California Divorce and Family Law

Changing Your Name After a Divorce

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Long Wedding Dress for Couple with Flowers (Photo credit: epSos.de)

We’re smack in the middle of wedding season across most of the country. Statistically, more couples will tie the knot in June than any other month but the official popular ‘season’ runs from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day – kind of like vacation season.According to The Wedding Report, nearly 2.1 million couples got married in the U.S. in 2010; on the other end of the spectrum in that same year, there were at least 872,000 divorces according to the National Vital Statistics System for the Center for Disease Control (although, according to their site, some data is missing from their report).

Making big lifestyle changes like getting married or divorced often has obvious tax consequences. But one of the biggest tax consequences can be the headache of simply changing your name: a mismatch between the name on your federal income tax return and Social Security Administration records can cause problems come tax time.

If you change your name as a result of marriage or divorce, you’ll need to make sure that you take the proper steps to update the change with Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Here are a few tips for dealing with the SSA and IRS after a name change:

If take your spouse’s last name or if both spouses hyphenate their last names – or if you use a new combined name – after marriage, you must notify the SSA. If you change your name back to your prior name after a divorce, you’ll also need to notify the SSA.

More info at Forbes.

 

When Parents Divorce, How To Get By Financially

Not too long ago, you grew up relatively wealthy in a nice part of town with lots of family around you. When your parents divorced (which you wholeheartedly supported), there were a few things you didn’t get. And part of that is how your old life started to dissolve from the age of 20. For starters, the families who live so close by? Those relatives want to love you, but it will be hard, because the parent you live with is now Enemy Number One. They have shunned her from the community, but no one will admit it. It will feel like a betrayal to her when you visit those relatives. It will be hard not to talk about her. Those relatives will take you and your brother out to eat and discuss “how hard it is, and how they want to support you during this terrible time.” These will be some of the worst meals of your life.

Read the rest of the article at The Huffington Post.

Don't Let Divorce Destroy You at Tax Time

Divorce is one of the hardest things you may ever go through -- both emotionally and financially. But while you're focused on your now-adversarial relationship with your ex, you shouldn't forget to keep an eye on another entity that may be after a larger chunk of your assets thanks to your split: The IRS. Turns out, divorce has a huge impact on your taxes, and knowing what's at stake can help you avoid major complications later on.

Here are some of the things to keep in mind as you go through the divorce process.

Filing Status

Checking the box for either married or single may seem like the simplest thing in the world, but it gets complicated with divorce. The IRS wants to know your legal marital status as of the end of the year you're filing for. So even if you've filed your paperwork, if your divorce isn't final by Dec. 31, then you'll be considered married for the year.

However, there's an exception that allows separated parents to claim the favorable head of household status, which gives you greater deductions. To qualify, you must have paid more than half your housing costs for the year, lived apart from your spouse during the last six months of the tax year, and your dependent child must have lived in your home for more than half the year.

Exemptions for Children

The question of who gets to claim exemptions for children can make a huge difference to your tax bill. Typically, the test depends on which parent the child lives with for more than half the year. But divorced or separated couples can essentially pick who gets the exemption for children by signing a written declaration. With the current write-off at $3,700 per child, the decision you make can determine which of you will get up to $1,300 in tax savings.

Alimony, Maintenance, and Child Support

Payments between former spouses under a divorce decree fall into different categories. Cash payments that qualify as alimony are deductible by the person who makes them and are counted as income for the person who receives them. But you can generally agree to reverse that treatment and avoid any tax consequences for payments if you prefer.

Child support, on the other hand, isn't deductible by the payer or counted as income by the recipient or the child. So as you describe certain payments in your divorce agreement, be careful because the description can change the way those payments get taxed.

Retirement Accounts

As part of a property settlement, a spouse may be entitled to part of the other spouse's IRAs or employer-sponsored retirement account. For 401(k)s and other employer plans, a qualified domestic relations order can allow you to get benefits from a spouse's plan and treat them as if they're your own, thereby avoiding potentially disastrous tax consequences. Under certain circumstances, you may be able to roll 401(k) money into an IRA of your own.

