Divorce and Money

A Collaborative Divorce Can Help Protect Your Assets

Making good financial decisions during divorce is critical to the outcome of a fair and just settlement. These decisions can be particularly overwhelming to a spouse who has not handled the finances in the marriage, the professional with too much going on, or for a family that has a special needs child. These decisions can also be difficult for someone overwhelmed with the emotion aspects of a divorce. In today’s times of high stress jobs, long commutes and little time to breathe, it can be difficult even for the financially savvy to ensure all assets and debts have been properly accounted. With the guidance of a neutral Collaborative Financial Professional, you can have peace of mind as you navigate through the potential minefield of financial issues in your divorce. The Collaborative Financial Professional can help you and your spouse or partner make the important financial decisions that will have a short and long term impact on your future financial security.

Overview of financial implications in divorce

The neutral Collaborative Financial Professional can help you with:

• Determining how much money you need to maintain your lifestyle
• Deciding what would be a proper and reasonable child support and/or alimony amount
• Valuation of businesses, licenses and degrees
• Income tax issues including residence sales, capital gains, AMT
• Equitable distribution of assets and tax consequences
• Budgets, financial planning and adequacy of resources
• Retirement savings and projections
• Tax ramifications for paying and/or receiving alimony
• Present value for buyout and other purposes
• Determination of marital and separate property components of assets
• Understanding complex financial documents
• Preparation of Net Worth Statements

Tips on how to make good financial decisions during divorce:

 
Considerations in dividing or selling the marital home:
Deciding whether to sell the home now or at some future time can be very emotional for the couple, as this decision will deeply impact the financial stability of the family. The Collaborative Financial Professional can provide you and your spouse with options regarding the affordability of keeping the house and the tax impact of transferring assets.

What to do with the debt in your marriage:
The accumulation of debt in the marriage can be challenging for clients. The Collaborative Financial Professional can provide you and your spouse with unbiased information so that you are knowledgeable of your debt picture and can determine how best to handle marital debt.

Planning for the children’s financial needs:
Consideration should be given to ensuring that your children’s financial needs are met and addressed in a plan to minimize the potential for future conflict.

Planning for retirement needs:
The retirement savings accumulated during the marriage is often one of the largest marital assets aside from the marital home. The Collaborative Financial Professional can help you and your spouse determine how much money you both will need to live on and project future retirement needs.

Planning for insurance for the parties and children after divorce:
It is important to plan for the insurance needs of the family, in case one spouse does not have insurance and the other spouse has an employer-provided health insurance plan covering the entire family. In addition, it is important to ensure that adequate life insurance is available to meet the needs of the family. Additional insurance may be needed if there are child support, spousal support and special needs requirements in the divorce agreement.

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