Why a Financial Recommendation is important BEFORE filing for Divorce

Many families are learning about the vast benefits of mediating their divorce settlements to avoid the inflated professional costs of a litigated court process. A few tips for those savvy families choosing the mediated divorce route:

• Be aware that a Registered Professional Mediator is not licensed to give your family legal advice (like a licensed Attorney) or financial advice (like a licensed Financial Professional) so seeking recommendations in this area BEFORE you mediate can help your family avoid common pitfalls of making uninformed assumptions and decisions
• It’s important for your family to know all of the financial items that your settlement needs to cover so that you do not overlook an issue that requires returning to court at a later date to address
• Do you and your spouse BOTH know what each of you is entitled to in an equitable split of marital assets and marital debts? What are considered marital assets/debts, what are considered premarital assets/debts, what are considered extra-marital assets/debts? How are retirement benefits and pensions considered in divorce settlements?
• Does the family own a business or stake in a private or publicly traded company? What options do the spouses have for addressing this issue?
• What are the financial budget issues to address moving into separate households? What are the tax implications of the settlement and most strategic tax filings for the families moving forward post-divorce?

Our Divorce Mediation Centers encourage families to take the simple step to become well informed of all of these issues using the right trained/licensed professionals prior to scheduling a Mediation session.

Mediators are responsible for helping spouses come to agreements and it’s very important that spouses understand all of the implications before making informed life-long decisions for their future that won’t come back to bite them!

Getting divorced is far more complicated than getting a marriage license. Taking shortcuts in order to save money could actually end up costing the family twice as much in court fees to correct a poor or incomplete settlement.

Families should not be deceived by discount “bargain” divorce companies that offer flat fee settlement and filings for several hundred dollars. There are usually “upsell” extra charges once the family engages.

It is far better to take the time and use the proper resources to assist you so that you only have to do it once and you have a comprehensive, airtight document that won’t come back to haunt you in the future. www.DivorceMediationCenter.org