Who gets the home? How should the vehicles be divided? Who will get the furniture? Divorcing couples in Georgia and elsewhere are asking these and other similar questions in their divorce process. Recently, an NFL owner and his wife have come to an agreement on the division of their marital property.
The wife of Falcons owner, Arthur Blank, has filed for divorce and served the divorce papers to her husband. According to reports, the couple has been separated for over a year. The divorce papers reportedly include a property division agreement between the couple and specify how the couple's home will be divided. The papers also include a child custody agreement regarding the couple's three children to ensure that each parent is actively present in their children's lives.
In Georgia, if a divorcing couple is unable to come to an agreement on property division, the court may determine property division based on an equitable, or fair, distribution standard. Rather than adding together all of the couple's marital property and dividing it in half, a court may consider factors such as the earning capacity of each party and the length of the marriage.
In property division, there are two general categories of property -- marital property and nonmarital property; only marital property is divided in a divorce. Marital property includes the assets that a couple obtained in a marriage. Nonmarital property includes gifts, inheritances and property that a spouse had before the marriage.
In a divorce, deciding how to divide property that a couple has acquired during the marriage may be complicated and infuriating. However, it is important to remember that it is in the best interests of the spouses to come to an agreement so that they may begin their new lives.