Sunday, March 17, 2019

How To Plan Your Divorce Financing

By Joseph Baker


When couples are ending a marriage, most western countries do not allow lawyers to represent their clients for a share of the settlement they will secure. It is often feared that such a process can result in nastier divorces. The same rules, however, do not apply to financiers. This is why it is important to consider your divorce financing options before getting to the process.

In most cases, when you hear people discussing issues to do with separation of marriage and finances, they are generally discussing alimony, child support, and property division. However, it is crucial not to overlook one important financial issue relating to meeting expenses during the process. The attorney has to be settled and still pay for related filing costs. This can be a bit hard without ready cash.

Not all divorces are expensive. Some of the super cheap marriage annulments may not even require a lawyer. In most cases, they will cost hundreds of dollars. But when you are looking at a marriage separation with costs running into tens of thousands of dollars, it becomes an expensive process, calling for proper planning of finances. You do not apply for funding to super cheap divorces.

One of the best ways to ensure your separation is less complex is by having an uncontested process. Try and see whether you and your spouse can come to an agreement minus going to trial. This is going to make the separation less expensive than having a contested process. Contested divorces can drag on and result in unmanageable attorney fees. Agree with your spouse on most major issues to save costs.

It is, however, not all partners who agree on the issues of contention. This means having the case heard by a jury while the partners get attorneys to present their issues. It is at this point that determining the next big move will be crucial. In most cases, traditional means to finance the case are never sufficient. Consider blending in some of the non-traditional finance options.

For the most part, traditional divorce funding is done using cash. In that case, you will have to figure out whether there is a regular savings account where you will access the cash with ease and pay the lawyer or any other costs in the case. Even for those with adequate cash in their checking accounts, by this time they are temporarily restrained from accessing joint assets.

More attorneys are starting to accept credit card payments these days. However, this is not the wisest financial option for couples. To begin with, credit card payments attract very high-interest rates. This will just help to make the annulment more expensive. As if that is not enough, most of the financial experts will tell you to pay your credit card debt prior to filing for separation of marriage.

It is not uncommon to find people funding their divorces using retirement accounts. However, financial experts advise against this plan unless you are sure of making alternative retirement plans when the time comes. Further still, withdrawing money from this account is charged a ten percent penalty as well as regular income tax.




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