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One aspect of divorce that seems to have become more prevalent in recent years, is the division of personal property such as family jewelry, gold or other personal property like photographic equipment or sports equipment.  This blog is written to very generally address what happens to personal property in a divorce or separation in Michigan, if you have specific questions about your own personal situation, please do not hesitate to contact us to schedule a consultation by clicking on this link or calling (248) 608-4123.

What Happens to Personal Property In A Divorce In Michigan?

The court will divide all marital property, including personal property, in an equitable or roughly equal manner.  Typically, when handling a divorce case, the courts and attorneys will divide the case into separate categories with different priorities.  If there are children, the courts will give highest priority to custody, parenting time and child support.  Then it will consider alimony or spousal support as it is known in Michigan.  Then at the lowest priority it will handle division of property and debts.  Further within the category of personal property, the court will address real estate first, retirement and investment accounts second, bank accounts third and finally it will give some attention to personal property. 

You should note that most family law or divorce cases do not go to trial but rather are resolved at mediation.  In the case of mediation if there is a dispute regarding the personal property, those issues will not be addressed by the attorneys in the resolution of the general divorce but rather reserved for an arbitration between the parties without attorneys.  The main reason for this is that due to the value of the property being argued over and the time it takes to resolve these types of issues, it is simply not worth it to pay the attorneys to do so,  However, if one or both of the spouses wants to retain their attorneys for the personal property arbitration, then they have the right to do so.

When the court or the arbitrator decides how to divide the personal property, the first thing they will do is determine is whether the specific item in question is marital or separate.  Most property will be considered marital and subject to a roughly equal division.  This means that the arbitrator or judge will attempt to award each party with an overall roughly equal value of marital personal property.  However, if the property falls into one of the specific categories of separate property, then it will be awarded solely to one spouse without offset of other property. 

There are two particularly relevant categories of separate property that apply to personal property, those categories being gifts and inheritances or heirlooms.  If a gift is given specifically to one party before or during the marriage, then that gift is the separate property of that spouse.  A classic example of this would be an engagement ring or other jewelry that was given specifically to one spouse as a gift for a special occasion or some other reason.  However, gifts of jewels, gold or other personal property that are given to the parties as wedding gifts are considered a gift to both parties and therefore are marital and subject to division.  Inheritances of property of any kind by one spouse are considered the separate property of that spouse so long as the property is kept separate and not commingled with marital property.

This blog was written to very generally address the issue of what happens with personal property in a divorce or separation.  If you have specific questions regarding these issues, please contact us to schedule a consultation by clicking on this link or calling (248) 608-4123.