Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

Re: Marital Assets

Sorry your 7/16 inquiry wasn't posted on Law Guru until 9/9. Anyway, you raise what is called an issue of "comingling". The 50K from before the marriage, the gifts and the inheritance might all be non-marital. Or they might be marital if they were "transmuted" into marital property by being mixed together with income during the marriage. There are Maryland cases on how to sort this out. You should subpoena records to establish the "source of funds" and analyze your facts based on the law. You should use an attorney to make sure this is done correctly. It is definitely worth looking into.

Re: Marital Assets

The law in Maryland is that payments of taxes on non-marital property (your wife's dividends) with marital assets (your income during the marriage) do not change the property from non-marital to marital. However, the court may consider your tax payments in determining a monetary award to one or the other of you. I am assuming that your wife has been a passive investor with her stocks. If that is the case, the assets are non-marital. If she spent significant time studying the stock market and buying and selling stock, the way some people are doing these days on the internet, you could make a good case that her marital effort was a cause of the increase in value, and assets acquired through the efforts of either of you during the marriage are marital assets. This may make it more clear: If you bought a load of bricks before your marriage and left them sitting in a pile, and the value of bricks went up during the marriage, the increase in value would not be a marital asset. If, during your marriage, you used the bricks to build a house, the difference between the value of the load of bricks and the value of the house would be a marital asset. For your sake I hope your wife spent a significant amount of time monitoring her investments and making investment decisions which increased her assets. One more issue, about your bills: If the bills are in both of your names, you are both liable for payment, whether your assets come from your work during the marriage or from gifts and inheritance. If you were to file bankruptcy, your wife would be fully liable. Regarding child support, your wife's assets are relevant, and any dividend income or income from the sale of stock should be factored in to a child support calculation. I hope this helps.

Re: Marital Assets

A full history of the use and titling of the assets of your spouse is imperative to making a good assessment of what, if any, portion of your spouse's assets are marital property. The court should consider factors such as your paying taxes on the dividends earned. Other important factors in your case are: lenghth of marriage, contributions by each spouse to the marriage, income earning capacity, etc. A competent attorney should carefully review all of the details so that an evaluation of what a court might do can be made.