Property Agreements

• During the divorce proceeding, the spouses can attempt to reach an agreement with regard to the division of their marital assets. If they can agree, they must sign a Marital Dissolution Agreement that declares the value of each asset, as well as what each spouse will retain ownership of when the divorce is finalized.
  
  

Classification of Assets

• A spouse is entitled to maintain ownership of any of his separate property. Tennessee law defines separate or non-marital property as any asset acquired prior to the marriage, as well as any inheritance received by one spouse during the marriage. To remain separate property, the asset cannot be commingled with marital assets. For example, an inheritance check must be deposited into an individual bank account because a joint bank account is marital property. Any separate property combined with marital property automatically becomes marital property. Under Tennessee law, marital property is anything acquired during the marriage, regardless of the spouse's role in acquiring the property.
  
  

Valuing the Assets

• If property has an obvious value, it is easier to divide between the spouses. For example, a bank account's value is the balance in the account. Other property, like real estate and retirement pensions, the most common at issue during a divorce, cannot always be immediately valued. If spouses do not have documentation of a present value and cannot agree on the value, the court may require that the property be appraised.
  
  

Dividing the Assets

• Tennessee is an "equitable distribution" state, which means that property is not divided in half. Instead, the court considers a list of factors and awards each spouse an appropriate percentage of the assets. Factors considered include the duration of the marriage, the age and health condition of each spouse, the value of each spouse's separate property, the spouse's income, each spouse's financial and non-financial contributions to the marriage (i.e. wage earner vs. homemaker) and the liquid or non-liquid character of the property, which affects how the property can actually be divided. A court cannot consider either spouse's reasons leading to the divorce. This means that even if one spouse committed adultery or abandoned the other spouse, he cannot be penalized and awarded less of the marital assets.