By M Wreford
When it looks like a divorce action may be approaching your marriage, a proactive approach of taking preparatory steps can significantly reduce the overall financial and emotional cost. To get ready before divorce proceedings begin, what follows is a practical guide to organizing your personal business and life in order to help such proceedings go more smoothly.
1) Outline the family financial situation: make a list of what you own, a list of what you owe, what the family income is and from whence it comes, and the family’s monthly bills/living expenses. Specify who is the named owner or owners on each asset and for each debt (home, cars, credit cards, etc.).
2) Make copies of statements for all accounts your family has, such as bank account, stocks or other investments, pension funds, life insurance and so forth, as well as for income tax returns and any other family financial records.
3) Do an inventory and list all the personal property or assets which belong to you and/or which you would wish to keep if a division of family property occurs.
4) Keep. It. Friendly. If you can keep relations with your partner civil and amicable through the split-up, everyone will win at least a little. Vindictiveness is a poison that will hurt everyone, especially children. And if at all possible, unless you or your children are in danger, don’t move out of your home, not even if your partner asks you to and no matter how much you may want to. If there are children involved, and they remain in the family home, the parent who has physical custody and is living with them day-by-day has a much better chance of getting custody of the children than does a parent who has moved out and just visits. Additionally, moving out could compromise your share in the property. Your partner could undermine attempts to get it sold, so you have to keep paying the mortgage; or the cost of paying for two residences – the family home and your new one – could become so difficult that you forfeit your interest in the home to get out from under the debt.
5) Look for an experienced family law attorney and start the search by asking friends or associates for referrals. Before your first meeting with an attorney, write down all the questions and problems about which you want to ask. As when you go to the doctor, a written list will help you remember important topics during what could be an upsetting discussion. It will help focus the meeting so it takes less time, which saves fees, and it will give the attorney a written document of your priorities that can be kept in your file for future reference. Bring your financial records to your initial meeting for the same reasons – it’s much less expensive for the attorney to get information from you than from financial institutions or from your partner’s attorney.
6) The more negotiating and agreement you work through on your own with your partner, before the divorce proceedings are initiated, the less negotiating your attorney will have to do on your behalf, and again, the more money you will save in fees. When agreement can’t be reached, clearly your attorney will need to step in, but you may be able to resolve some day-to-day matters, for example who pays for car insurance or school fees, or how household goods and furnishings will be divided.
7) Don’t make big-ticket purchases or take on new debt. These items will make your finances harder to sort out if the time comes to divide things, and they could add to the debt load you have to assume at a point when your spending money is decreasing.
8) Make the most educated estimation possible of what it will cost you to live after the divorce, so you know what goals you want to meet in the financial negotiations and the divorce settlement.
9) If you don’t have any credit in your own name, you will need it when you are single again. Start getting a good credit rating by taking out a credit card, department store card or gas card. Use it only to the extent you can pay off in full every month.
10) In working with your family law attorney, if you can send a letter or e-mail when you want to communicate, rather than calling the attorney on the phone, it will help your attorney to work more efficiently, saving time and money. If the attorney has issues or questions given to her or him in writing, it takes less time to learn about the issue than if it is described over the telephone, it gives time for the attorney to think about and research a response, and thus makes the response more effective. Long, “story-telling” telephone conversations can raise billing hours unnecessarily. Use your attorney for legal counsel, and go to family and friends when you need to vent or get emotional reinforcements.
This general guide to putting your house in order before a possible divorce will not apply to every situation, nor be right for everyone, but it can help make a good start. Your family law attorney can assess what actions are best for you to take, and the more organized information you give the attorney, the better that assessment will be. Divorce is not something any of us choose to experience, but when it is unavoidable, do it smart and cooperatively and the pain will be proportionately minimized.
M. Wreford is Office Manager for Sterling Law Office, a civil law practice specializing in family law, estate planning and probate, personal injury, small business and real estate, Social Security Disability and immigration law, from a small village in northwestern Michigan's Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The law practice offers legal tips and information at its website, http://www.sterlinglawoffice.net on its True North Law blog. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=M_Wreford |
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