Adam J. Blahnik, a Minnesota divorce and family law lawyer, describes how Minnesota is considered a common law property State (or marital property State) instead of a community property State. He then information the distinction between “marital property” and “non-marital property” in Minnesota.

You discover yourself either pondering divorce, or in the middle of a divorce in the State of Minnesota, and need to understand what your rights are with regard to all the personal and real property owned by you or your spouse.
This post will touch on the “ins and outs” of property department in divorce proceedings constant with the laws of the State of Minnesota. There are two completing doctrines amongst the numerous Sates in this nation on how property rights are vested to married couples, – “typical law property” states and “neighborhood property” states. Minnesota is considered a common law property state (or “marital property” state) when it comes to property rights during the marital relationship. In the United States, there are ten States that are considered “community property” states, that include: Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin. This short article deals specifically with common law property rights within the State of Minnesota.

As a Minnesota divorce lawyer, it is important to meet completely with divorce customers to determine all the property interests owned by the divorce clients and the “character” of those property rights. All property will be categorized as either “marital property” or “non-marital” property. There is an anticipation in the law that all property is marital. Hence, it ends up being the burden of the party attempting to categorize the property as non-marital to come forth with the necessary evidence and proof to consider the property non-marital.
So– what the heck am I talking about? What do I mean by marital property? … and non-marital property?

Per Minnesota divorce laws, all marital property shall be divided equitably between the divorcing spouses. Marital property includes all property owned by the spouses that is not otherwise categorized as non-marital property as described listed below. To “equitably divide” the marital property does not necessarily mean to divide the property 50-50 between the partners. In the majority of the Minnesota divorce cases, this is precisely what occurs. However, if there is a large disparity in the spouse’s earnings, the Courts may award to the lower wage earner a greater percentage of the marital property.
So, what is non-marital property? In Minnesota, non-marital property includes any property that a partner owned prior to the marriage; that a partner inherited at anytime, either before or during the marriage; or any property that was talented straight and exclusively to one of the spouses (except for presents from the other partner). If property is classified as non-marital, then that spouse is entitled to all of such property, without needing to divide any portion of it with the other spouse.

To show the non-marital character of concrete personal property is often times not that hard. When we are dealing with numerous bank accounts, retirement accounts or financial investment accounts, things get a little harder. The partner must effectively and thoroughly “trace” the non-marital funds from their beginning through the date of divorce. If the non-marital funds are combined with marital funds, then that has the effect of transforming all the funds to marital funds. Therefore, it is really important that the holder of non-marital funds retain such funds in a different account … nevertheless, it may not be the most pleasant discussion to have with your partner when you discuss why you are retaining the funds in a separate account: “Honey– I am just keeping the cash in a different account, so in case we get divorced I will get to keep all the cash.”
Similarly, if a spouse has a non-marital claim in realty, it can be difficult to trace such a claim. This comes about when one partner owns a house prior to the marital relationship, which has equity, then the parties sell that house and utilize the profits from the sale as a partial deposit towards the brand-new house, and so forth and so on.

There are many elements that come into have fun with this– a lot of to go over in this article. It needs to be kept in mind that when computing a prospective non-marital claim in real estate, the Courts recognize “active appreciation” (i.e. gratitude of the property due to improvements) with “passive gratitude (i.e. appreciation of the property due to market forces). Further, if at any time during the course of owning the genuine property, the real equity in the property is lowered to absolutely no, then this has the result of removing any non-marital claim that may have existed.
As you can see, it can end up being quite complex and complicated in determining and ascertaining whether any non-marital property exists as part of the marital relationship. It is constantly very important to speak to a certified Minnesota divorce lawyer to discuss your rights in the Minnesota divorce proceeding.