Divorce can have some major, far-reaching impacts on one’s life. It will affect both parties and other parties as well. Effects of divorce may be seen in areas such as:
- Property: Depending on state laws regarding how the property is to be divided, the couple will probably split their personal property
- Housing: One of the parties (or both) will have to leave the marital home
- Finances: Divorce can affect one’s bank accounts, debts, taxes, insurance, and other areas of finance
- Child Custody and Visitation: If the couple has children, the divorce proceedings will affect custody rights, the amount of time each parent can spend with the children,
- Spousal Support (alimony)
Financial Effects of a Divorce
There are three things you must commit to doing when it’s time to divide up your belongings, provide for your children, and more:
- Treat negotiations with your spouse like business negotiations. That means keep the emotions out of it. Your ability to convince your spouse to settle the financial questions fairly (or even generously) depends extensively on your ability to resist the urge to bring up their faults. If your spouse tries to start a fight while you are talking about financial issues, direct their attention back to the topic at hand and insist that the issue you are discussing is the only thing you are willing to talk about.
- Get organized. During the divorce process, you’ll need to make hundreds of significant decisions that will affect you and your children for years to come. The more organized you are, the better will be the quality of your negotiations with your spouse and the collection of evidence you will need to submit to the court. Work with your spouse (if that’s possible) to make a list of assets and debts.
- Gather copies of all financial statements/records such as: your most recent federal and state tax returns, W2’s, pay stubs, bank account statements, credit card statements, retirement accounts, mortgage and car loan statements, insurance policies, and other marital assets. If your spouse won’t work with you on this task, don’t worry – there will be a time during the divorce process when you can formally request that your spouse provide copies of all of the items. If your spouse continues to keep financial information a secret, the judge will order that they give them to you. If they still won’t do it, the judge can put your spouse in jail for contempt of court.
- Create a budget so you can get an understanding of what your projected monthly expenses will be after you’re divorced. Don’t accept any financial offer from your spouse until you know how much you will need to care for yourself and your children.
Financial Issues
Who gets the house? If you and your spouse can’t decide, the court will decide for you. Usually the house goes to whichever parent is awarded physical custody of the children, so that they won’t have to be uprooted. One possibility is to sell the house and divide the profits.
Is there personal (i,e, non-real estate) property that you really want? Make a list. Find out if your spouse wants any of the items you are hoping to get. Negotiate with your spouse so that each of you gets most of what you want.
Remember to take your spouse off your health insurance, your auto insurance, and your life insurance. If you have a will, rewrite so your spouse no longer inherits from you when you die.
Spousal Maintenance
Because of historically great differences in the amount of income a husband and a wife would be expected to be able to earn after a divorce, spousal support (alimony) used to be routinely awarded to the wife. Spousal maintenance is not ordered nearly as often now. Factors that go into whether or not a spouse receives support include:
- Does each spouse have enough money to provide for their reasonable needs, taking into consideration the standard of living established during the marriage?
- Is the spouse who is seeking support the custodian of a child or children that are young enough to make it appropriate for the spouse to forgo employment for the sake of taking care of the child(ren)?
The amount and duration of support are dependent on several factors, including:
- Each party’s financial resources
- The ability of the richer spouse to provide support
- The time needed for the dependent spouse to obtain appropriate job training, education, and employment to be able to independently return to the standard of living established during marriage
- The duration of the marriage and the role of either spouse as a homemaker\
- The length of absence from employment of either party for the benefit of the marriage
Child Support
When a couple divorces and there are children, how is the amount of child support determined? Which parent will have to pay it? The law requires both parents to pay part of the cost of raising the child, and it assumes that each parent can or should work and earn an income.
Determination of the amount of child support, and who will pay whom, incorporate several factors, including:
- Each parent’s gross monthly income from all sources
- How many children each parent has
- The monthly cost for medical and dental coverage
- The amount of child care costs
- Any child support orders already in place for either parent
- Any spousal maintenance orders for either parent
- The amount of any benefits the child(ren) receive from Social Security or the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs because of a parent’s disability or retirement
- The amount of parenting time each parent will get with the child(ren). Typically, the parent who has the child the greatest number of days/hours will receive child support, and the other will pay it
Child Custody and Visitation
During a divorce proceeding, couples with children will have several important decisions to make, such as what type of custody each party will have, arrangements regarding visitation of the children, the amount of child support, and who will be the one providing the child support.
If the parties cannot come to an agreement about custody, the judge will decide. The standard the judge will use is: What will be in the child’s best interest? This is the standard the judge must consider when finalizing child custody and/or visitation agreements, and it will take precedence over most state child custody laws.
Normally both parents are awarded “legal” custody. Legal custody is the right to make important decisions regarding the child’s life after the parents divorce. Legal custody is about making the decisions for your child regarding their education, health care, religious upbringing, extracurricular activities, and psychological treatment.
The other kind of custody is “physical “ custody. Physical custody is very much what it sounds like. This term refers to where the child will live or spend most of their time. In order to determine which parent will have physical custody, the judge will consider a variety of factors, such as each party’s ability to care for the child(ren), the relationship that each parent has with the child(ren), and which home would be better suited for the child’s adjustment or needs.
Do I Need a Lawyer for Help With the Effects of Divorce?
Dealing with divorce can be difficult and generally requires the assistance of a qualified divorce lawyer.
You may need to hire a lawyer for advice and representation during the divorce process. Your attorney will be able to help you understand how divorce laws in your area work. Also, your lawyer will have the legal expertise which provides them with clearer foresight regarding the effects of divorce in the future.
