divorce - education expenses

[ramonaspaskos]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? california

in the middle of divorce. paid for wife to go back to school a few years ago. currently she is unemployed. can i ask for the amount of school loans. our only other assets are retirement of approximately 200K and want her to take 40K less from the retirement accounts.

[Antigone*of*Greece]

Originally Posted by ramonaspaskos

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? california

in the middle of divorce. paid for wife to go back to school a few years ago. currently she is unemployed. can i ask for the amount of school loans. our only other assets are retirement of approximately 200K and want her to take 40K less from the retirement accounts.

In whose name are the loans in?

[mistoffolees]

Originally Posted by ramonaspaskos

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? california

in the middle of divorce. paid for wife to go back to school a few years ago. currently she is unemployed. can i ask for the amount of school loans. our only other assets are retirement of approximately 200K and want her to take 40K less from the retirement accounts.

[url=http://www.divorcesource.com/research/dl/debts/01mar52.shtml]Divorce Source: DIVISION OF STUDENT LOANS IN DIVORCE CASES[/url]

Note, however, that this is a general discussion and CA laws could vary. If you want a more specific answer, you'll need to provide details:

Whose name was the loan in?
Was it a guaranteed student loan?
What was the purpose of the loan (that is, did it pay only educational expenses or was part of it used for living expenses)?
Has it been refinanced?
What is the current debt amount?

[ramonaspaskos]

there are two scenarios. about half of the money was a loan in her name which i paid off. the other half we paid with cash so no loan on that one. the money was used for educational expenses only

[mistoffolees]

Originally Posted by ramonaspaskos

there are two scenarios. about half of the money was a loan in her name which i paid off. the other half we paid with cash so no loan on that one. the money was used for educational expenses only

You're out of luck. You paid for the money out of marital assets. There's no reason for her to pay it back.

[LdiJ]

Please don't start a new thread for each question. Please keep all of your questions in one thread.

[ramonaspaskos]

my apologies. in future i will put all questions in one forum item. as to my issue. the half student loans were paid with separate property (my inheritance) and the second half she did not work and i was the only one earning money. i thought i read somewhere it said that the supporting spouse should get credit for trying to get the supported spouse a better education? thanks

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by ramonaspaskos

my apologies. in future i will put all questions in one forum item. as to my issue. the half student loans were paid with separate property (my inheritance) and the second half she did not work and i was the only one earning money. i thought i read somewhere it said that the supporting spouse should get credit for trying to get the supported spouse a better education? thanks

If her income from the education greatly surpassed your current income, that might be a basis for alimony, but otherwise no you have no basis for a greater claim to assets because the two of you paid for her education during your marriage.

[Bali Hai]

Originally Posted by LdiJ

If her income from the education greatly surpassed your current income, that might be a basis for alimony, but otherwise no you have no basis for a greater claim to assets because the two of you paid for her education during your marriage.

Another freebie for the wife as expected.

[mistoffolees]

Originally Posted by Bali Hai

Another freebie for the wife as expected.

Good point. Obviously, women have never worked to put their husband through medical or law school.

[ramonaspaskos]

multiple web sites clearly state that "any educational expenses must be reimbursed to the community". where can i find the famil law text?

[mistoffolees]

Originally Posted by ramonaspaskos

multiple web sites clearly state that "any educational expenses must be reimbursed to the community". where can i find the famil law text?

A google search doesn't find that phrase anywhere, so I guess you'll have to go back to the 'multiple sites' where you say you've seen it and see what they say.

[Bali Hai]

Originally Posted by mistoffolees

Good point. Obviously, women have never worked to put their husband through medical or law school.

When a woman does that, expect the judge to give her an arm and leg in the property settlement.

When all is said and done, women fair much better in divorces than men do when it's left for the judge to decide. After all, the law is the law!!

[ramonaspaskos]

i apologize for my previous post. i did not mean those exact words but the principal. I found this example below

The text title of the below is "Dividing the Debts in California divorce"

"What if a married couple pays off one party’s pre-marital debts?

Consider this example. Bob and Jackie get married. Bob has huge credit card debts that he incurred before the marriage. Bob and Jackie want to improve their credit rating so they can buy a house. They agree to pay off Bob’s debts. However, once they are debt free, Bob files for dissolution. In this case, Bob and Jackie have used community property earnings to pay off Bob’s separate property debt. California case law states that the community is entitled to a reimbursement for the amount it paid to discharge one party’s separate property debts.1 So, in the above example, the community is entitled to a reimbursement for paying Bob’s debts."

My situation is education debts. This still qualifies as a debt?

[Tayla]

Which was incurred *during* the marriage. The previous scenario were debts PRIOR to marriage. Two separate scenarios.