Posted on January 23, 2019 in Divorce

You will need the assistance of several professionals when you are going through a divorce. Hiring a divorce attorney is a necessity because of the many legal complexities of the process. Some divorcees also find it helpful to see a mental health therapist to discuss their emotional issues related to the divorce. If you are working with both of these people, you may wonder why you would need to have a divorce coach. The answer is that a divorce coach provides a service that is unique from a therapist and can help you through the process.

Not a Therapist

The jobs of a divorce coach and a therapist do overlap in some basic areas. Both approach your divorce from a personal perspective, understanding that it is an emotional process. However, there are several differences in how a divorce coach can help you reach your goal:

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 Posted on January 19, 2019 in Child Custody

In the years following a divorce, opportunities come up that may require two parents to live in different parts of the country. You can contest your co-parent’s decision to relocate with your children, but the court may decide that the move is in their best interest. You may also find a career opportunity in another city that is too lucrative to pass up. Long-distance parenting is a difficult adjustment for you and your children and will never feel like an ideal situation. There are ways you can maintain a healthy relationship with your children.

1. Regular Communication: It may be impractical to see your children in person frequently, but you should have a weekly schedule of when you will talk to them. Your children should be able to rely on you calling them at the same times each week and feel like you will respond to them if they need to contact you. Video calls can give your conversations more intimacy than voice calls.

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 Posted on January 17, 2019 in Property Division

It can be difficult to continue to make house mortgage payments on your own after your divorce. However, you may be able to keep your marital home for the foreseeable future if you are able to get a reverse mortgage on your house. Reverse mortgages are available to people who are at least 62 years old and have a large amount of equity in their home – usually at least 50 percent. You use the money you receive from a reverse mortgage to pay off the remainder of what you owe on your home mortgage, with the surplus available for other expenses. Gray divorcees should consider whether a reverse mortgage could help them during the division of property, though there are risks.

How It Works

Assuming that you qualify, you can apply for a reverse mortgage – also known as a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage – with lenders who specialize in this type of loan. The amount of money that you can borrow will increase in conjunction with your age and the value of the property. With a reverse mortgage, you no longer make mortgage payments on your home or payments on the loan as long as you remain in the house. The loan and interest are due when:

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 Posted on January 11, 2019 in Divorce

Divorce is more than a logistical process that determines who gets what properties and how you share responsibility for your children. For you, it is an emotional and personal process that will at times make you feel uncertain about your life and your future. Divorce is a new and frightening experience for most people, and it can be helpful to have someone who is knowledgeable to guide you through the process. That is why a growing number of divorcees find it empowering to have a divorce coach.

What Is a Divorce Coach?

A divorce coach is a professional who works with divorce clients on handling their emotional concerns and guides them towards being a constructive part of the divorce process. A divorce coach is part of your divorce team that includes your attorney. Divorce coaching has grown as a profession in recent decades, and there are programs that train divorce coaches how to handle real-life scenarios that occur in divorces. Finding a Certified Divorce Coach should assure you that you are working with someone who understands how to help you.

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 Posted on January 07, 2019 in Alimony / Maintenance

State divorce laws will not allow you to gain an advantage in support payments by quitting your job or not searching for a job. Your child support and spousal maintenance can be based on what you are realistically capable of earning. Courts will not offer much sympathy to people who try to cheat the system by creating an artificial need for support. If you are capable of working, you are expected to keep your job or try to find one.

Leaving Your Job

Courts determine child support and spousal maintenance payments based mostly each spouse’s income. Thus, a spouse could seemingly reduce his or her child support obligation and qualify for spousal maintenance if he or she was unemployed. You will not fool the court if you voluntarily leave your job in order to gain an advantage. The court will instead base your income on what you are capable of earning. However, there is a difference between quitting a job and leaving a job because it conflicts with your parenting time. As a single parent, you may need to look after your children during the hours you normally work. A court may be understanding in this situation but will expect you to look for another job that fits your schedule or to find childcare services.

