The longer your marriage lasted and the more property you share with your spouse, the more complex your divorce will be. Finding a way to divide four decades’ worth of income and property won’t be easy, and your financial responsibilities can make that process even more difficult.
Credit cards are often a financial sticking point in modern divorces. Who will pay your credit card debt when you divorce in Kentucky?
Most credit cards will be part of your marital estate
When the courts decide which debts belong to both of you, the focus will not be on whose name is on the account. Instead, it will be on when someone opened the account and when they accrued the balance currently owed.
Credit card debts that people take on during their marriages are part of the marital estate – with certain notable exceptions. If your ex used a credit card for a personal shopping spree right before filing for divorce or to pay for their extramarital affair, you could provide financial records to the court and claim that those debts are the result of dissipation (the intentional wasting of marital assets).
While such claims may increase how long it takes to resolve property division matters in your divorce, they could lead to the courts holding your ex solely accountable for debts that they took out as a way to punish you for filing for divorce or the debts they created while doing active damage to your marriage.
Learning more about the rules that apply to your property and debts in a Kentucky divorce can help you prepare for complex property division proceedings or negotiations.