Are Wedding Rings Considered Marital Property

Therefore it s considered a pre marital asset.

Are wedding rings considered marital property. Typically engagement and wedding rings are considered gifts from one spouse to the other and gifts are usually considered to be the separate property of the receiving spouse rather than marital property of both spouses. This is the case even if the rings are exchanged prior to the officiant actually pronouncing the parties as married. If one spouse purchased both rings then they might be able to keep their own ring and potentially lose the other ring to their ex spouse. Engagement rings are a bit different than wedding rings.

However a wedding ring as opposed to an engagement ring is considered marital property unlike an engagement ring and therefore can be among the pile of to be divided divorce property. Due to the fact that the wedding rings are exchanged during the wedding ceremony they are considered interspousal gifts and thus marital assets. Typically an engagement ring is not considered marital property to be divisible. In this case they are not necessarily part of the marital estate or considered to be marital property.

The spouse who purchased the engagement ring may think that they have a right to have it returned to them especially if the marriage was brief. However when the engagement ring was exchanged the couple was not yet married. Additionally engagement rings have been held by the courts to be conditional gifts. The court will often look at the engagement ring as a gift that was given in anticipation of a wedding which obviously took place or you wouldn t be going through a divorce.

Considering the amount of money spent on engagement and wedding rings the issue of whether rings are marital property subject to equitable division has become a hotly contested issue during a divorce. Inheritance is considered a non marital asset no matter when it is received unless of course it was left to both the husband and wife. Since separate property is not usually subject to division by a divorce court the value of your rings is not likely to be. This is because one person gives the ring to the other person before you get married.

The receiver of the engagement ring usually the wife obviously normally keeps the engagement ring in the divorce. Generally property acquired by gift is not considered marital property and is not subject to equitable distribution upon divorce except when the gift is between spouses. Most of the time the wedding rings are purchased before the official wedding ceremony. But the wedding rings are exchanged just as the marriage begins so the wedding rings are considered marital property and generally their value must be equally split during the divorce.

It says that an interspousal gift that is a gift from one spouse to the other during the marriage is a marital asset subject to equitable distribution.