Marital property is all assets and liabilities acquired during the course of the marriage. Assets might include your home, cars, furniture, shares in a company, rental income and savings. Liabilities can include any debt, such as mortgages or other loans and leases.
Generally, anything acquired before the marriage is not considered marital property. However, the court might determine that certain types of property are marital. The longer a couple is married, the more likely a court will consider property – even property acquired by one partner before the marriage – to be marital property. For example, perhaps you purchased your home before getting married. Fifteen years later your spouse, who had a higher income, contributed equally to the mortgage payments and the house renovations, may now be entitled to some share of the value of the house.