Property Transfers

In general, neither spouse will realize any capital gain or loss or other tax consequences from receiving or giving up property in a divorce decree. But if you later sell property that you received due to divorce, you'll then have to pay taxes on gains, based on the original tax basis of the property you received.

To be treated as part of the divorce, a property transfer must be complete within a year of the date the marriage legally ended, unless it was specifically provided for under the divorce agreement. In that case, you have up to six years to make transfers, although later ones may still be valid if you can show valid reasons for the delay.

Community Property

Finally, most states treat each spouse's income as his or her own, even when it's jointly reported on a tax return. But in community property states, which include Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin, different rules may apply. As a result, you may be treated as having earned part of your former spouse's income during the year in which you divorce.

The problem here is that you may have no idea how much money your former spouse made. Accordingly, the IRS won't penalize you for mistakenly leaving out community property income as long as you can show that you had no reason to know about the income and that it wouldn't be fair to force you to include it as your own income.

From The Tax Center

Divorce Tips!

Maybe you have been thinking about it for some time. Maybe it is a sudden revelation. Perhaps your spouse has made the decision for you. Whatever the situation, it sends a shudder up and down your spine! Divorce is one of life's most upsetting events. Those who leave have different emotions from those who get left, but the degree of turmoil is about the same. It is easy to get overwhelmed, but working through an action plan and taking it step by step will help you get through this painful time.

Firstly, create a cash plan for the separation period. A divorce typically costs more and takes longer than you expect. Money that previously used to support one household must now be stretched to support two! On top of regular transportation, food and accommodation costs, you now have an additional drain on your financial resources in the form of court fees and legal fees. It is therefore important to accumulate some cash reserves during this period. If possible, put some money aside from your regular paycheque, into a bank account or money market account in your own name. Do remember to reveal all your assets, including your cash reserves, when you divide the assets, to make sure your divorce agreement is valid.

Gather financial records e.g. tax returns, statements for all assets and debts, land deeds, marriage certificates, pension statements to name a few. Take an inventory of your safe deposit box. Call a realtor for an estimate of worth on your home, cottage or rental. For exact values call an appraiser. If you have a lot of antiques, use an antiques or second-hand dealer to value your antiques / furnishings. Use the "Lemon" aid book or call your general insurance broker to get an estimate of vehicle values. Remember to get your pension valued by a professional pension valuator. Keep track of any inheritances you may have received and keep it separate from family assets. Make out a net worth statement for yourself and your spouse. List all your assets firstly and then subtract all that you owe, to calculate your net worth on the date of separation. This information will be required by your lawyer and financial divorce specialist to help along in this process.

Put together a team of specialists to help you. Your divorce requires competent professional assistance and emotional support. Money can be the most contentious issue in any separation or divorce. It is vitally important for your future well being that the financial settlement be as satisfactory as possible for all concerned, both in the short and long run. A competent financial expert is invaluable in this process. Financial professionals who have taken advanced training in the area of divorce settlements are recognized as Financial Divorce Specialists and use the designation FDS. The Financial Divorce Specialist does not provide legal advice but can evaluate and offer suggestions based on proposed financial settlements. A divorce or family law lawyer will be able to provide you with the legal expertise required. A mental health professional may be required to provide you with a safe emotional outlet and expert guidance on managing stress and parenting issues. Look at other options to resolve your differences e.g. collaborative divorce, or mediation. Remember to stay focused on the major issues and be prepared to give way on minor items.

Get a copy of your credit report from the credit bureau. Do not forget to inform creditors in writing that you are no longer responsible for a debt (and include your separation or divorce decree if you have it). Establish your own line of credit and get a credit card in your name preferably when you are still together, so that you don't get turned down when you are on your own.

Do make sure that you protect your support payments by making ensuring you have insurance (life, disability, critical illness) in place and that you are the registered owner of the policy.

Get a new will made and if you are considering a new relationship do get a Pre-nuptial agreement signed. Use the expertise of your financial divorce specialist to ensure that your financial plans for the future are in your best interest.

From the Ottawa Business Journal.

Divorce adds another wrinkle to retirement planning

Some older clients seek guidance as they end their marriages

As if baby boomer retirement and estate planning weren't enough, financial advisers are now grappling with another issue brought to the fore by boomers: late-in-life divorce. Advisers are reporting that more of their clients who are approaching retirement age are coming to them for financial guidance as they end their marriages.

