Mine, Your or Ours? Property Division in a
Minnesota Divorce
Splitting up the property
If a Minnesota court is dividing up your and your ex-spouse’s property in a divorce, some of that property
will be considered marital and some of it will be considered nonmarital. What’s the difference between
these two, and what does that mean for you?
Marital property
You know from the growth in contents of your shed, attic, and junk room that you and your spouse have
bought plenty of things during your marriage. This is marital property. And marital property doesn’t just
mean tangible things like a car, a boat, or that nice set of wine glasses; it can also be land, stocks, or
pension plan benefits.
Everything you and your spouse bought or were given during your marriage will be presumed to be
marital property. This means that when you get a divorce, the court will make a “just and equitable”
division of this property between you two. This often, but not always, means an equal division of the
property.
Nonmarital property
You might have some property that you feel should be considered yours and only yours. What about, for
example, that car you bought with the money you inherited from your parents? Or what about the
painting you received as a gift specifically to you, not to you and your spouse as a couple? These types
of purchases or gifts, along with inheritances, may be nonmarital property, and, if so, will generally be
awarded to you alone in the divorce.
Because property acquired during the marriage is presumed to be marital, if you want to argue that
something is your own, nonmarital property, the burden is on you and your attorney to prove that it
is. This is where the concept of “tracing” comes in. Tracing means that iif, for example, you bought a car
using money that you are arguing is nonmarital property, you have to trace the purchase of the car back
to the nonmarital money. In order to do this, you’ll need to have kept the money as separate as possible
from money that belongs to both you and your spouse. The separation doesn’t have to be completely
rigid; just putting some money that you inherited into the bank account that you and your spouse used to
pay bills won’t transform the inheritance into marital property. But if you have co-mingled funds like this,
you’ll have to demonstrate that any money you are claiming is only yours can be readily identified. You
and your attorney can work together to determine the best way to do this.
Debt
Finally, don’t forget that you might not always want your property to be nonmarital; debt can be nonmarital
property too! Whether debt created by borrowing money is marital or nonmarital depends on who
borrowed the funds and whether the borrowed funds were used for marital or nonmarital purposes. Only
marital debt, not nonmarital debt, will be offset against the total value of the marital estate. This means
that even if you have large personal debt, the court probably won’t allocate you more of your and your
spouse’s marital property to compensate.
As always, I’ll answer questions or comments at Jkohlmeyer@rokolaw.com If you’d like more information
feel free to visit www.Mankatolawblog.com
Jason Kohlmeyer
Mankato, Minnesota
507-625-5000