Along with custody matters, splitting marital property can become a troublesome matter during divorce.
The marital estate is value and property acquired by a couple during marriage. If the parties cannot agree on division of their property, the court divides their property equitably, based on factors pertaining to their marriage, including the financial background. What about value and property that exists online?
More and more couples acquire and hold value digitally, including:
- Social media sites: Who gets the Facebook page or the email accounts? What about domain names if you have a website? Is there an online repository of pictures? Whose name is on the account, and how is access shared? Posting pictures of children online might be acceptable to one parent, but not to the other — how do they agree?
- Games: Virtual property can now be bought and sold online. Games like Farmville, Second Life and Planet Calypso offer a place to stash cash until a divorce is over and assets are divided. If you do not know the gaming habits of your spouse, maybe you should.
- Music: Who gets the iTunes account? Some people have a considerable investment in music that cannot be easily shared when spouses part ways during divorce.
- Art and other collectibles: Similar to virtual property exchanged during online gaming, art created for the Internet exists on the Internet. As artists turn attention to the digital domain, assessing the value for purposes of divorce is important.
- Points: From Amazon to air miles, value and reward points add up to tidy sums at times.
If thinking about divorce, be sure your marital estate includes a fair accounting of your property in both the physical and virtual worlds. The Columbia divorce lawyers at Huesman, Jones & Miles, LLC handle all aspects of divorce proceeding including property division. To schedule a consultation with one of our reputable Baltimore County divorce lawyers, call our Hunt Valley, MD office at (443) 589-0150 or contact us online.
