{"id":372771,"date":"2016-03-31T21:35:02","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T02:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.findlaw-admin.com\/ability-law\/state\/georgia-law\/georgia-marital-property-laws.html"},"modified":"2018-05-11T01:07:03","modified_gmt":"2018-05-11T06:07:03","slug":"georgia-marital-property-laws","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.findlaw.com\/state\/georgia-law\/georgia-marital-property-laws.html","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Marital Property Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Georgia Marital Property Laws<\/h1>\n
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Created by FindLaw’s team<\/a> of legal writers and editors<\/i><\/p>\n\n | Last updated\n

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You’re just concerned with planning the perfect wedding. You’re probably not thinking about what will happen to your perfect coffee table if you get divorced. But if you’re in one of the many states without marital or community property laws, a judge could decide who gets that coffee table, along with any property gained during your marriage. Property is usually divided based on whether a state follows the legal theory of community property or equitable distribution<\/a>. Georgia, like most states, doesn’t recognize community property<\/a> where everything acquired by each spouse during the marriage is owned equally by both spouses.<\/p>\r\n

Property Division in Georgia<\/h2>\r\n

In Georgia, property division during divorce is governed by court cases instead of legislative statutes. Georgia courts will generally distinguish between what’s marital property and what’s separate property. Marital property is defined as those assets acquired during the marriage, like real estate, stocks and bonds, cars, income, and some insurance policies. Assets defined as separate property will normally include property acquired before marriage, gifts, inheritances, and items you and your spouse agree are separate property.<\/p>\r\n

While Georgia courts have complete discretion when distributing marital property, they’ll normally consider the following factors:<\/p>\r\n