What are matrimonial assets?

Answer

Matrimonial assets or marital assets refer to any assets you and your spouse acquired throughout your marriage. Examples of matrimonial assets include things like your family home, pensions, savings, and investments or businesses that you have set up together. According to the law, any assets you accumulate during your marriage belong to your spouse too, so if you are paying into a pension, for example, your spouse is entitled to a share of it. 

Assets you acquired while you and your spouse lived together before your marriage can also be considered matrimonial assets. Sometimes, if you have acquired assets before you got married such as a business, this may be taken into consideration as part of your divorce settlement if the business was a key part in financially supporting you and your family during the marriage. 

Matrimonial assets are important because when it comes to divorcing or separating, you will have to divide these finances between yourselves. If you are not able to decide how your assets should be divided, you’ll need to go to the court. The court will consider all the finances and make a decision on how best to separate them based on each person’s individual circumstances, their ability to earn money in the future, their age and the length of the marriage among a few considerations.