Posted on May 29, 2017 in
Columns
By Nancy L. Rommelmann, Family Law Attorney –
Parties often assume that upon divorce the estate will be dividing equally. Section 7.001 of the Texas Family Code (TFC) provides that “the court shall order a division of the estate of the parties in a manner that the court deems just and right, having due regard of the rights of each party and any children of the marriage.” The TFC states that a party should be awarded a disproportionate share of the parties’ estate for the following reasons, including but not limited to:
- Fault in the breakup of the marriage;
- Benefits the innocent spouse may have derived from the continuation of the marriage;
- Disparity of earning power of the spouses and their ability to support themselves;
- Health of the spouses;
- The spouse to whom conservatorship of the child[ren] is granted;
- Needs of the child[ren] of the marriage;
- Education and future employability of the spouses;
- Community indebtedness and liabilities;
- Tax consequences of the division of property;
- Ages of the spouses;
- Earning power, business opportunities, capacities and abilities of the spouses;
- Need for future support;
- Nature of the property involved in the division;
- Wasting of community assets by the spouses;
- Credit for temporary support paid by a spouse;
- Community funds used to purchase out-of-state property;
- Gifts to or by a spouse during the marriage;
- Increase in value of separate property through community efforts by time, talent, labor and effort;
- Excessive community-property gifts to the parties’ child[ren];
- Reimbursement;
- Expected inheritance of a spouse;
- Attorney’s fees to be paid;
- Creation of community property through the use of a spouse’s separate estate;
- The size and nature of the separate estates of the spouses;
- Creation of community property by the efforts or lack thereof of the spouses;
- Actual fraud committed by a spouse and
- Constructive fraud committed by a spouse.
“It’s food for thought and how to get a bigger piece of the pie!”