To create the net asset pool all assets and liabilities of your relationship will need to be identified. These include personal assets and liabilities. It is essential that you tell Armstrong Legal all of your assets and liabilities to ensure that proceedings are fair. If you hide or do not advise us of your assets you may be found in contempt of court.
Assets are the things you own that have a value. Assets could include
Liabilities can be seen as debts, where money is owed. Examples of liabilities include:
The net asset pool figure will then be calculated. The net asset pool is generally calculated using this formula Total Assets – Total Liabilities = Net Asset Pool. The net asset pool figure is the amount of money that will be divided.
If both parties cannot agree on a value of an item/s, for example a car, an expert will need to brought in to value the item.
The court looks at how each party contributed to the relationship. The court has broken the contributions into four specific groups:
- Financial
- Parental
- Homemaker
- Non Financial Contributions
1. Financial Contributions
Financial Contributions are all monetary contributions to the relationship. Financial contributions can include but are not limited to
- Wages
- Amount each person had at the start of the relationship
- Termination money
- Lotto winnings
For more information regarding financial contributions please click here.
2. Parenting Contributions
These contributions could be described as the amount of parenting that was done, such as helping children with homework, taking them to school, spending time with them etc. There is no specified amount, however when one party works and the other cannot due to parental responsibility, it is seen as an equal contribution to the wage that the other party contributes to the relationship. For more information regarding parenting contributions please click here
3. Homemaker Contributions
These are the contributions made to the home for example vacuuming, cooking, washing etc. Homemaker contributions are very similar to parenting contributions. For more information regarding homemaker contributions please click here
4. Non – Financial Contributions
Non financial contributions are contributions that a party has made that has added value for example renovating a house. The value of the non financial contribution can be determined by how much it would have cost to pay someone to come in and do the same thing. For more information regarding Non-Financial contributions please click here
During a property settlement, current and future needs will be taken into account. The following is a list of the needs that the court will look at
- Age
- State of health
- Income, property and financial resources
- Physical and mental capacity to gain employment
- Parent or sole carer under the age of 18
- Commitments that are necessary to provide for themselves or a child
- Responsibilities of either party to support another person
- All parties are living a reasonable standard of living
- Duration of the marriage
- The maintenance of the property that affected the earning capacity of a party
- The need to protect a party
Once the appropriate needs of each party have been identified the court will then look at the cost of each of these needs.
Once the splitting percentage of the asset pool has been decided it will then be determined what assets each person gets. In some cases the asset that the person obtains is over their percentage and they will need to pay the other person in order to keep with the percentages.
Once the percentages have been decided the court will then look to see if the percentages are just and equitable. For more information on just and equitable please click here
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