Uncoupling your finances
If you and your partner have been together for some time, separating your finances is not necessarily going to be easy.
However, it is absolutely vital that you can reach a financial settlement that is suitable for both parties. This is essential to the emotional wellbeing of all parties, particularly children. You may no longer live together, but you are still their parents.
If you want your children to be able to invite you both to the graduation or the christening without worrying you will have a row, you are going to need a settlement that brings financial independence to you both.
This will take a lot of careful thought and planning.
One of the hardest parts of attaining an ideal settlement, acceptable to both parties, is fully understanding the financial challenges you and your former partner will face, and dividing the assets in a way that minimises financial risks to both of you.
Some of the questions you will need to consider:
- What is worth more, the family home or accrued pension and who will benefit most from each in the future?
- Is downsizing possible or even desirable?
- How, if at all, will the party who has stayed at home to look after the children – which was after all a joint decision – increase their earning capacity?
- How can both parties attain a living income?
- How can assets from the relationship be used to rebuild a non-working spouse’s state pension entitlement?
All these issues need to be explored fully, by both parties, looking at these challenges from the perspective of the other. Of course, with emotions inevitably running so high, how many divorcing couples are even able to have the clarity of mind to see things this way?
What I would love to hear is if those of you have divorced or separated share with us how you went about making the right financial decisions? If you are considering divorce, what aspect of financial uncoupling is worrying you most?
Your feedback would be really welcome, and would be totally confidential.
photo credit: flickr:divorce cake_DrJohnBullas
Read More
If you enjoyed this post, we recommend the following as additional reading.
What is that thing called collaborative law?
Separating and divorcing couples can now deal with issues arising upon the breakdown of their relationship by a process known as Collaborative Law. This process involves both parties signing up to an agreement which states, amongst other things, that they will not make an Application to the Court to deal with resolution of issues between…
Improving your state pension entitlement
Prior to 6th April 2016 if a couple were going through divorce, or dissolution of a civil partnership it was possible to substitute the National Insurance (NI) record from a former spouse/civil partner if they had a better NI record. Therefore, potentially a non-earning spouse could still receive a full state pension if their…
Divorce at over-60
Over 60 and facing separation? You’re not alone. Later life divorce is definitely on the increase – figures from the International Longevity Centre, a respected research organisation, show that between 1990 and 2012 the number of men and women over the age of 60 going through a divorce shot up by 85 per cent. There…