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Coping with a Divorce
Divorce can be one of life's more difficult events. If you are facing a divorce, maintaining your finances is critically important.
The money you and your spouse have invested for your children's education, a new home, or your retirement may be at risk. You'll want to work out the best arrangements for every family member involved and stay on financial track, as much as possible.
Things to Consider:
Getting started
While this may be a very painful time for you personally, it is no time to ignore your finances. You'll need to gather pertinent financial information to correctly assess the value of the assets you and your spouse have accumulated.
A financial professional or a lawyer can help you calculate value and offer some advice.
Maintaining your children's investments
If you and your spouse have been contributing to an educational fund or other investment aimed at improving the future for your children, you'll probably want to arrange to continue this practice.
If the money is being held in both your names, you'll need to seek advice to work out a suitable arrangement for the investment.
Dividing your marital assets
Depending on your assets, you may need advice from a professional to avoid paying unnecessary taxes. If, for example, you own a significant amount of stocks, you may want to avoid selling, which could reduce the value of your holdings because of the tax liabilities.
Sharing your retirement plans
An employee pension can be one of your largest assets, so don't forget to figure it into your divorce settlement. If one spouse doesn't have a retirement account, the other's account could be divided between the two of you. If you both have separate accounts through your individual jobs, have you been contributing equally or have you favoured one program over the other because it offered better benefits? You'll probably need professional advice to help sort out these financial issues.
Maintaining your financial security
You may have been relying on your spouse's retirement program to provide for your golden years. Although you could share in that benefit, you'll need to continue saving for your future. Immediately after your divorce is a good time to assess your savings programs. Can you make larger contributions to your retirement program? Are there other investments you need to start or re-establish?
Changing your insurance policies and other significant paperwork
If you maintain a life insurance policy, for example, check the beneficiary. If your now ex-spouse is named, you'll probably want to make a change. Identify all such paperwork and change beneficiaries or responsible parties to another appropriate family member.
Nothing contained in this publication is intended to constitute legal, tax, securities, or investment advice, nor an opinion regarding the appropriateness of any investment, nor a solicitation of any type. The general information contained in this publication should not be acted upon without obtaining specific legal, tax, and investment advice from a qualified professional.
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