“We're seeing people married for 30 years who are now getting di-vorced,” said Tom Norton, a certified public accountant and certified divorce financial analyst at Thomas Norton & Co. LLC of St. Louis. Longer life expectancies may mean that unhappy spouses are willing to change their situation if they are discontent with their marriages, he added.

The leading edge of baby boom-ers — those born between 1946 and 1955 — has the highest divorce rate among Americans. About 38% of men and 41% of women born in that decade were divorced by 2004, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In addition to the emotional turmoil involved, divorce later in life is complicated by the need to re-examine and shift retirement and estate plans, advisers say.

Now approaching retirement, boomers have accumulated hefty balances in their qualified savings plans and other accounts, all of which typically are split between the divorcing spouses. But advisers have recognized that divvying up cash and other financial assets often is one of the easier parts of divorce planning, as angst ridden as it may be.

The most difficult job often is dissuading a client from living a flashy and expensive lifestyle as a newly single retiree, some advisers say.

“This generation as a whole is looking to retire in better style,” said Howard Sontag, founder and principal of Sontag Advisory LLC in New York and Westport, Conn. “It's hard for someone in the midst of an un-pleasant experience to get intelligent about their money.”

Mr. Sontag spoke of a client who acknowledged that she could no longer afford the large apartment she had had prior to a divorce but insisted on keeping it anyway. In such cases, clients require advisers who can provide emotional and financial guidance.

“When you find people who have been hurt and are still holding that grudge, they can make a lot of bad financial decisions,” said Drew Tignanelli, president of The Financial Consulate, an advisory firm in Lutherville, Md.

“I'm not saying I'm a psychologist, but you should encourage them to seek help if they need it,” he added, observing that some troubled clients have turned their backs on their finances and “live like paupers.”

Clients should also be made aware that Social Security may not provide the windfall they could be anticipating. Those 62 and older are entitled to collect retirement benefits on an ex-spouse's Social Security record if the marriage lasted at least 10 years and if the ex is entitled to benefits, in which case the individual may receive the equivalent of half of what the ex-spouse receives.

In case of remarriage, those 62 and over can choose to get benefits based on their old spouse's or their new spouse's Social Security record. Those under 62 are entitled to benefits based only on their new spouse's Social Security record (though if they get divorced a second time, they are entitled to benefits based on either spouse's record).

Aside from helping clients create a budget, understand cash flow and seek retirement work opportunities, advisers also must untangle estate plans. This calls for a team of lawyers and accountants, especially when divorced individuals remarry.

“Estate planning is most complicated when there's a large disparity in assets, and the new husband and wife want to keep assets separate,” Mr. Tignanelli said. The situation becomes messier when stepchildren become involved.

The law regarding a “per stirpes” distribution, or the equal division of assets among descendants in an estate plan, can vary from one state to another and may not include stepchildren, Mr. Tignanelli added.

“When clients divorce and then die, you have to make sure that the stepparents will leave something to the children — that's the battlefield of estate administrations,” he said.

Read more at Investment News.

Money Moves For A Second Marriage

Remarriage is the triumph of hope over experience, wrote Samuel Johnson, the famous 18th century English essayist. People show the same optimism today.

"Still, a little advance planning can help you avoid problems," said attorney Marty Shenkman of Teaneck, N.J. Among the items to consider:

•   Prenuptial agreement. These documents can spell out who will be responsible for which expenses after a marriage. They also can declare where each spouse's assets will go, after death or divorce.

Your prenup might put a limit on what will go to your new spouse. Such a provision may protect some of your assets, for yourself and for children from a prior marriage.

"For a prenup to be valid, both spouses must have an attorney," Shenkman said. The lawyers should be independent of each other.

A prenup can be overturned if one spouse was not adequately represented. Or if assets weren't disclosed.

Undue pressure also might cause a prenup to be thrown out. That might occur if one spouse is asked to sign an agreement right before the wedding.

So a prenup should be negotiated at least several weeks in advance of the ceremony.

But asking your spouse-to-be to sign a prenup can be awkward. One strategy is to point out that you're acting on the advice of your attorney, accountant, or financial adviser.

