• Matrimonial assets have been generated during the marriage, are in the parties' joint names or have been a matrimonial home i.e. one in which the family have lived during the marriage.

• Non-matrimonial assets are those acquired pre-marriage and, sometimes, post-marriage and inherited assets if they have not been mingled with matrimonial assets and they are not needed to meet the parties' needs.

The court will start at a point of sharing the matrimonial assets 50/50. If both parties' needs are met from a 50% share of the matrimonial assets, then non-matrimonial assets can be retained by the party to whom they belong.

• "Needs" - if the parties do not have enough assets to meet their housing and other capital needs then those needs will trump any 'sharing' arguments. Non-matrimonial assets may have to be divided to meet needs or one party may get a larger portion of the assets because their mortgage capacity is smaller.

• The strand of "compensation" is rarely argued in court because it is difficult to prove that there has been a relationship-generated disadvantage to one party meaning they should be compensated. The leading case is McFarlane, in which it was found that Mrs McFarlane, who had been a solicitor and had given up her career to raise the parties' children, ought to be compensated. If successful, compensation might be reflected by the level of maintenance awarded.