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This month, the Making Sense team answers client questions related to trade policy developments and their impacts on key economic issues.
Every divorce comes with difficulties and tough moments. Our everyday decisions, lifestyle choices, emotions and dreams for the future are all involved in such a major change.
Money is an integral part of all these areas of life. That's why it's so important to consider how to protect your money during divorce.
Conversations about how to handle finances while separating from your spouse may not be easy. For some, you'll likely want to include your attorney and accountant. Here are other ways you can start to plan a path forward.
One of the first steps in splitting finances in a divorce is to clarify what property is considered jointly owned and what's considered solely yours.
Marital property, also referred to as community property, includes any earnings, property or assets acquired by both spouses during the marriage. Debts taken on during the marriage are also considered a joint responsibility.
Your personal property includes anything you owned before the marriage, as long as it was never blended with marital property. Personal property can be tougher to distinguish the longer you've been married. You may also claim gifts, inheritances and court judgements you distinctly received during the marriage, if they weren't mixed with joint holdings.
Retirement accounts are considered joint property, and you'll need to negotiate how they're divided. Retirement accounts sponsored by employers, such as 401(k)s, require a qualified domestic relations order to be prepared and submitted to the plan. In the case of an individual retirement account, or IRA, the separation agreement or divorce decree is submitted to the IRA custodian.
In either case, when you transfer retirement plan assets, do so carefully. Otherwise, the move could be considered a withdrawal, which may result in taxes and penalties.
Once you have a handle on what should be divided—and what shouldn't—establishing your own distinct financial identity is essential. Here are some important steps you could follow.
Stepping back from day-to-day matters, you may also want to start modifying select parts of your estate plan to reflect your new reality. Good moves to make may include:
To help ensure things proceed as smoothly as possible on the financial side, it helps to be transparent. Your former spouse could perceive any moves you make without informing them as efforts to deceive, which could hurt your case in front of a judge.
It's not always easy, but taking steps to protect your money during divorce and keeping lines of communication as open as possible will help in the long run. You'll be more likely to emerge on the other side with firm financial footing and your own assets intact.
Nerre Shuriah
JD, LLM, CM&AA, CBEC® | Senior Director of Wealth Planning
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