Emphasize estate planning and consider including some provision to protect your new spouse at your death. Also, downplay talk of divorce before you're even married.

•   Principal residence. Among other assets, a prenuptial agreement can cover living arrangements. That's particularly important if both prospective spouses own valuable homes.

The prenup can spell out whether one spouse will move into the other's place. If the unused home is sold, will the sales proceeds be divided, held jointly or go to the current owner?

If one partner will move into a home now owned by the other, should that family home be held jointly or kept in one person's name? Such questions can be addressed in a prenup.

"If title is changed to joint ownership with right of survival, the surviving spouse automatically will inherit the home," Shenkman said. Then the original owner's children won't inherit what they might consider a family home.

•   QTIP trust. This stands for qualified terminable interest property. QTIP trusts can provide for your new spouse. After your death and your surviving spouse's demise, they can also help other beneficiaries, such as your children from a previous marriage.

Say you are older than your remarriage partner. You have substantial assets.

You might die first. At that point, preselected assets could go into a QTIP trust. Like all QTIPs, this trust will pay lifetime income to the surviving spouse, Shenkman says.

That could be interest and dividends from trust assets. Another way you could set up a QTIP is to pay a specified percentage of trust assets to the survivor.

If you wish, you can draft a trust to give the trustee discretionary power to pay some of the trust principal to the survivor, in case of need.

No one else can benefit from any QTIP trust while the survivor is alive.

The spouse who creates a QTIP can be the trustee. But only for a QTIP that takes effect during his or her lifetime. He will need another trustee to step in after his death.

In any case, people rarely name themselves as trustees.

At the death of the second spouse, remaining assets pass to other beneficiaries. Those beneficiaries are typically named by the trust creator.

Often, beneficiaries are the creator's children from a first marriage. That's one way to provide for your new spouse as well as your children.

There can be tax benefits, too. If the above conditions are met, assets you leave to a QTIP trust won't be included in your taxable estate. Any assets remaining in the trust won't be subject to estate tax until the survivor's death.

So estate tax can be deferred. The tax may be smaller, if the trust assets have been reduced.

•   Life insurance. A QTIP trust has advantages, as described. But there may be drawbacks, too.

Say a hypothetical John Smith remarries at age 50. His daughter Kelly is 22. Smith's second wife, Alice, is 40.

Suppose John dies at age 80 and leaves most of his assets to a QTIP trust. Alice, then 70, might get income from the trust for 15 years.

In this scenario, Kelly will have to wait 15 years, from age 52 to 67, to inherit her father's assets. There might not be much left for her, if the trust is depleted to pay medical expenses and nursing home bills.

To avoid such an outcome, John might buy insurance on his own life, payable to Kelly. If he buys this when he remarries, he will be relatively young and healthy.

Then Kelly can collect benefits at John's death. She won't have to wait until her stepmother's death, to see if anything is left in the trust.

•   Will. You also will need a new will after you remarry. Your old one may not reflect your wishes. You might want to change beneficiary designations, too, for your life insurance and retirement accounts.

Read it all at Investors Business Daily.

Divorce Finances

Five things every woman needs to know about divorce and making sure you're taken care of.

First, many states determine the value of retirement assets to be split based on the official date of separation, not divorce. So, if you separated in May 2006 but don't divorce until 2007, the courts may direct you to divide assets as of May 2006. So, if your husband is about to get a bonus you should wait to separate. Or if you're expecting a bonus, get out fast.

Second, if you leave your husband the house, make sure he refinances immediately and takes your name off the mortgage. If your name is on it and he defaults, it will affect your credit.

Third, make copies of all your recent financial statements so there's an accurate record of all money to be split.

Fourth, make sure you know about all the credit cards taken out during your marriage. If you have any cards with balances on them, pay them off and close the accounts.

Fifth, if you've been married for at least ten years you qualify to receive half the amount of your husband's benefits when you reach full retirement age. And, even after divorce, if your ex-husband dies you're entitled to survivor's benefits starting at age 60.

Read more at WLWT.com.
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Are Two Homes Better than One? - The True Cost of Divorce

Let’s face it, divorce is expensive. Attorney bills can run in the tens, if not hundred of thousands of dollars. And even if you settle out of court, there’s still the dividing up of assets and possessions that leaves you with somewhere near half of what you started with initially.

