Family Assets Law and Legal Definition
An asset owned by one or both of the spouses and ordinarily used by a spouse or minor child of either spouse for a family purpose is a family asset. For example, the matrimonial home, furniture, and car.
Usually, courts have broad discretion in making an equitable distribution of family assets upon the dissolution of a marriage. The following is an example of a state statute empowering a trial court to make an equitable distribution of family assets. “At the time of entering a decree annulling or dissolving a marriage or for legal separation pursuant to a complaint, the Superior Court may assign to either the husband or wife all or any part of the estate of the other. The court may pass title to real property to either party or to a third person or may order the sale of such real property, without any act by either the husband or the wife, when in the judgment of the court it is the proper mode to carry the decree into effect”. [Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46b-81
