If you’re divorcing in New Jersey, part of the process is dividing jointly owned marital assets and debts. This can be a highly emotional tug of war between two bitter parties, yet it doesn’t have to be this way. The decision lies in your hands. You’re both adults. One way to resolve some of these disputes is to sell the property and divide up the cash.

Marital property is all the property legally and beneficially acquired by either spouse during the marriage, excluding gifts (unless one spouse gives a gift to the other) and inheritances specifically to one spouse. Non-marital property is deemed separate property, not subject to division under NJ law.

Equitable distribution doesn’t necessarily mean an even division of assets and debts, though court judgments declaring 50/50 property and debt splits are not unusual. Under New Jersey law, the family court judge will base the decision on many objective factors, including:

• The length of the marriage or civil union (hereafter “marriage”);
• The age and physical/emotional health of the spouses;
• The income or assets brought to the marriage by each spouse;
• The couple’s standard of living during the marriage ;
• Any written agreement by the parties before or during the marriage concerning property distribution;
• The economic circumstances of each party;
• Each party’s income and earning capacity ;
• The contribution by each spouse to the education, training, or earning power of the other;
• The present value of their joint marital property; and
• The joint marital debts and liabilities of the parties

The parties can split a lot of the property voluntarily, without a court order.  Spouses can prioritize what is important to each of them and the two can horse-trade back and forth. A house full of furniture and personal goods could be broken up, with one spouse getting a bedroom set while the other gets the table and chairs from the dining room. The parties could establish a private auction, bidding on property each wants to keep, with the high bidder winning the property and the low bidder getting a credit for one-half the now-established property value.

Some of the more valuable assets can also be divided. It may be retirement savings, investments, and bank accounts. You decide on a number, who gets how much, and the rest is paperwork. Sometimes for very valuable items that can’t be easily split, like real estate, the best solution is selling it and sharing the proceeds.

Valuable artwork could also be sold, as a New York Times article discusses, but you probably don’t have an art collection like the Macklowes, artwork at one point valued at nearly a billion dollars. The couple is divorced and an auction scheduled this coming spring has been postponed.

There was a lot to divide up for real estate developer Harry Macklowe (82) and his ex-wife, Linda (81). There’s the $72 million apartment running the length of the Park Plaza Hotel (7 apartments were bought, gutted, and re-built into a giant, one-bedroom apartment), overlooking Central Park. The $19 million house in the Hamptons and the 150-foot, $23.5 million yacht also needed to be divided. But those assets are peanuts compared to the art collection.

The couple have more than 150 pieces of art, including multiple works by Pablo Picasso, Jeff Koons, Willem de Kooning, and Mark Rothko.  The Andy Warhol work with images of Marilyn Monroe is worth an estimated $50 million.

There are a couple of reasons for the sale. The parties couldn’t agree on their value. Linda proposed keeping the artwork and selling them piece by piece to support her lifestyle. That approach would have resulted in Harry paying taxes on the sales, so that was a no-go.

An attorney representing Harry stated the art collection sale was necessary to sustain their lifestyles. About 60% to 75% of their wealth is in the unsold artwork. They “only” had $1.4 million in bank accounts during the divorce. David N. Redden, a former vice-chairman of Sotheby’s auction house, called the collection “fairly staggering” and “one of the great prizes.” “The art world will be fighting over it,” said Redden.

There’s no reason to fight over your marital property.  If you and your spouse can’t agree who gets what, then sell it, split the money, and move on with your lives.

To the best of our ability, Kingston Law Group’s lawyers will not make equitable division of property or other divorce issues unnecessarily difficult, time-consuming, or expensive.  While we do not control the other party or their counsel, nevertheless we will do whatever it reasonably takes to finalize your divorce.  We are “Compassionate Counsel; Tough Advocates”.  

As long as Covid-19 is with us, those appointments will be by Zoom or phone only and not in person. Call us at 609-683-7400 or contact us online to set up a near-term initial consultation at a reduced rate.  Call today.  You will be glad you did.