Explain the principles a Singapore court uses to divide assets on divorce.
Settle first whether yours is a non-Muslim or a Muslim marriage. That one fact sets which law applies to your divorce and which court deals with dividing your property.
A non-Muslim marriage in Singapore falls under the Women's Charter, which governs both the divorce and how matrimonial assets are divided. These cases go to the Family Justice Courts. A Muslim marriage comes under the Administration of Muslim Law Act (AMLA). The Syariah Court hears these cases and also handles the division of matrimonial property. The rules and the process for Muslim marriages are different in important ways. If you are Muslim, read the Syariah Court's own guidance and talk to a lawyer who takes Syariah Court matters. Everything from here on refers to the Women's Charter only.
This module deals with what happens to money when a marriage ends. Many people worry that they will lose everything, and the worry is strongest for the spouse who earned less or gave up some paid work. The principles below are described in general terms. Every case turns on its own facts, and if you are facing a divorce you should see a family lawyer about your own situation.
Joanne (an invented example) and Kelvin have been married eight years and have a six-year-old son. Their four-room HDB flat in Sengkang was paid for with CPF from both of them. Joanne has worked part-time for the last two years to handle the school runs, and Kelvin's salary has brought in most of the household money. The marriage has lately been falling apart. Late at night Joanne searches online for an answer to one question: if they divorce, will she lose everything, since most of the money came from his salary?
She will not lose everything because she earned less. A court takes her part-time years and her caregiving into account. Her actual share depends on the facts of their marriage, and she needs advice from a lawyer who knows those facts.
Once a marriage ends, the court can divide the matrimonial assets between the two spouses. The Women's Charter tells the court to reach a division that is just and equitable, meaning fair in all the circumstances of that particular marriage. The assets are not split equally by default, and no single formula is applied to every couple. The court weighs the marriage as a whole, including its length, what each person contributed, what any children need, and other factors set out in the law.
Couples can also settle the division between themselves, often with lawyers or a mediator helping. Any arrangement they reach still needs the court's approval, and the court applies the same fairness principles when it considers it.
The court weighs two kinds of contribution. Financial contributions are what each spouse put in as money: salary spent on the household, CPF and cash put towards the flat, and savings and investments built up while married. Non-financial contributions cover everything else that keeps a family running: keeping the home, caring for the children, caring for relatives, and supporting the other spouse's career.
The law treats non-financial contributions as real contributions. Someone who cut their paid hours to care for children has still contributed to the marriage, and a lower income does not mean they lose everything. Lesson 3.3, "Unpaid work and contributions that are not cash", made the same point about fairness within a marriage. The amount each spouse ends up with depends on the facts, and only a lawyer familiar with them can comment on a particular case.
In broad terms, matrimonial assets are anything either spouse, or both together, acquired during the marriage, along with the family home. The pool can contain:
the matrimonial home, HDB or private, together with the CPF that went into paying for it savings and bank account balances CPF balances investments, for example shares, unit trusts and bonds some insurance policies, usually ones that have a cash value a business, or a stake in one other property
The name on an asset does not decide whether it belongs in the pool. A bank account held only by Kelvin may still be a matrimonial asset if the money in it built up during the marriage.
Certain assets may sit outside the pool, for instance some gifts or inheritances that came to one spouse. Whether they do depends on how they were dealt with during the marriage. Things owned before the marriage are treated differently from things acquired during it, though there are exceptions. Get advice before deciding that any asset is in or out of the pool. A family lawyer can answer that for your case and give a view on what a fair division might look like.
Joanne cannot yet tell how a court would divide what she and Kelvin have, but she can stop guessing about what they own. Do this for your own household. Go through the categories in the list above for each of you, write down what each spouse holds, and put a rough value next to every item.
List the assets each of you holds that could count as matrimonial assets, and write a rough value next to each.
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