Non-financial contributions to a marriage include a wide range of activities and support that are not monetary in nature but are essential to spouses’ marriage and family life. Common examples include the following:
- Managing the household: This includes home responsibilities, such as cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, maintaining the home and organizing the family’s daily activities.
- Caring for children: Raising children involves not just financial support but also a significant amount of time, effort and emotional investment. This includes teaching, nurturing and caring for the children.
- Providing emotional support: Extending comfort, companionship, understanding and encouragement to one’s spouse during both challenging and happy times is a significant non-financial contribution.
- Extending career support: One partner may support the other’s career by offering advice, helping with networking or even relocating to support the other’s job opportunities.
How can they affect property division?
Courts can consider non-financial contributions alongside financial ones to determine a fair and equitable division of assets during a divorce. This is because while these contributions are monetary in nature, they still significantly make an impact in the marriage or family.
For instance, the physical labor one partner has put into improving the family home or other properties, even if they are not direct financial contributions, added to the value of those assets. Moreover, the homemaking and childcare support a partner offers are material to the household functioning and allows the other spouse to work without these limitations.
One of the many factors
It is important to understand that while non-financial contributions are one of the court’s considerations in property division, it is not the only factor. Courts will consider these contributions alongside other facts and circumstances surrounding the case.
To ensure your best interests and manage your expectations, it is advisable to seek the guidance of a knowledgeable property division attorney.