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Common Financial Issues in a Divorce
28 Mar, 2024
Divorce

Common Financial Issues in a Divorce

Divorce will directly affect your financial rights and your finances. While your divorce will be unique to your circumstances, you’re likely to experience one or more of the most common divorce-related financial issues, and better understanding these issues can help. One of the most important steps you can take to help you effectively and efficiently tackle your divorce-related financial concerns is consulting with an experienced Illinois divorce attorney early on in the divorce process. 

The Straight Facts

The fact is that divorce will affect your finances, and it is almost a certainty that they will be affected negatively. If the following two factors apply to you, you can expect your finances to be even more significantly affected by divorce:

  • You are a woman.
  • You are over the age of 50.

If you are a woman who is facing what is known as a gray divorce, addressing the matter of your finances carefully is paramount. 

The Division of Your Marital Assets

A primary component of your post-divorce financials involves the division of your marital assets, which are those properties and other assets that you acquired over the course of your marriage. In the State of Illinois, these assets must be distributed between you and your divorcing spouse equitably (or fairly given the relevant factors involved) in the event of divorce. 

Separate Property

While that property that you own prior to marriage and keep separate throughout your marriage will remain your separate property post-divorce, keeping separate property separate throughout a marriage is more complicated than you may realize. The financial entanglements that make up a marriage help to make the issue of separate property an especially challenging issue. 

Relevant Factors

Those wide-ranging factors that help to guide how marital property will be divided upon divorce include:

  • The length of the marriage
  • Each spouse’s individual contributions to the acquisition and preservation of the marital assets
  • Either spouse’s contributions in relation to childcare and/or housekeeping
  • The custodial arrangements for any minor children of the marriage
  • The value of the overall assets each spouse is assigned and the tax implications each faces
  • Each spouse’s age, overall mental and physical health, education, employability, and earning potential
  • Each spouse’s personal economic circumstances  
  • Whether or not either spouse spent down, gave away, hid, or otherwise dissipated marital assets

Additional Concerns

Additional financial complications that often accompany divorce include:

  • The division of your marital debt, which must be balanced against your marital assets
  • The matter of your marital home, which is often the most valuable marital asset and which involves the complicating factor of your mortgage
  • The division of your retirement accounts

Seek the Professional Legal Guidance of an Experienced Illinois Divorce Attorney Today

The trusted Illinois divorce attorneys at SLG Family Law understand the serious divorce-related financial hurdles you face ahead and are committed to helping you address them head-on – while carefully protecting your financial rights throughout the process. Your case is important, so please don’t wait to contact us for more information about what we can do to help you today.

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