Anyone who goes through an Ohio divorce
will run across the term “equitable division.” This refers to the process of
divvying up all the joint assets accumulated by a couple over the course of
their marriage. The goal is to ensure that by the end, each party walks away
with an equitable share of the assets. This can be a tense time for many
couples and, occasionally, people latch onto somewhat trivial items and decide to
square off with their spouse over seemingly unimportant things. A recent
article in Forbes magazine discussed one
such instance: people fighting tooth and nail over frequent flyer miles.
It’s hard to image, but there are plenty
of couples who have gotten worked up enough about award program points to spark
a legal battle. Though plenty of these cases are the result of overly emotional
people engaging in petty fights, the author of the Forbes piece points out that in some cases there might actually be
something to the dispute. For instance, cases where one or both parties travel
frequently or are big spenders and rack up hundreds of thousands of air miles
or credit card rewards points there can be real value there. Given the value of
the goods that these rewards points can be redeemed for, some individuals are
understandably reluctant to just hand over such a valuable prize to their
partner.
If you happen to be one of the people
with a serious collection of awards points or sky miles and are dead set on
getting your fair share, what should you do? First, you need to brace yourself
for some dry reading. Go through the terms and conditions of whatever reward
program you are part of and see what the company says about dividing points. If
the program allows a simple splitting of points into two separate accounts,
perfect! That’s the easiest, and unfortunately, least likely option. For
instance, Marriott clearly states that it refuses to divide points, even in the
event of a divorce.
If your reward system will not allow you
to divide the points, you can then look to see if there’s a cash value. If so,
simply multiple the cash value by your total points and offset this amount with
a lump sum payment to the other party. Usually this cash value won’t be so easy
to determine and you may have to do some figuring of your own. For air miles,
you can do this by determining how many points are needed to buy an
international plane ticket. Do some rudimentary guessing about the value of
such a ticket and then multiple that by the total points you have. This helps
create a very rough (and debatable) estimate of the value of your reward points
that you can then list as an asset and offset with other assets during the
equitable division process.
Though it might seem silly to imagine
wasting time arguing over airline miles, the fact is many couples going through
a divorce choose insignificant items to latch onto and then bicker over.
Whether it’s photographs, family mementos, collectibles or frequent flyer
miles, the tension surrounding the equitable division process is clear. The
best way to avoid a contentious Ohio equitable division fight is to try and
take emotion out of the process. Resist the urge to fight for the sake of
fighting and remember that it makes no sense to spend $1,000 in attorneys’ fees
fighting over a $100 sofa.
If you find yourself facing the prospect of complicated divorce and have questions about your rights and options, contact an experienced Ohio family law attorney who can help guide you through the difficult process. Count on the expertise of Twinsburg family law attorney Carol Lee Stephan.
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