WILL MY SPOUSE BE ABLE TO SHARE IN THE VALUE OF MY LICENSE OR ADVANCED EDUCATIONAL DEGREE?

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For divorces commenced prior to 2016, it was a law that if all or a part of the education and training necessary to acquire the license or advanced educational degree was completed during the marriage and if all or a part of the cost for the education and training were paid from marital assets, then it is likely that your spouse will have an interest in its value. After the recent changes in New York Domestic Relations Law that went into effect in 2016, the court shall not consider as marital property subject to distribution the value of a spouse's enhanced earning capacity arising from a license, degree, celebrity goodwill, or career enhancement. However, the court, in arriving at an equitable division of marital property, shall consider the direct or indirect contributions, to the development during the marriage of the enhanced earning capacity of the other spouse. NY Dom. Rel. L. § 236B(5)(d)(7).