I’m talking like one person brought in all the money for a decade, then a divorce happens. Some of it makes sense - a house with mortgage, one spouse buys the other out of the house. Which is great, but if one spouse doesn’t have the income to take a loan out to buy the other, does that mean that the spouse who does have the income has the choice to buy out or sell?
Similarly, things like 401ks and pensions I imagine you can’t just take out half the cash in them and give that to their spouse. Or does that have to be a loan for the amounts in those plans?
Is it debt all the way down for both?
It would usually be the case that the partner with no income had no income because they were raising children and taking care of the home so that the other partner could focus on paid work. In those circumstances, the earning partner would usually be expected to provide ongoing financial support, not just split all the existing assets.
It will always come down to circumstances, and sometimes expensive lawyers, but the financial settlement would often include the whole house if there are dependent children involved.