But there is another group of expenses that often exceeds those losses, one that couples rarely consider, and that is ongoing living expenses. Only after the divorce is finalized and the parents settle into their new lives, do they begin to see how much their overall standard of living has changed as a result of the divorce.

The math is simple: If the monthly income(s) that previously supported one household must be divided in two, some sacrifices will have to be made—two can no longer live as cheaply as one if they must each maintain separate households. And household expenses, it should be remembered, are much greater than the monthly sums paid for the dwellings. Consider the following:

When couples separate, furniture, utilities, newspaper subscriptions, phone, cable TV and Internet services are all doubled, while car and health insurance, food and wireless services that were cheaper when bundled, go up significantly. New court battles will place additional demands on these dwindling resources. And if one or both spouses remarry, new financial burdens will be added, particularly if the remarriage produces children. And should the second marriage fail, and the likelihood of that happening is greater than for the first, even more demands will be placed o the available money.

To this must be added duplicate items for the children: when the bicycle goes to one house, a second one will have to be purchased for the other house because neither parent will want to be seen as less generous and caring than the other, and this is true for all items, essential and non-essential alike; clothing, beds, towels, doll houses, video games, school supplies, and so on, plus the time and money required to replace, repair and upgrade these items. Certain expenses, such as daycare costs and doctor visits, may be divided more or less equally (assuming both parents are willing and able to pay, which is oftentimes not the case), but for daily living expenses, a safe rule of thumb might be to count the number of kids you have and multiply by two—then add the costs of a second home.

And if, for example, the parents live an hour apart and transfer their children back and forth thrice weekly, that adds up to another thirty hours of driving time per month, plus gas, and related expenses, not counting delays, schedule changes, forgotten items, extra pick-ups and drop-offs, and extracurricular activities that were previously managed through some sort of division of labor, but must now be done separately. In varying degrees, this holds true for most other household activities—efficiency is lost when spouses must function without the support of each other—and as the old saying goes, time is money.

This change in our financial picture, however, does not stop at the home front, but reaches into the workplace as well: the U.S. government reports that half of all single mothers receive public assistance, while divorced men earn between 10% and 40% less than their married counterparts having similar educations and backgrounds. It should come as no surprise then that at the age of retirement, divorced couples have a significantly lower net worth than those who remained married. After divorce, the yellow brick road quickly loses its luster, and life is rarely easier.

Of course, here we’re just talking about money matters, and as we all know, divorce involves a lot more than financial losses. Divorcés also experience significantly higher numbers of early death of almost all the major diseases, as well as higher rates of in and out-patient psychiatric care, suicide, physical abuse, accidental injury, and drug and alcohol use. But those are other issues. Here we’re focusing only on dollars and cents. One hurdle at a time.

In summary, although divorce leaves us in a highly emotional state, we should be careful not to let those emotions rule our thinking, particularly those that blind and bind us to the grim consequences of such decisions. Before making that call to an attorney, or presenting your spouse with your decision to leave, make sure that you’ve taken the time to ask yourself if divorce is really worth the financial price you will pay. If it is, then fine, you can move on to the other matters mentioned above. But do you homework first—and make sure that your pencil is sharp.

Read it all at the Health News Digest.

The Secret to Divorce-Proof Finances

Do you trust your significant other with the family checkbook?

Half of those in a committed relationship answered "yes" to that loaded question -- posed in a Harris Interactive survey sponsored by Redbook and Lawyers.com -- and back up their conviction by commingling all of their bank accounts with their better halves.

So, how does your financial union stack up?

Secret shoppers

Even in the best of times, money can be a conversational third rail in a relationship. Most couples, whether married, engaged, or cohabitating, cop to having an occasional tiff about the family finances.

Lots of couples butt heads over their spending priorities. I've been the on-call referee for my coupled pals in many such spats -- I hear things like "You will never guess what he bought!" and "Can you believe what she paid for that?!"

Want to keep the peace about spending? Simply stay mum. At least that's how three out of 10 adults say they deal with this point of contention. (One in 10 admits that a secret retail-therapy excursion exceeded $1,000.)

