Alimony

North Carolina Divorce Advice – How to Financially Prepare (According to Fox Business)

Published on: April 26, 2012 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

Divorce is a difficult process, emotionally and financially. Before you blindly step into the mess, there are steps you can take to empower yourself by getting your finances in order. Taking the following steps can help make things run more smoothly and even lower your eventual legal bills by being ready for what’s to come. According to a recent FoxBusiness article, the following five tips are some that every soon-to-be-divorced couple should pay attention to for help making it through the process:

1. Evaluate your assets
The house is the biggest asset that most couples possess but there are still usually many more that qualify as marital assets that will need to be divided. People often forget about pensions from past jobs or stock options and deferred compensation plans. Such assets have values that are paid out in the future, not always simple divisions today.

2. Weigh your debt
To begin, prepare a summary of the last 12 months of all credit card and utility bills as well as personal and jointly held loans. Such a history will help you decide who should take on which debts. It’s important not to take on responsibility for debt associated with property you don’t control. For instance, if you are responsible for paying the car loan, you should be the one driving the car. This helps eliminate a lot risk and being liable for the actions of a soon-to-be former spouse.

3. Run a credit check and history
Everyone should conduct an annual credit check with all three agencies. Knowing where your credit stands prior to divorce can help prevent headaches down the line. It’s possible that you’ll discover a credit card or line of credit that you never knew existed, correcting inaccuracies (or preventing fraud) is important.

4. Track how much you spend
Taking stock of your spending habits and creating a realistic budget for your post-divorce life is crucial. Understanding that your old income will now be used to support two households is important. The same amount of money is now going to pay two rents or two mortgage payments, thus lifestyle adjustments will need to be made. People often underestimate how much they spend and putting everything down on paper forces couples to face the hard truth.

Divorce Expo in Charlotte, North Carolina?

Published on: March 22, 2012 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

According to a recent CNBC article, a divorce expo called “Start Over Smart,” took place in New York over the weekend and was much like a bridal expo, only with lawyers instead of white gowns.

The expo was the idea of Francine Baras and Nicole Baras Feuer, a mother-daughter team who have both been through the painful process. “Bridal magazines are all over the place. There’s no divorce magazine, no divorce community, so a lot of people just rely on information from their attorney,” said Baras Feuer. The mother-daughter duo heard about a similar expo in Paris and decided to try their hand at one closer to home.

The divorce expo was a two-day extravaganza that included a wide variety of panel discussions, from guidelines for parents and divorce for Baby Boomers to how to get back in the dating game after divorce.

Approximately 40 exhibitors set up shop and included lawyers, financial advisers, therapists, life coaches, dieticians, anti-aging companies, a hair stylist and even a matchmaker. Major wealth management firm Morgan Stanley was represented as was a woman who offered to perform a “divorce ceremony” where you write words that remind you of your former spouse and set them on fire. “People often don’t know the questions to ask about finances when they get a divorce,” said Mark Seruya, financial advisor with Morgan Stanley. “People wind up getting referrals from parents or friends. Your father’s financial adviser might not be the right fit,” he said. “It’s a fragmented market. We want to be one of the go-to teams in the divorce industry.”

Women in North Carolina often end up without Health Insurance after Divorce

Published on: February 7, 2012 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

New research from the University of Michigan shows that women are more likely than men to wind up without health insurance following a divorce. The rates of women without insurance remain high even several years after a divorce becomes final.

The new study shows that many women lose their health insurance and struggle regaining it after divorce. Using 11 years of Census data, study author Bridget Lavelle looked at health insurance levels of women before and after divorce. She found that nearly 16% of women lose health insurance within six months of divorce and go without it for at least two years.

Lavelle, a Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, said that the women with the highest risk of losing coverage are those who were covered under a husband’s plan prior to the divorce. Of that group, the rate rises to nearly 1 out of every 4 that will become uninsured following separation.

Going along with the loss in insurance, research indicates that after a divorce many women suffer a substantial decline in overall economic well-being. This general decline makes it harder for women to afford health insurance, even if they were not original included under their husband’s plan.

Lavelle’s study did not look at the situation for men, but previous research, she said, shows that men do not suffer the decline in economic well-being to the same extent that women do. “Men are also less likely than women to be insured through a spouse’s insurance,” she said. “For both of these reasons, the risk of insurance loss is probably substantially less for men.”

Divorce and Social Security Benefits in North Carolina

Published on: January 24, 2012 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

For many elderly Americans Social Security benefits are a critical component of their retirement plan. If you’re a baby boomer in charge of monitoring your parents’ finances or a retiree you should be aware that under certain circumstances it’s possible you might be receiving less than you should. If a woman is divorced or has been married more than once, or a woman’s husband delayed taking Social Security, she might be entitled to a bigger monthly benefit than she is currently receiving. Though the difference may not be huge, it could be critically important to someone with a limited or fixed income.

Discussing the ramifications of divorce on Social Security payments is fairly standard practice nowadays. That wasn’t always the case, however, and many older couples might never have been counseled on the possible impact.

Though the problems are faced by both men and women, the fact that women typically earn less over their working lives means that they are more likely to be collecting less in benefits then they may be entitled to due to earnings of a former spouse. This is because of rules which say an individual is entitled to collect Social Security benefits based on his or her own earnings history, or 50% of his or her spouse or former spouse’s benefit, if it is greater than his or her own, and 100% if the former spouse is deceased.

There are a few rules in order for this to apply to divorced couples: 1) the marriage must have lasted 10 years or longer, and 2) the individual seeking a former spouse’s benefit must currently be unmarried, unless the second (or third, or fourth…) marriage occurred after the age of 60.

