Attorney At Law
There is no requirement to be separated for a specific period of time to work on a Marital Settlement Agreement. You can start work on settling the issues resulting from your marriage as soon as you separate (even if under the same roof).
It is best for both you and your spouse to reach a settlement if possible and file for a simple Uncontested Divorce in Washington, DC. Be aware that even though you and your spouse may have kept all of your finances separate, such as your bank accounts, retirement accounts, and credit card accounts, the balances may still be considered marital property and/or marital debt. This can be confusing. It is a common assumption that if everything you have is separately titled and you have no joint accounts that you each leave your marriage with what is in your sole name.
The law looks at property differently.
We all love our pets, and we consider them part of our family. This can be a difficult issue when you separate from your spouse.
These are all important questions and can become a source of additional stress when you separate. A Separation Agreement, also known as a Marital Settlement Agreement, can include financial terms and other agreements related to the care of a pet after separation and divorce and whether or not the person who is not caring for the family pet on a daily basis still has visitation rights. You may want to consider who will be responsible for making health care decisions for your dog and whether the vet bills and dog-walking or boarding costs will be shared.
…Making things worse, from 2007 to 2014 the median U.S. rent increased by about 4 percent, from $901 to $934, says Apartment Lists’ Andrew Woo, while renters’ incomes have fallen by 14 percent. Rent is 60 percent of a person’s average wage and rising in top markets such as Washington, D.C., New York City and parts of Northern California, according to RealtyTrac. In the Washington area, for example, women earn an average of $61,718, versus $68,932 for men, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families. In Washington, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $3,130, a level “that’s unsustainable without other income sources,” such as spousal and child support, Woo says.
My clients are often surprised when I tell them that their retirement assets may be considered marital property. If you accumulated the funds during your marriage, they may be divided as part of your divorce. However, you may have other marital assets to divide as well. All of your marital property will be taken into account when deciding how to deal with your retirement plans.
A concern for anyone going through a separation or divorce is how the property, bank accounts, and other assets you have will be divided when you separate. The first step in the process is figuring out whether the property you have is marital property or separate property.
If it accumulated during your marriage, it is marital property.
If it is a debt that accumulated during the marriage, it will be considered marital debt. An example of marital property that surprises many people is a retirement account that is separately titled. The portion of the retirement funds that accumulated during the marriage will be considered marital property. How the account is titled does not matter as long as the funds were acquired during the marriage.
However, before you can file for divorce in DC, you must be sure that all of the issues between you and your spouse are settled. Otherwise, you will have to file for divorce and go through the process as if the divorce is contested. This process is longer and more expensive than filing for an Uncontested Divorce in DC.
Once you have settled all the outstanding issues with your spouse through a Separation Agreement, such as:
First, you must meet the residency requirement. This says that one of you must have been a continuous resident of DC for six months before you file for divorce.
A common question people ask me when they think they will separate and divorce is, “What will happen to my home?”
This can be a very emotional issue. The home may be associated with both pleasant memories and sad memories. There are several options to consider when it comes to the ownership of your home during divorce, and it is very important to discuss the various possibilities with your family law attorney.
There is equity in your home as well as debt. Home equity is the difference between the market value of your home (what you could sell it for) and the amount you owe on your home (your mortgage, line of credit, home equity loan, etc.).
Some of the options to consider are:
A Marital Separation Agreement or a Property Settlement Agreement is a written contract between you and your spouse.
It settles all of the issues that have arisen during your marriage.
The Separation Agreement spells out your rights and settles issues such as what will happen to your property, your bank accounts, your debts, child support, custody, health insurance, alimony, how retirement accounts will be divided, etc. It specifically lays out the terms of your separation and divorce, if you decide to proceed with a divorce.
All property and all debts acquired during your marriage are considered marital property. When you divorce, the property and the debt must be divided. This does not mean that it is divided equally. In DC, an equitable division is made.
Many factors are looked at in determining how to divide your property and your debt fairly and equitably.
Some of the factors that are considered are: the length of your marriage; your age; occupation; amount and sources of your income; your ability to find a job; the contribution made by one of you to help educate or help develop the career of the other one; whether you or your spouse interrupted your career to stay at home to take care of your children, etc.
It is important to make a list of all of your assets and all of your debt to show to your divorce attorney. It is also important to know whether the asset or debt was brought to the marriage or whether it accumulated during the marriage.