One of your concerns when going through a divorce is what will happen to all of the assets you co-own with your ex-spouse. If you’ve been together a long time, this can be complicated – especially when everything belongs to both of you.
It’s important for you that you make sure your assets are protected and you receive your fair share from the divorce. If you’ve both worked to build a property portfolio, you need to know what will happen to it and what steps you need to take. Here’s what the law in Hawaii says about it.
You can agree between yourselves
In Hawaii, divorcing couples are free to reach a mutual agreement over how to distribute their shared assets. This can be accomplished by either opting to sell or dividing the properties. The court will generally approve a fair solution so long as there are no signs of coercion or either party hiding assets.
Hawaii follows the doctrine of equitable division
If the court is asked to intervene and make a decision on how to split the property portfolio of a divorcing couple, it will do so on an equitable basis.
As opposed to other states which divide everything 50/50, the court will decide on a split that it considers to be fair. In doing so it will take into account a wide variety of factors. This includes the duration of the marriage, who has custody of the children and the level of income earned by each person. The court will also generally only take into account property that’s acquired during the marriage and is therefore considered to be jointly owned.
If there are many properties, a list will need to be compiled for the court and a valuation of each one will need to be carried out before a judgment can be given. The properties can then be sold and the proceeds distributed among the parties, or the properties can just simply be divided up.
Protecting your rights when divorcing can be complex, especially when there’s a lot at stake. The process can be made so much easier when you have the right support in place.