A great example of this is as follows: your parents were married in the 1950s, your dad worked hard and your mom worked hard raising kids and working part-time at relatively low paying jobs when time allowed. Your parents later divorced and your mom’s Social Security benefit is now $800 per month while your dad’s stands at $2,000 per month. Rather than continue collecting the $800, your mother is actually entitled to collect $1,000 per month if your dad is still alive and the full $2,000 if he is deceased. As an added benefit, if the Social Security Administration determines a spouse is eligible for increased benefits then that person will receive retroactive benefits going back six months. It does not matter whether the spouse with the higher benefit remarried and getting this increase does not require their cooperation. The Social Security Administration has all the necessary information and makes the determination based on its own records.

Spousal Support and Attorney Fees Paid to Abuser

Published on: October 28, 2011 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

In a recent spousal support and attorney fees case out of California, a wife was ordered to pay spousal support to her estranged husband after he was convicted to domestic violence against her. The wife had financially supported her husband for years while he was both unemployed and abusive toward her. Finally, she secretly recorded an incident of domestic violence and took him to Court. After a jury trial during which the recording was played, the Husband was convicted of forced oral copulation.

When the divorce became finalized, the husband requested spousal support. The family court judge ordered that the wife pay to the husband $1,000.00 per month in spousal support and awarded the husband $47,000 in attorney fees. In California, as in North Carolina, judges have significant discretion when weighing marital misconduct in the context of an alimony award. Under North Carolina law, the only absolute bar to an award of alimony is the commission of illicit sexual behavior by the receiving spouse. Even adultery is not an absolute bar to an award of post separation support. Rather, it is one of many factors the family court may consider in determining the award of post separation support.

The wife earns in excess of $100,000 a year as a financial analyst and had been supporting her husband, a former car salesman, since the couple had their first child several years earlier. This was considered, as it would have been considered under North Carolina alimony law, by the Court in making its determination. The judge would have ordered the wife to pay $3,000 per month in alimony, but discounted the amount to $1,000 because of the sexual assault committed by the husband.

The Husband did receive an active jail sentence for the forced oral copulation. On this basis, the wife argued that the husband would not actually have any living expenses while he was in jail. Interestingly, the family court judge agreed with her. When the husband is released from jail in a few years, he will have the right to ask for spousal support again. The husband would be entitled to spousal support under California law.

This case is illustrative of a very interesting point. It is an excellent illustration of how much discretion family court judges have in most matters. As we have discussed here previously (Alimony Decision by North Carolina Court of Appeals) family court judges have wide discretion in spousal support cases. Similarly, family court judges have wide discretion in child custody matters. While it is difficult to imagine a family court judge determining, in their discretion, that the perpetrator of a violent felony would be entitled to alimony, there is nothing under California law which would serve as an absolute bar to the spousal support award. This wide discretion is one of the reasons why many family law matters are better off resolved by the parties in settlement. By resolving disputes by agreement, the parties maintain a level of control over the outcome of their divorce case. If a case goes on to trial, the parties take significant risk in allowing a third party, a family court judge, to resolve their divorce matters for them. Indeed, what may strike one judge as being appropriate in their discretion could vary widely from what might strike another judge as being appropriate under the very same circumstances. In short, because major decisions are often subject to determination under a very subjective standard, family law cases are often very unpredictable.

Divorce Financial Tips

Published on: May 19, 2011 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

Charlotte Divorce Lawyer Blog will review five tips from a recent article on Yahoo.com entitled Getting a Divorce? 5 Ways to Ensure It’s Not a Financial Disaster. While mostly common sense, these tips can provide a good start for a discussion with your spouse and your lawyer about how to avoid the financial ruin which can result from a divorce.

Sign #7 that Your Honey May Cheat – They Brag About Being Able to Attract Others

Published on: May 12, 2011 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

According to Yahoo.com and Match.com, the seventh sign that your signficant other may cheat is if they routinely brag about their ability to attract others. Cheaters tend to be insecure and make up for it by bragging about their ability to attract others. This makes them feel better about themselves. A person like this is going to need a lot of coddling and ego-stroking, something most people aren’t real thrilled about doing.

Sign #6 that Your Honey May Cheat – They Lie About Little Things

Published on: May 10, 2011 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

According to Yahoo.com and Match.com, the sixth sign that your significant other may cheat is if they are the type to lie about little things. If you are dating someone who cannot tell the truth, even about little things, watch out. These types of character traits can run deep. If the person is willing to lie about little things, chances are good that they are willing to lie about important things too.

Sign #5 That Your Honey May Cheat – They Have Never Been Alone

Published on: May 5, 2011 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

According to Yahoo.com and Match.com, the fifth sign that your significant other may cheat is if they are the type who is always with someone. If they are the type who is never without a mate, this should be a red flag. They typically go from one relationship to another rather than ever being alone for any appreciable period of time. These types do not bother with evaluating why the relationship did not work out. Rather, they focus on filling the void with another significant other as soon as possible. Filling a void is not likely to form the basis of a long lasting relationship.

Sign #4 Your Honey May Cheat – They Admit to Cheating Before

Published on: May 3, 2011 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

According to Match.com and Yahoo.com, the fourth sign that your significant other may cheat is if they admit to having cheated on previous exes but have a rationalization for it. If they have done it before and have found a way to rationalize it, watch out! If they do this, there is a good chance they may do it again. If they do it to you, maybe they will be rationalizing it to their next significant other. This nasty cycle has to end somewhere.