Oh, but you want your union (financial and otherwise) to last, right? Then it's time to come clean. Your money lies may actually be the most dangerous ones you tell: One-quarter of respondents to the Harris survey said that financial fidelity is more important to them than romantic fidelity. (Me? I insist on "all of the above.")

If your money tete-a-tetes typically result in one of you sleeping on the couch, rest easy. A few simple strategies can strengthen your financial union, starting today.

The most powerful relationship rule of thumb

Want the best result ever for your next money fight? Skip straight to the make-up part -- you know, when tempers have softened and you're committed to coming to a resolution -- before the bad vibes even start brewing.

This pre-emptive "just-in-case" conversation is one of the best ways to divorce-proof your finances. You're calm, cool, rational, and looking really cute to your Sig. O. Scheduling your discussion about a sensitive money issue before it's fodder for a fight allows you to plan a nice meal (and line up a babysitter and a dog-walker). Even better, it sets up you two lovebirds to be partners, not adversaries -- and, another bonus, it will save you many sleepless nights on the couch.

You don't have to take my word for it. This relationship rule of thumb is supported by one of the foremost negotiation experts -- Daniel Shapiro, co-author of Beyond Reason -- with whom I recently talked about handling conflict in ways that will actually improve your relationship.

He and Roger Fisher, of Getting to Yes fame, have found that emotions can be a powerful negotiation tool. Pre-empting conflicts while addressing key emotional triggers is one of the most effective ways to come to more fruitful resolutions. This tactic works not just with politicians, CEOs, and hostage negotiators, but also with everyday folks hashing out money conflicts over dinner.

Pre-fight prep

Not every money issue needs to turn into a formal financial summit. Instead, focus your next money powwow on a few of your biggest and most sensitive financial concerns.

After that, establish some "rules" to prevent everyday money matters from turning into nonstop opportunities for bickering. For example, pick a dollar amount you can both blow each week without having to run your purchases by one another. Set up decision-making buckets in which you agree to consult with each other and come to a spending or saving decision before making a move.

When in doubt, Shapiro advises using "ACBD" as your automatic default. It stands for "Always Consult Before Deciding." (It's not to be confused with the "Act now; apologize later" decision-making approach that may fly a few times but is statistically unlikely to lead to make-up nookie.) And it may be the single rule of thumb that helps keep the peace in your household.

Read more about divorce and financial topics at The Motley Fool.

After divorce: moving onward and upward

The fallout from divorce comes in many forms: emotional, practical, familial, all of them potentially devastating. But when it comes to your financial future, you can move on positively toward security and success.

After you've extricated yourself from any loans, bank accounts and credit cards you may have shared with your ex, you can turn your attention to building up your assets and financial security. Here are three ways to prepare yourself for a fearless, confident future:

1.Build an emergency fund. OK, so you're still feeling raw and maybe a little scared to go solo. Focus on giving yourself a security blanket. Figure out how much you would need to live on for eight months, and then sock that amount away in a savings account. Once you have those savings, you'll be taken care of no matter what happens — a layoff, a loved one's illness, etc. If you received a payout in the divorce, you may have your peace-of-mind fund already. If not, don't stress. Just set up a monthly direct deposit — have the money transferred from your checking account into a savings account.

2. Get the match. If you work for a company that offers a 401(k) or 403(b) retirement plan and kicks in a matching contribution, you must join and contribute enough to get the match. I've said it before: That matching contribution is no different from a bonus. If you find your plan's menu of fund choices intimidating, see if it offers an all-in-one fund (it's typically called a life-stage fund). This is geared toward your age and will have a mix of stocks and bonds appropriate for you. If there's no such fund, look for an index fund that mimics the performance of a large basket of stocks, such as the S&P 500 or the Wilshire 5000.

3. Fund a Roth. If your income is below $95,000 a year, you're eligible to fully fund a Roth IRA (this year you can put in $4,000 if you're under 50 and $4,500 if you're 50 and over). Assuming you have at least 10 years until you retire, a no-load index mutual fund, such as the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index fund, is a great choice. You don't get a tax break when you invest in a Roth, but when you retire and pull the money out, there will be no tax on your contributions or your earnings. So think of your Roth as a standby emergency fund.

Read more at the Ventura County Star.