What Is Marital Waste?

A divorce can be a painful thing for a New York resident to endure. It may not be their choice to end their marriage, and they may not feel ready to deal with the financial, legal, and emotional components of dissolving a marital union. Strong feelings and painful realizations may keep them from making good decisions about their ending relationship and the assets they share with their spouse.

In such situations, the problem of marital waste may become an issue. This post will discuss marital waste in the context of New York’s Consolidated Laws and how it may play out in an actual divorce. No part of this post is offered as legal advice, and divorce attorneys are available to support individuals with questions about marital waste and other divorce-related topics.

Defining and understanding marital waste

Marital waste, or the wasteful dissipation of assets, is discussed in Article 13, Section 236 of New York’s Domestic Relations laws. The wasteful dissipation of assets by a party pursuant to a divorce is prohibited, and there are many ways that a person may attempt to dissipate their assets to prevent their soon-to-be ex from getting them in a divorce. Those methods may include:

• Spending to reduce financial assets
• Giving away property to decrease marital assets
• Moving assets out of accounts to make them appear less valuable during property division proceedings pursuant to a divorce

When a person takes action to reduce the amount of marital property they share with their ex, they may be engaged in marital waste.

Why marital waste is a problem

During a divorce, two people evaluate and asset their shared marital property. That property is the split equitably between them. When marital waste is pursued before and during a divorce, it can misrepresent the amount of money that two people actually share as marital assets. It can leave one party in a financially disadvantaged position due to the deceitful actions of the other.

Martial waste is a dishonest and difficult matter to work through during a divorce. A person who suspects their ex may have engaged in the practice can talk to their family law attorney about their concerns and possible remedies for addressing the situation.