On behalf of Stange Law Firm, PC posted in High Net Worth Divorce on Wednesday, January 31, 2018.
Once you and your spouse have made the tough decision to end your marriage, you will likely face many more challenging decisions. If you are like many other couples in Missouri, how to split your assets and your debts will be some of the most difficult decisions you will need to wrestle with. While many people assume that if a debt is in one spouse’s name only that person will assume all responsibility for it after a divorce, that may not necessarily be the case.
As explained by The Daily Worth, the timing of when student loans are incurred may indeed be part of how it is decided who should repay them after a divorce. However, there are other factors to be considered as well. Among these factors is what the money from the student loans were used for. For example, if rent or a mortgage was paid for with the money, it may be more likely to be deemed a joint debt.
Also important in the decision will be the ability of each spouse to earn a living and how long both spouses benefitted from a lifestyle supported by the one spouse’s education that was paid for by the student loans. The more recently the loans were incurred, the more likely they may be identified as a separate debt.
If you would like to learn more about how debts including student loans might be divided between spouses during a divorce, please feel free to visit the marital and non-marital debt page of our Missouri marital dissolution website.
