Massachusetts is NOT a 50/50 State
October 26th, 2011I am surprised at how often I hear both clients and attorneys tell me that in Massachusetts, when couples divorce, everything is split 50/50. That is simply not true in Massachusetts. Splitting everything 50/50 is more akin to community property states such as California. Let’s break down that sentence and examine it:
Everything is split 50/50
The bolded text “everything” is correct and accurate. In Massachusetts, when a couple divorces, everything is up for grabs. Everything includes income and assets acquired during the marriage and also before the marriage. Everything also includes gifts and inheritances during and before the marriage.
Everything is split 50/50
The bolded text “is split” is somewhat correct. Since everything is up for grabs, everything is then up to be split. It doesn’t mean that it will be split but simply that there is a possibility of it being split, depending on the circumstances of each couple.
Everything is split 50/50
The bolded text “50/50″ is absolutely false. Massachusetts is an equitable division state. It means that at the time of divorce, judges look to see how to split property equitably. Equitable is a fancy term for “fair and reasonable.” Fair and reasonable does not mean 50/50 or else our laws would simply say 50/50 or equally. Equally is not the same as equitably.
Let’s take for example the case where a young couple in their 20′s gets married. They started the marriage with next to nothing and they’re married for 9 years and had no children. They then decide to divorce. In that situation, it would be fair and reasonable to split their assets 50/50.
Now let’s take another example where a young couple in their 20′s gets married. They started the marriage also with next to nothing and they’re married for 20 years and had 3 kids and the wife was a stay-at-home mom for 15 of those years. In that situation, it would NOT be fair and reasonable to split their assets 50/50 because the wife sacraficed her professional advancement outside of the home to raise the couple’s kids which in turn enabled the husband to advance his career. Now if she was to go back to the work force, she would be 15 years behind the curve professionally. In this situation, a fair and reasonably (or equitable) distribution would be to give the wife more of the assets.