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 Posted on January 02, 2019 in Children and Divorce

Telling your children about your divorce will be as difficult of a conversation for you as when you and your spouse first discussed divorce. Both are stressful and emotional, but your conversation with your children may be more upsetting for you depending on their reaction. Just as with your spouse, it will help to plan your conversation with your children. This will be a traumatic milestone in their lives, and you should avoid thoughtless mistakes that will make the experience worse than it needs to be.

Timing

You should tell your children about your divorce soon after you have made your decision, but a slight delay may be necessary to find an optimal time and place. Ideally, the conversation should:

• Include both parents and all of your children together; and
• Take place when none of you have any immediate responsibilities afterward, such as the beginning of a weekend.

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 Posted on December 31, 2018 in Divorce

An amicable divorce is often healthiest for both parties, but there is such a thing as being overly nice to your spouse during the process. Some divorcees give up too much during the negotiations or do not ask for enough information from their spouse. The process may have been peaceful, but the divorcee ended up with an agreement that did not meet his or her needs. Being amicable during your divorce means being reasonable and calm, but you must be willing to advocate for yourself.

Why People Are Too Amicable

Spouses should try to conduct an amicable divorce because they want to reach a fair and timely resolution. People who seek a quick divorce with little discussion or arguments may instead be motivated by:

• Wanting to finish the divorce quickly because the process is uncomfortable;
• Having a natural tendency to avoid conflict with others;
• Being concerned about pleasing others;

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 Posted on December 27, 2018 in High Asset Divorce

Forensic accountants investigate personal and business financial records and analyze the information that they find. Divorce attorneys often work with forensic accountants in complex and contested cases. You may question whether you need the added expense of a forensic accountant for your divorce, but there are several reasons why hiring one is vital when going through a high-asset divorce:

1. Your Marital Properties Are Numerous and Diverse: Are you confident that you could name all of your marital assets if someone asked you to? Your spouse may have luxury items, properties, business interests and benefits accounts, some of which you have never seen. Forensic accountants know which properties are common in a high-asset divorce and how to find them.
2. Differentiating Between Marital and Non-Marital Properties Is Complicated: Claiming that properties are non-marital allows your spouse to exclude them from the division of property. However, a property that only your spouse uses is still a marital property if he or she used marital money to purchase or maintain it. Forensic accountants can track how your spouse paid for a property that he or she claims is non-marital. If it is marital property, then your spouse must compensate you if he or she wants to keep it.

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 Posted on December 24, 2018 in Child Custody

You are most likely to use a subpoena during your divorce when you need your spouse to turn over important documents related to your marital finances. Using subpoenas on potential witnesses has become less common in Illinois since the state made all divorces no-fault cases. When spouses needed to prove fault in a divorce, they called on character witnesses to support claims of infidelity or immorality. Character witnesses can still be useful during a divorce when you are trying to establish the allocation of parental responsibilities.

What Witnesses Provide

You may be concerned about leaving your children alone with your spouse if he or she can be irresponsible or abusive. However, a court may believe your own testimony on the subject to be biased because you could benefit from portraying your spouse as an unfit parent. A third-party witness would support your claims by testifying that he or she saw your spouse:

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 Posted on December 19, 2018 in Divorce

Your spouse’s addiction can take a toll on your marriage and eventually lead to divorce. You may feel guilty about leaving your spouse when he or she needs help, but your own health and safety are also important. You spouse may:

• Betray your trust in order to feed his or her addiction;
• Squander your money to pay for the addiction;
• Be less physically or emotionally intimate with you;
• Behave erratically or violently; or
• Put you and your children in dangerous situations.

Your spouse’s addiction will affect how you settle your divorce and what your spouse is likely to receive from the agreement.

Parental Rights

Your spouse may have a limited allocation of parental responsibilities if he or she is still dealing with addiction. A divorce court must consider each parent’s fitness when dividing parenting time. A person with addiction problems may be an unfit parent because he or she may:

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