You and your spouse have sat down to negotiate your division of marital assets and there is a very big decision that the two of you will need to make.

You own a home together — a home that you very much want to stay in after your divorce — and your spouse has a retirement account through work that he/she very much wants to remain intact and free from division. Your spouse makes you an offer: you can take 100% of their equity in the home and assume sole ownership of the home, if in return, you give up any claim to the retirement account. Dollar-wise, the amount of money in play appears to be about the same.

Should you say yes? It’s exactly what you want, after all. Or is this offer too good to be true?

Let’s take a closer look at this very common asset negotiation tactic.   Read more