Having all my bases covered?
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| Sat, 01-29-2005 - 10:29pm |
My soon to be ex and I will be meeting in the next week or so to go over settlement stuff and see if we can agree on most of it before involving an attorney. I've done a lot of the research and this was the outline of things that we needed to discuss that I sent to him.
Background: married 8 years, one son who has been living with me, we are very amicable, we have a house and not a lot of other assets. A lot of the stuff we have already verbally agreed to and have discussed. I just want to get everything written down before I go file.
Thanks for any advice, and I will be filing through an attorney (have already had a consultation), but want to try and reduce the cost by agreeing on things before filing and having him contest it.
Kim
Property Distribution:
Real estate (house) who occupies until sale, who will pay mortgage, taxes, utilities, repairs, ins
Sale: when (immediate or planned future date)
Selling price
Division of proceeds/debt
Option to buy
Retirement funds:
list type of plan and trustees
value
vested or not
division of value
Personal Property:
who will keep: vehicles, jewelry, collectibles, pets, furniture, photos, etc.
Debts & Liabilities:
In whose name is the debt
Who pays: credit cards, car loans, bank loans, credit line, mortgage
Support:
Alimony and maintenance: amount, time of payment, duration, tax consequences, increases/decreases, health ins.
Life Insurance:
amount, beneficiary, duration, type, trustee for child
Other financial issues:
Taxes: file jointly or seperately
Refunds, taxes owed, penalties, mediation fees, legal fees-who pays
Children:
Parenting plan: type of custody arrangements, which decisions need mutual consent
Access or visitation: weekends/weekdays, telephone calls, holdiays/long weekends, notice of changes, special needs, school recess/summer vacations, birthdays (yours and child), other occasions
Geographic restrictions: foreign travel, travel costs, relocating with children
Access to records: doctors, dentists, etc., school and teachers, notification (address & phone numbers, illnesses & accidents, children's whereabouts)
Grandparents visitation
Child Support: child support guidelines, amount, who pays, time of payment, future increases/decreases
Conditions of emancipation: age, college, marriage, living away, employment
Additional Expeses: college or private school tuition, summer camp/activities, extracurricular activities, child care
Medical Decisions:
who provides insurance
who files insurance claims
who pays uncovered expenses (dental, prescriptions, eyeglasses, contact lenses, etc)

Maybe someone will disagree with me, but I've never before seen such a comprehensive list. I had a very amicable divorce and you are doing the right thing. What we did was write it all down, everything we had agreed to. For us it was all on one page. We had sold our house and we described what we did with the proceeds (paid of all joint debts, split the rest), we stated all personal property had been divided, we explained our custody arrangement (dd with each of us every other week, alternating holidays), described the amount of support already being paid and we would alternate taking the tax deduction.
We both reviewed the document and agreed it was accurate, then we gave BOTH attorney's the same piece of paper. It allowed my attorney to use it as a basis for drafting the divorce agreement that would be filed without having to ask me a million questions, and it gave his attorney some background to assess whether he felt the draft agreement was accurate. I think doing this saved us some money because there was no confusion by the attorney's (and when they are confused, they have to call you and that isn't free).
Looks like you are really prepared.
Just remember.... this agreement that you are working on TOGETHER will protect the interests of BOTH of you and your children, so try to keep that in mind as you are writing down and outlining every pickin detail.
Karen ~ wildlucky4me ~