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Divorce Preparation – Protecting your Finances

Divorce Lawyer — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 08:01:11 +0000

When you take a good long hard look at your marriage and have come to the conclusion that divorce is in your near term future, this is a great time to be thinking about your financial future and how to protect as much of your finances and assets as possible. You need to be doing this prior to starting divorce proceedings because after you’ve started the process, you may be severely limited as to what you can do financially that would be seen as benefiting you personally.

In talking with your spouse, if it appears that the divorce is going to be a friendly one, also known an uncontested divorce, this may be unnecessary but it is still a good idea. Even the best of friends can part ways in a hurry if there is money at stake.

Sit down with your spouse and determine where you can cut back, starting immediately, so that you can keep more money in your pocket. Perhaps you can just get a Sunday delivery of the newspaper instead of daily. Maybe you can reduce your cable TV bill by removing the premium movie channel option. Depending on how the divorce proceedings work out, you may need the money you are saving here via these reductions.

One thing that many do not think about but which is critical is that you should close all your joint credit cards. If you still need the credit card, then you can contact the credit card issuer and ask them to reissue a card that is just in your name instead of in both of your names. As time goes on, if your spouse gets upset with you, this would prevent them from going on a shopping spree to charge all your credit cards to the hilt, where you would end up being responsible for at least half of the balance due, if not all of it.

You should also close any joint bank accounts that you may have. When you open a new account, do so at a different bank in your area. If you have been with the same bank for a long time, there is a chance that your spouse could withdraw the entire balance of the account just because the teller happens to recognize your spouse by sight. Legally this should not happen but it does happen, so take steps to prevent it.

If you are like most people and your employer has a 401k program or some type of retirement or pension program that you contribute to, contact your employer about temporarily stopping your contributions to that program. Remember, in worst case, your spouse will get half of that, so there is no sense in continuing to put more money into it. You can resume your contributions after your divorce is finalized.

Be smart about your divorce preparation. If you prepare for the worst, then you are ready and hopefully things will not go totally south. Even if it looks like the divorce will be friendly and uncontested, things can change in a heartbeat and there is no reason to leave yourself exposed financially.

Divorce Advice For Men – How to Protect Your Finances During Your Divorce

Divorce Lawyer — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:35:20 +0000

Not only will going through divorce proceedings be very hard on you emotionally and physically but it may prove very costly as well. A great many people when going through a divorce are too concerned with the emotional effect it is having on their life that they don’t realize it is placing a strain on their financial situation as well. In this article we offer some divorce tips for men for protecting your finances during divorce proceedings that could prove useful.

1. Outstanding Debts – Any of these which are in joint names you should arrange to pay off immediately and get them cleared. If however you are not able to pay such debts off straightaway then ask the lender to freeze them until everything has been finalized or when you have funds. Doing this will prevent any further debt being run up on them by either you or your soon to be ex.

2. Joint Credit Cards – To ensure that your credit rating isn’t to adversely affected at this time immediately cancel those that in both you and your partners names. If you leave them as they the chances of your partner running up debts on them is greatly increased, especially in those situations where the split is less than acrimonious.

3. Family Home – If neither of you will be staying in the home that you shared together it is important that you sell it as soon as possible. However, if there are children involved then the situation may be that your partner remains in it with them, but you need to get her to be the one that takes over paying the mortgage until such time as the children leave home. But be aware that the courts may determine that you need to contribute to this as well as part of the payments relating to your children.

Divorce Advice For Men – 3 Tips to Protect Your Finances

Divorce Lawyer — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:07:27 +0000

When you file for divorce it is important that from the very beginning you do things to help protect your finances. If you don’t then this could lead to problems for you after the divorce has been finalized. In this article we offer some divorce tips for men that can help you to protect your finances whilst the divorce proceedings are taking place and after it has been finalized.

1. Outstanding Joint Name Debts – If at all possible you should make sure that these are paid off and cleared. If there is a problem with actually doing this then speak with the lender to arrange for the accounts to be frozen until agreement is made as to who will be responsible for them. It also prevents either you or your partner from running up any further debts on them.

2. Sale Of The Family Home – This should only be done if agreed by both parties. But generally when the couple have children the partner who is going to remain with them will often stay in the home for their sake. However, your partner needs to be aware that should she remain in the family home with the children she may well be asked to take responsibility for paying the mortgage on the property as well. If she cannot do this the house should be sold and the proceeds from the sale divided between you.

3. If at any time during the divorce proceedings you find yourself to make payments because you lose your job or because you become ill, speak to your creditors immediately. By doing this you can then come to some arrangement with them to make some sort of payment until you are able to begin paying in full again. So ensuring that you don’t end up with a bad credit rating.

Divorce – Tips To Help You With Your Finances

Divorce Lawyer — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:18:26 +0000

Getting divorced is not easy and eventhough you may be feeling completely overwhelmed it is absolutely imperative that you begin to work on where you stand financially. Sorting out your finances will not only help you feel a little more in control of the situation but once completed, you’ll be able to focus your energy on healing and making plans for your future. Here are a couple of things to help you get started.

Make a list of everything you can think of with regards to your finances that you will need paperwork for, for example:

Bank accounts – both personal and joint
Pension funds
Salary slips
Loans
Investments
Motor vehicle information
Tax statements
Insurance policies
Insurance for physical assets such as house, vehicles, furniture etc.
Medical cover
Credit card statements
Wills and trusts
Assets

Once you have your complete list you can start digging out all the paperwork you will need. Make sure that you make copies of everything you find especially if you plan to give anything to your ex spouse.

While you are going through all your paperwork it is also a good idea to get together anything that is relevant to your monthly expenses. Here are a couple of examples to get you started:

Utility accounts
Grocery bills
School fees, uniforms, extra activities
Rent or mortgage repayments
Medical expenses
Fuel
Pet food, medication and vet expenses

Once you have this list and all the relevant paperwork you should have a better idea of how much it is going to cost you to live without your spouse. If you have children work out how much it is going to cost to look after them. Keep this information handy when you start child maintenance and alimony negotiations.

Start working on a budget. Make a list of how much money is coming into your household and how much is going out. If there is a shortfall start thinking of ways that you can supplement your income and make sure you cut back on non-essentials as soon as possible.

Also remember to update your will and change the beneficiaries on your life policies etc. so that if anything happens to you your children are taken care of.

Good luck!