Illinois is an equitable distribution state, which means that marital debts are divided in a manner that is deemed to be fair to both parties. Debt incurred prior to a marriage may be considered individual to the particular spouse, while debt incurred during the marriage can be deemed as marital debt. A key factor can be whether the education financed by the student loans benefited the marriage in terms of increasing earnings power during the marriage, in which case the student loans will often be considered marital debt to be shared.