Fort Lauderdale

Divorce Attorney

The state of Florida operates under an “equitable distribution” law when it comes to dividing marital property at the time of the divorce. This means that all property acquired during the marriage essentially belongs to the spouse who earned it, and all assets and liabilities should be divided between the two separating spouses in a fair and equitable manner. There are no specific rules regarding exactly who will receive what and how much they will receive, and there are a variety of factors that will be considered. Some of the assets that must be divided equitably include the following:

• Retirement accounts (401ks, IRAs, pensions, etc.)
• Investment portfolios (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, REITs, etc.)
• Real estate (marital home, vacation homes, commercial property, investment property)
• Money in checkings and savings accounts
• Vehicles
• Any other property owned by the two spouses

Additionally, any debts they have been acquired will also be and distributed equitably between the two, including mortgages, car loans, personal loans, credit card debt, student loans, etc.

Child support is not optional in the state of Florida. The payment of child support in this state will be strictly enforced by the court, and a failure to pay could result in significant criminal and financial problems. The Florida Child Support Guidelines take various factors into consideration when determining the exact amount of child support that must be paid. Please understand that there are many “child support calculators” on the Internet, but they do not take all the variables of your situation into account.

Specifically, both physical custody and legal custody need to be determined in your situation. Physical custody refers to where the child will reside. Legal custody refers to which parent is responsible for making legal decisions for the child, including decisions regarding health care, education, religious upbringing, etc. For both legal and physical custody, it will need to be determined whether one parent has “sole” custody or whether both parents will have shared or “joint” custody.

There are various types of spousal support that could be awarded after a divorce in Florida. Commonly referred to as alimony, spousal support refers to financial payments from one spouse to the other. In order to be awarded alimony, one spouse must demonstrate that they need support from the other while also showing the ability of the other spouse to pay. Alimony in Florida can be awarded on either a temporary or permanent basis at the end of the marriage. Temporary alimony is referred to as rehabilitative alimony. The type of alimony awarded largely depends on how long the marriage lasted. For longer marriages, the courts are more likely to award permanent alimony.