how to divide their property as well as any debts they may have incurred. As Arizona is a community property state, you would think the process would be easy: split anything and everything acquired and any debts incurred during the marriage. This allows both parties the opportunity to essentially divided the assets and debts into what each had prior to the marriage. Unfortunately, it can be and is often, much more complicated than that.

When a couple decides to divorce, there will be many questions regarding the division of assets and debts. A bank account may be simple enough to divide, but what happens with the things that are not as easily divided or valued like the house, student loans, or even retirement funds? Sometimes pre-marital assets can be used to acquire community assets, such as using monies one party had prior to marriage to help purchase a home titled in both parties’ names. Community monies may be used to pay off one parties’ student loans or other premarital debt.

Other times, the parties decide to share and use a bank account that one of the spouses had opened and was using prior to the marriage and over the span of their marriage, it may be now difficult to separate out the premarital funds from funds deposited during the marriage. Or the parties may have more debt than assets. All of these scenarios are common and make what could be simple, not so simple after all.

The goal for any Scottsdale divorce attorney is to make the division of assets and debts as fair as possible for both parties, which is easier said than done and can be the subject of significant conflict. When parties cannot agree, the Court will undertake the division as it sees fit, oftentimes along the lines of liquidating the community assets, paying off any community debt, and splitting whatever monies remain between the parties.

This type of wholesale liquidation and division, particularly when you and your spouse have spent years acquiring certain assets or accumulating savings for retirement, simplifies things for the Court but may be extremely unsatisfactory and disconcerting to both you and your spouse. It is always a better course to try and reach a resolution on the division of assets and debts with your spouse if you are seeking to maximize the preservation of assets in whole.

If you are considering or are in the midst of a divorce and the division of assets and debts is a major issue and the source of much conflict, consulting with an experienced attorney may help you in resolving these conflicts.