How can you avoid common financial mistakes in a Louisville divorce? Protecting the things that are most important to you while balancing the impact of any decision against the short and long-term impact it will have upon your life is one of the most important reasons to work with the divorce and family law attorneys at Dodd & Dodd. It is often quite difficult to truly understand what life after the divorce will be like before you ever begin the process, or when you are in the midst of emotional or financial challenges. However, we help our clients to manage each step of the process while retaining the focus on one of the most important aspects of a divorce:
This isn’t just about ending a marriage, it’s about planning and establishing a strong foundation for life going forward after your divorce.
One way to avoid common financial mistakes in a Louisville divorce involves changing one’s perspective on the family home. The experienced attorneys at Dodd & Dodd genuinely understand the emotional connection you might have to the house. We understand the financial implications of this asset as well, including all of the time and money required to make it your own. Many important events in your life and the life of your children have happened within that house. However, the ability to financially manage the expense of the house on your own after a divorce can be quite challenging for many going through a divorce. What is really going to be the best decision for you in the short and long-term?
It is essential to ensure an independently verified, accurate valuation of all assets and debts, as well as a determination of those assets that are considered as “marital,” versus the separate property of the spouses. For example, it is quite common for there to be multiple assets or investments that share the same relative value. However, when you consider the tax basis of these investments or assets, and the resulting impact of selling or converting these assets, it becomes a completely different picture. Do you or your former spouse own a business or have some type of a collection? It is quite common to undervalue these types of assets, either purposefully or subconsciously. It is quite common for a party who wants to keep a specific asset in a Louisville divorce, such as a business or collection of jewelry, to want to keep those assets after the divorce. If these are marital assets, one must offset a former spouse’s marital interest in those assets in order to keep them after the divorce is finished.
Another important issue when working to avoid common financial mistakes in a Louisville divorce involves retirement plans and pension accounts. You might be surprised how many people forget about these substantial assets altogether when thinking about their divorce, or attempting to manage it on their own. Retirement accounts and pensions often represent the most significant asset(s) associated with a divorce in the Louisville area. There are specific legal documents that required to manage the division of a retirement account, 401(k), pension or military benefits. It is not uncommon for people to cost themselves literally hundreds of thousands of dollars by not properly characterizing or dividing these important marital assets.
Do you want to avoid common financial mistakes in a Louisville divorce and protect the things that are most important to you? You need the proven experience, strategies, advice and counsel of the divorce and family law attorneys at Dodd & Dodd. We invite you to review the strong recommendations of our former clients and the legal industry and contact Dodd & Dodd or call 502-584-1108 to schedule an appointment with one of our attorneys.
