Recent Blog Posts
A Middle-Class Ex-Spouse Can Keep the Marital Home or Avoid Paying Alimony, but Not Both
When divorced people tell you that their divorce ruined them financially, it is usually because they lost their marital home or because a substantial portion of their income goes to paying alimony. Of course, in every divorce case, each ex-spouse gets only a portion of the marital property. If your spouse depended on you… Read More »
Factors to Consider When Deciding Whether to Keep or Sell the Marital Home
Homeownership is the hallmark of financial stability, and it is harder now than ever for people who do not currently own a home to get in on the homeownership game. If you and your spouse decide to sell the marital home and divide the proceeds, you might both be renting for the rest of… Read More »
Do Cheaters Forfeit the Right to Equitable Distribution?
Laws enabling no fault divorce changed society. Before the 1970s, divorce was always a litigious ordeal; you had to prove that your spouse did something bad enough to persuade the court to award you a divorce. It was like suing someone who caused a car accident in which you got injured. Today, couples can… Read More »
Is Collaborative Divorce the Best-Case Scenario?
If you are wealthy enough, you can have access to frictionless versions of almost all annoying but inescapable aspects of life. For example, wealthy people can fly first class, with an airplane seat that doubles as a bed and unlimited food and beverage service, while the 99 percent in economy class are packed in… Read More »
Marital Misconduct: Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right
Financial betrayals are at least as common a cause of divorce as extramarital affairs. If your spouse lies to you about money or makes major financial decisions without consulting you, it hurts as much as if your spouse dates someone else while still married to you or opens up over text messages to a… Read More »
Keep the Marriage, Lose the Financial Entanglements?
The decision about whether to marry your partner or live together as unmarried domestic partners often comes down to money and the emotions attached to it. For example, the actors Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins had a decades long romantic relationship, during which they lived in the same house and raised children together. Once,… Read More »
Is Your Gray Divorce Settlement Enough to Protect You From Third Act Hardships?
Some people start to look forward to a new chapter of their lives after divorce, once divorce mediation reaches a resolution. Yes, you have to work around the clock to afford the mortgage payments on the former marital home that your ex-spouse agreed that you could keep, but now the house is yours, and… Read More »
How to Divorce After You Just Moved to Florida
“Jurisdiction” is a common spelling word or vocabulary word in the fifth grade, when social studies classes attempt to teach you how governments and societies work. It means a court’s authority to issue a legal decision or court order about a case. When you are a fifth grader, the concept sounds unfathomably boring, if… Read More »
Future Faking Might Ruin Your Marriage, but It Does Not Count as Marital Misconduct
Marriage vows entail a promise to stay together through changes in financial fortune. When you marry your spouse, you are marrying the entire person, not his or her current financial situation or what you reasonably believe his or her financial circumstances will be in the future. Many couples find out too late that their… Read More »
If Divorce Leaves Everyone Miserable and Broke, Why Hire a Divorce Lawyer?
Divorced people tend to feel that they got a raw deal in their divorce and that their ex-spouse is living large at their expense. If you just look at the numbers, though, both spouses are worse off financially than they were when they were married; this is because each one came away with only… Read More »