marital property is divided

in two categories

there are passive assets

and there are active assets passive

assets are assets that appreciate or

depreciate on their own without effort

by either party so in those

circumstances we’re thinking of

a house

an apartment

an investment account

investment real estate

a car

things that appreciate and depreciate on

their own

that’s divided 50 50 equally between the

parties because the belief is is that no

party should benefit by the increase or

decrease more than the other because

nobody expected any greater effort in

order to get the property to appreciate

in contrast

active assets are things like a small

business or professional practice a

professional practice or small business

has one party who’s the actual doctor or

the lawyer or the business owner and

then you have the spouse who’s making

contributions either directly or

indirectly

we would think of indirect contributions

as being

taking care of the house taking care of

the kids doing things that enable

the

business owner or the

professional

to focus their energies

on maximizing the income potential of

the business or the professional

practice

if it’s an indirect contribution meaning

they have not been involved in the

business you’re looking at a 5 to 25

cut of the appreciation of that business

uh from the date of the marriage to the

date of the divorce action

if however the non-titled spouse

is making direct contributions meaning

that they are working in the business as

secretary

as someone who is putting files away

helping recruit clients doing things

that actually directly contribute to the

value and the appreciation of the

business

they would more likely end up with let’s

say a 25 to 45 percent claim on the

appreciation of the business or

professional practice