By now, you have probably accepted that you’re getting divorced. You may have even come to terms with the fact that you’ll have to share once-private aspects of your life with the court. What’s harder to fathom is how to make the proper financial declarations – and split your assets with the least amount of grief.
Equitable asset divisions don’t always come easy and neither does letting others in on the intimate details of your finances. Here’s how to navigate the process from an attorney’s perspective.
Representing Your Financial Situation in Court
The discovery phase of a divorce proceeding is a critical procedure that can get complicated quickly. As in other civil suits, it involves each party attempting to gather enough information and evidence about the finances of the community to render a functional judgment.
How do San Diego family courts get to the root of complex divorces? Most discovery phases begin with initial financial declarations where each spouse is required to fully disclose information about their:
Income, stock rights, benefits, perquisites and other forms of employment compensation;- All business interests and business opportunities in existence;
- Bank accounts; Investment accounts, retirement accounts, and pensions;
- All real estate holdings;
- Automobiles, expensive artwork, jewelry, furniture, and furnishings;
- Foreign investments and intangible holdings;
- Debts, liens, and similar obligations.
What Will You Need to Disclose, and How Can an Attorney Help?
Remember that financial declaration disclosures aren’t just for you and your spouse’s benefit. They are mandated in California. The failure to accurately disclose assets can have harmful results. Spouses have a fiduciary duty to disclose all information upon request related to all assets, income, and debts during their divorce proceedings. Failure to disclose might result in not just 50% of an asset being awarded to your spouse but as much as 100% of the asset being given to your spouse, in addition to your payment of your spouse’s attorney fees as sanctions.
Attorneys work to simplify the process by assisting you in reviewing your holdings and helping you represent them accurately. They then can assist in trying to uncover assets your spouse may be trying to conceal. For example, your attorney might initiate interrogatories, send a demand for production of documents, send third-party subpoenas or take your spouse’s deposition to get your ex to make disclosures under oath and in writing.
Execute a Smoother Divorce With Neumann Family Law, APC
Making a financial declaration can be a great deal of work. From comprehensively listing what you own to investigating what your spouse has, the process demands a tenacious approach to revealing sensitive matters.
With over seven combined decades of experience, the Neumann Family Law, APC team understands how to help you jump the hurdles and put your old relationship behind you. Call us at (619) 648-8554 or complete our online contact form to take control of your divorce experience today.
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