What does the court do with assets that cannot be physically divided?
Most assets cannot be “divided” or broken into pieces. Instead, the court looks at the values of the marital assets, less any indebtedness against those assets, and then will usually give assets of comparable worth to each of the parties. So, for example, if the two major marital assets at the time of divorce are the marital home and a pension, a court may give the home to one spouse and the pension to the other. If this results in one party receiving too much value and the other receiving too little, the court can make adjustments by awarding other less valuable marital property to one spouse or the other. In addition, the court can require one spouse to pay the other a cash sum to “balance the equities” between the parties or to effect the proportional division the court has in mind. If there is no way for the court to effect a “just” division with the assets available, the court can also order that certain assets be liquidated (sold and turned into cash) and then divided between the
