Level the Playing Field While Preparing Finances for Divorce
A divorce financial specialist can help you understand the long-term impact of the proposed settlement when preparing finances for divorce.
No, I’m not going to provide pre-divorce and post-divorce financial checklists. Just Google these terms and you’ll find many quality checklists, including some from the archives of this publication. Many of the lists that you come upon will overlap, which is a good thing, as similar action items provided by different authors is somewhat self-validating. That said, I’m a big fan of lists; they provide an organized methodology for minimizing omissions when addressing a known universe. However, for many, this “universe” can be extremely daunting, which can make following a checklist for preparing finances for divorce rather mechanical, and on occasion, altogether misleading.
Preparing Finances for Divorce can be Extremely Difficult
The realm of personal finances is complex stuff – especially for the spouse who isn’t in charge of “the family books,” such as the family budget and bill paying, brokerage and investment accounts, as well as interacting with outside professionals such as CPAs, insurance brokers, and estate attorneys. The divorce process itself is mind-numbing as you work to provide your divorce attorney with an overwhelming array of documents, tax returns, details about your lifestyle and a realistic assessment of what you think may be your future lifestyle needs. Trying to assemble an overview of the broad field of your finances while undergoing the trauma of divorce falls somewhere between extremely difficult and impossible! Just as nobody with meaningful assets would attempt to represent him or herself in a divorce, if you’re not extremely facile with financial matters, you should not trust your financial future to a checklist.Short-Term Decisions May Have Long-Term Financial Consequences
