Going Through a Divorce? Get it Right the First Time

Divorce can be an exhausting and traumatic experience, often made worse by your spouse, and sometimes made worse by your divorce decree. You and your ex can always make agreements on it year-to-year. It’s not wise to agree to divide up the exemptions, either, as you may end up with full custody of all the children and should be able to claim them all at some future date. On the property side, barring very rare exceptions, all provisions for dividing your property, both assets and liabilities, become final thirty days after the judge has signed your divorce decree. If there is later-discovered property which was not addressed in the decree, that is subject to future division by the court. But let’s say your divorce decree awards your spouse all employee benefit plan interests arising from his/her past and future employment. Although you may think that would only apply to the 401k account you know about, it would pick up (“grandfather”) all other plan interests as well. That similarly applies to the award of bank accounts, household goods in possession, and so on. It is critical that you patiently make sure your divorce decree is correct in all respects. Take the time to get it right.