Divide and Conquer in Divorce? No, Divide and Win

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While there may be some things you and your estranged spouse are not going to be able to agree upon when it comes to dividing your assets, one area where you should not waste your time, money and energy to fight about is your personal property (i.e. the stuff you have accumulated during your marriage). 

The best way to ease the division of your property is to know some realities about the process. Consider the following:
 

  1. Make lists and take pictures. Compile a complete inventory of your personal assets. If there is a list of items to start from, you and your spouse can often work more easily through it in a friendly manner. Photographs help you identify items you may have forgotten you have or determine if an item has later been moved, gone missing or omitted from your list.
     
  2. Remember depreciation.  Follow the same rule of thumb as a car — as soon as it leaves the lot, it loses value. When you are valuing your personal property, remember that an eight-year-old coffee table is not worth what it was the day it was purchased. Do not go by what it would cost you to replace the item but rather what you could sell it for today.
     
  3. Let it go.  Before you go to the trenches over that coffee table or sofa or hydrangea bush (yes, a couple has fought about a hydrangea bush), think about what it is really worth to you in both money and emotion. And, think about the freeing feeling you will have by buying the sofa you really wanted in the first place, not the one you compromised to. You will save yourself an enormous amount of time, money and energy to focus on those financial assets that really matter.

Proper course of action in situations when contemplating divorce or separation is to speak with an experienced family law attorney to receive some guidance prior to discussing division with your soon-to-be-estranged-spouse. Contact the family lawyers at Pollock Begg Komar Glasser & Vertz LLC to review your assets and we can advise according to your particular situation.

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This article appears in the June 2018 issue of Pittsburgh Magazine.