Marital property does not just include real property,like the family home, or personal property, like jewelry, clothing, cd’s, artwork, and other household goods. Many assets that were acquired over the span of the marriage have the potential to be considered part of the martial estate, ie. what many refer to as marital property. Included are retirement earnings such as a 401K earned through a job or capital gains on retirement accounts. Property division in Shelton Connecticut, therefore, includes the process of vetting those retirement accounts and potentially dividing up the retirement earnings.
Often times, one spouse may be in a better financial position because of their career track and potential. Therefore the retirement income that they earned during the marriage, whether or not through employer contribution, can be higher than the other spouse. Family law and equity in Connecticut recognize that dividing up the marital estate in a blind 50%/50% split is not always what’s fair and equitable under the circumstances of that family’s marital history (e.g. a stay at home wife, mother, and homemaker may not have had an opportunity to acquire retirement funds like her investment banker husband),so division of retirement accounts at trial may end up being split in a way that the higher retirement account holder did not expect, in an effort to balance out any inequities.