Property Division at Divorce: every key term you need (+ practice quiz)
25 flashcard terms for Family Law Topic 4, written to match the course framework. Study them here, then drill them as interactive flashcards, or test yourself with the 15-question quiz — free, no account needed.
The majority approach dividing marital property in proportions the court finds fair after weighing statutory factors; equitable does not mean numerically equal.
Community property
The system in a handful of states treating earnings and acquisitions during marriage as owned equally by both spouses, with division at divorce often presumptively equal.
Marital property
Assets acquired by either spouse during the marriage regardless of title, including retirement credits, business growth, and appreciation attributable to marital effort.
Separate property
Assets owned before marriage or received during marriage by gift, devise, or descent, together with the passive appreciation of those assets.
Title theory of division
The abandoned common law rule awarding property at divorce to the spouse holding record title, which systematically disadvantaged homemakers.
Hotchpot jurisdiction
A minority approach in which all property owned by either spouse, separate as well as marital, is available for equitable division.
Transmutation
The conversion of separate property into marital property through retitling, express agreement, or conduct manifesting an intent to treat the asset as shared.
Commingling
The mixing of separate funds with marital funds so that the separate character can no longer be traced, ordinarily converting the whole into marital property.
Tracing
The evidentiary process of following an asset through exchanges and accounts to establish that it retains its separate character despite changes in form.
Source of funds rule
An approach classifying an asset in proportion to the marital and separate contributions used to acquire it, rather than by the moment of initial purchase.
Active appreciation
Growth in the value of separate property caused by a spouse's labor or marital funds, which is treated as marital property subject to division.
Passive appreciation
Growth caused solely by market forces or inflation on separate property, which generally remains separate in equitable distribution states.
Professional goodwill
The value of a practice's reputation and repeat clientele; enterprise goodwill is usually divisible while purely personal goodwill often is not.
Professional degree or license
Not property in nearly every state, though the supporting spouse may recover through reimbursement alimony or an enhanced earning capacity adjustment.
O'Brien v. O'Brien
The New York outlier treating a medical license as marital property subject to distribution, later curtailed by statute in that state.
Reimbursement award
Compensation to a spouse who financed the other's education or contributed separate funds to marital assets, measured by contribution rather than by future earnings.
Qualified domestic relations order
A court order directing a private retirement plan to pay a portion of a participant's benefits to a former spouse without triggering plan anti-alienation rules.
Time rule for pensions
A coverture formula allocating the marital share of a defined benefit pension by the ratio of service months during marriage to total service months.
Vested versus unvested pension rights
Modern courts divide both, treating an unvested interest as a divisible contingent asset rather than a mere expectancy, though valuation discounts may apply.
Dissipation of marital assets
Wasteful spending on gambling, an affair, or spite transfers during the breakdown of the marriage, remedied by charging the spender with the amount lost.
Economic fault
Financial misconduct considered in division even in no-fault states, in contrast to purely marital fault which most equitable distribution statutes exclude.
Personal injury recovery classification
Under the analytic approach, pain and suffering and post-divorce earnings are separate while lost marital wages and marital medical expenses are marital.
Stock options and restricted units
Divided using formulas that ask whether the grant rewarded past marital services or was intended to secure future post-divorce performance.
Marital debt allocation
The assignment of obligations incurred during marriage according to purpose, benefit received, and each spouse's ability to pay, independent of creditor rights.
Bankruptcy nondischargeability of property awards
Domestic support obligations and, in Chapter 7, most divorce property settlements survive discharge, limiting a payor's escape through bankruptcy.