Legal Question in Family Law in New Mexico
My wife and I are thinking about a divorce. She has paid the mortgage on the property for 25 years, while I have covered bills and etc. The property is in both our names. Does she have the advantage of getting more? We both have grown children.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Unless you had some kind of prenuptial agreement to the contrary, any earnings made by either of you during your marriage were community property. Pensions built up are community property and can be split using a device called a QDRO. Anything purchased with community earnings is community property, regardless of whose earnings went where. Therefore the default is a 50-50 split. Property one of you brought into the marriage, or an inheritance received during marriage or certain gifts could be separate property if it was not commingled with community property. In dividing things you can trade off one property for another, keeping the balance roughly 50-50.