A New York divorce applies the laws of "equitable distribution" as do many other states. However, those words are not necessarily the same as "equal distribution". Equitable Distribution is intended to be "fair" distribution.
In New York the first step is to determine if assets are marital or non-marital. Generally, assets acquired during the marriage are "marital" with three noted exceptions which include money from a personal injury law suit for pain and suffering, inheritance and gifts so long as they remain separately titled. Pre-marital assets generally remain separate unless certain activities during the marriage may convert them into marital assets in whole or part.
If you think this is confusing you are correct because there are hundreds and hundreds of articles explaining this to lawyers, thousands of cases and countless seminars reviewing developments in this area of the law every year.
For the purposes of this short blog, the assumption will be that the asset is completely marital and not covered by any exception. This by itself may not mean that the asset is divided 50-50 (equal distribution). While this may often be the result the court is required to consider many factors in making such a decision. Those factors include the length of the marriage, the age of the husband and wife, whether there are children, the work and careers of each person, whether there are other separate assets, the contributions each party made to the marriage (which are not required to be financial), the tax consequences of distribution, the waste of marital assets, the presence of domestic violence and many other factors that the court may deem relevant to the decision.
In uncontested divorce cases or even contested divorce cases often the asset distribution will be 50-50 however the court for not only the above but other reasons as well may determine that it should be a different percentage (60-40, 70-30, 80-20 etc.) Additionally, the court could determine to use a different percentage to different assets for various reasons in the same divorce case. Since each marriage is different there is no absolute entitlement to 50-50 although more often than not that will be the result. As soon as one party believes that equal is not fair distribution then usually there will be greater legal fees and the resolution will take longer. Parties to a divorce should always consider those factors and weigh the intended financial benefit to determine if the challenge to equal distribution is money and time well spent.