Often, one of the most tedious and difficult things about Minnesota divorce is dividing up assets from the marriage. Many people don’t want to fully undertake this time-consuming process, but it’s to their detriment if they don’t.

Why? Because there may be some assets from the marriage that you can lose when you’re too hasty and want to simply get through the divorce in as little time as possible. Here are a few of the easily overlooked assets in a Minnesota divorce that you’ll want to make sure to include on your asset inventory.

Common Assets in a Divorce

An asset is something you acquired in the marriage that has value. Some common assets that people don’t often forget about are things like:

• Cash
• Houses
• Bank accounts
• Cars
• Life insurance policies
• Recreational vehicles

It’s easy to overlook the necessary assets that should be on your balance sheet when it comes time to divide things up for the divorce. This is an important step to help avoid conflict or confusion in the future between you and your soon-to-be ex-spouse.

Commonly Overlooked Assets

The most commonly overlooked assets in a divorce include:

Collectibles

Some collectibles can be worth a lot of money, so don’t forget to include your vintage baseball card collection or your antique coin collection in your assets. You may need to bring in an expert to help establish value, but it’ll be worth it in the end.

Sports Tickets

Do you have season tickets for your favorite sports team? Those cost a pretty penny, but, more than that, they also often secure coveted long-term rights to seats in a stadium. Losing them can mean you go back on a long waiting list. Plus, for a lot of people, sports assets like this can create strong emotional impact. So don’t forget about them!

Jewelry

Jewelry can be very high in value, but in all the things going on during a divorce, it can be easily forgotten. It’s a good idea to have any jewelry you acquired during the marriage appraised to learn its value. If any jewelry you have was collected before you were married, then there still may be a pre-marital claim to its value. Your attorney can help you with matters like that.

Frequent Flyer Miles

Air travel can be expensive, and those frequent flyer miles you collected over time have value. You can sometimes divide these miles between parties if you have accrued many. That will have been dictated by the agreement with the airline that you signed when you began participating in the program.

E-Currency

Bitcoin and other e-currency are very popular today. If you’ve invested in some, then you cannot forget it. This is perhaps one of the easiest things to overlook when you’re going through a divorce, because it’s entirely online – not something you can see or touch. But the market for this kind of currency is continually growing, so you don’t want to forget about its value.

Going through a divorce is not easy. Dividing up assets can be an emotional process, but don’t let that stop you from listing possessions that might be valuable. It’ll work out better in the long run if you take the time now to account for anything that might be of value.

About the Author:

A former Assistant Public Defender for the Sixth Judicial District in Duluth and former staff attorney for the Indian Legal Assistance Program, Brent R. Olson is an experienced trial lawyer who has appeared in every Courthouse in the Sixth Judicial District and taken over three dozen cases to verdict. At LaCourse, Poole & Envall, Mr. Olson focuses on family law, workers’ compensation, and criminal defense. He has a strong belief in restorative justice and helped to develop the Domestic Violence Restorative Circles program.