Divorce remains common across the United States. In fact, the national divorce rate was approximately 2.4 divorces per 1,000 people in recent years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For those who are planning to begin their divorce, it’s important to understand how the process works. It involves more than simply submitting paperwork to court.
Understanding the laws in your state is just the start of preparing for the process. You must also review your marital assets and debts. Be prepared for decisions involving child custody, support, and property division. With proper preparation, you can reduce delays, lower conflicts, and make the divorce process more manageable.
Here’s how to file for divorce in Illinois and other states, helping you get prepared for legal rights, property ownership, and family relationships
The Documents You Need to Collect Before Anything Else
The process of gathering financial records before filing for divorce provides two benefits. The procedure gives your attorney complete access to all marital assets while safeguarding your interests against potential future asset disputes from your spouse. The process requires you to collect all accessible materials, which you should then duplicate.
The process starts with these essential main groups:
- Tax returns for the past three to five years, including all schedules and attachments
- Bank and brokerage account statements for all joint and individual accounts
- The collection consists of mortgage statements property deeds and vehicle titles
- The collection includes 401(k), IRA, and pension account statements
- Pay stubs and any documentation of self-employment income
- The collection includes credit card statements and records of unpaid debts
- Your marriage certificate and any prenuptial or postnuptial agreements
- The collection consists of life insurance policies and estate planning documents and wills and powers of attorney
According to FindLaw, gathering these documents before your initial attorney consultation saves time and gives counsel a more complete view of what asset division may involve.
Divorce planning lawyer David Goldberg says that when possible, you should seek attorney involvement early in the planning stages before filing for divorce. A divorce attorney can assist you in making the best choices to protect yourself before filing for divorce.
Why the Financial Picture Is More Complicated Than It Looks
People beginning divorce proceedings possess only a basic understanding about their shared financial resources. The situation reveals itself to be more complicated than what they expected.
The most valuable marital asset in most cases exists as retirement accounts, which need a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) for their division without incurring early withdrawal charges. Most individuals fail to recognize this fact until they reach the midway point of their negotiating process.
People frequently fail to consider tax implications when they make their evaluations. The value of a settlement that grants one spouse ownership of the family home and the other spouse control of an equivalent investment portfolio will not reach financial parity when capital gains tax liabilities are included.
Tax professionals and Certified Divorce Financial Analysts (CDFA) test settlement documents to discover hidden financial implications that exist beyond the settlement terms.
If you can do so, obtain both your credit report and your spouse’s credit report. According to DivorceNet, reviewing credit reports before filing gives you a complete view of all known debts, including ones you may not have been aware of, and protects you from being held responsible for liabilities you did not know existed.
The Hidden Asset Problem and How to Get Ahead of It
The presence of hidden assets exceeds the expectations of most individuals. The hidden assets become visible through three main discrepancies, which include a major decrease in income during the separation period and missing bank statements and undisclosed business accounts.
Tax returns serve as the most dependable method for tracking down assets. Tax returns display all sources of income together with investment assets and required disclosures, which show international bank accounts. Multiple years of tax return analysis reveal financial trends that go unnoticed in single-year evaluations.
Nondisclosure violations receive serious attention from courts. The court system permits judges to impose penalties on spouses who refuse to reveal their complete financial data, while remaining authorities can grant larger portions of marital property to the other spouse when they discover evidence of hidden assets.
The act of concealing assets can reach such severity that it becomes a criminal offense resembling perjury or fraud. A divorce attorney can use the official discovery method to obtain financial documents and depositions and forensic accounting services when any financial information shows signs of inconsistency.
Understanding How Property Is Divided
Different states have established their own distinct rules for property division. The two main legal systems used by states are the following systems:
Community property states: In states like California, Texas, and Arizona, most assets and debts acquired during the marriage are considered jointly owned and are divided equally at divorce.
Equitable distribution states: In most other states, courts divide marital property in a way that is fair but not necessarily equal. The evaluation process includes various factors such as marriage duration and financial input from both partners and their potential earnings.
The legal system treats separate property as assets that spouses owned before marriage and received through gifts and inheritances during their marriage. The process of separate property becoming commingled with marital assets creates difficulties for determining its classification.
The Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School provides a useful overview of how property division principles differ across jurisdictions.
What to Know About Child Custody and Support Before Filing
More than the preferences of either parent, the court considers what is in the best interest of the child when determining child custody.
As such, a parent must show their involvement in everyday parenting duties. Records must show who takes care of school pickups and medical appointments. It must also include the extracurricular activities of the child. This creates a factual starting point that supports custody discussions.
Each state uses its formulas to determine child support, which calculates both parents’ income and their custody time and their specific expenses for health insurance and childcare. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Child Support Services provides state-by-state guidance on how support is calculated and enforced.
Setting Up Your Finances for What Comes Next
The period of separation requires partners to maintain access to their own financial resources. After one spouse files for divorce, the other spouse may find it difficult to access their joint bank accounts. If this is their only source of fund, it can lead to urgent financial problems because they lack a personal bank account.
It would be better to create a practical financial plan that includes all your expenses before you file for divorce, especially if you will need to support yourself through a mortgage and other costs. Your monthly expenses will help you assess the proposed settlement according to actual financial data instead of using approximate figures.
You should contact your creditors to inform them about the divorce when using any joint accounts. The MetLife Legal Resources indicate that creditors do not follow divorce agreements. Both parties must pay their respective debts even after the settlement determines who will handle that particular obligation.
Before the Process Starts
The time before filing is the only period in the divorce process when you have complete control over the pace. The courts establish strict timeframes for all proceedings. The opposing lawyer creates a situation that forces you to make quick decisions. The petition filing starts the timing for all process activities.
The attorneys and courts that handle divorces see cases every week where one party was not prepared financially or documentarily. Parties reach settlements under time constraints, which force them to decide before accessing complete financial details.
You need to collect records and obtain credit reports and research your state’s property and support laws because those steps lead to better results.