Hints for Financial Sanity Following the End of a Marriage
For many Arizonans, dealing with divorce legal issues during a split is difficult enough. However, the divorce itself can sometimes be only the beginning of a long healing process for Arizona residents. Even when the divorce does not involve children, it can still take a lot of time and effort to make a full financial recovery after the end of a marriage.
One positive factor in this respect is that by the time they sign a property division agreement, a divorcing couple will be intimately acquainted with their finances. This means that each person has the raw data necessary for making good financial decisions in the future. Still, each spouse may want to consider taking this information to a financial expert to get help making a revised financial plan that takes full account of the divorce.
A practical thing that people, particularly women who change their names following a divorce, might forget is that a divorce is much like a move in that all kinds of contact information needs to be changed. It is usually helpful to have a certified copy of the divorce decree when calling different companies and agencies in order to update this information.
People should also remember that a divorce decree is generally not self-executing. For example, the mere fact that a divorce decree says that a car or house belongs to a particular spouse does not make it so. A divorced man or woman will need to ensure that the necessary deeds and other documents get signed. On a related note, each spouse needs to make sure that he or she closes out joint accounts and updates all important financial documents, like wills and retirement plans, to reflect the divorce.
While getting through the legal process of divorce itself may come as a huge relief, both former spouses still need to attend to other important financial and legal details in order to secure their future following the divorce. A family law attorney may be of valuable assistance in this process.
Source: Huffington Post, “Divorce finance: how to get your finances in order post-split,” Jeff Landers, May 18, 2013