Divorce can be even more disruptive than you already imagine it will be. In fact, the stress of divorce – on top of all the other stressors that we are currently enduring – can push the most reasonable among us to behave unreasonably. In other words, divorce can be as unpredictable as it is difficult. A top divorce attorney in Chicago, however, can help.
You’re facing a divorce, and you know you have a serious journey ahead. While you may be tempted to bury your head and hope for the best, the fact is that there are concrete steps you can take to help ensure that your divorce proceeds as smoothly as it possibly can. You are well-advised to get started gathering all of the following documentation in your effort to become well prepared for what’s to come:
Obtaining a solid snapshot of your financials early on is an excellent way to help ensure that you are well aware of the full range of your marital assets and that you have a better handle on your financial rights.
The division of your marital property – those assets you acquired during the course of your married life – should be divided upon your divorce in a manner that is fair in relation to the relevant circumstances of your marriage. There are some factors, however, that can complicate this division even further, including:
The more complicated your financials, the more complicated dividing your marital assets fairly is likely to be. These additional complications can also make it easier for an unscrupulous spouse to hide assets, to divest assets, to give away assets, or to otherwise artificially skew your marital assets. Working closely with an experienced divorce attorney from the outset is the best way to protect your financial interests throughout the divorce process.
One of the most critical components of any divorce is the fair division of marital property, and the intrepid Chicago divorce attorneys at WARD FAMILY LAW are committed to skillfully pursuing divorce terms that protect your financial rights. Our dedicated legal team is here to help, so please don’t hesitate to contact us for more information today.
I knew we were going to have a custody battle from day one. It was going to be mean and messy and expensive and long. I did not know if I could handle it but I had to do it for my kids. Jennifer litigated my case to the end - we had an attorney for the kids, we had psych evaluations, we had reports for the Judge, we had court date after court date. She was strategic, smart, planned well ahead, and kept on top of everything. Thanks to her and her legal eagles my kids are in a…
We were not married but had two kids and we were both listed as the parents on the birth certificates. What I did not know at the time was that the birth certificate (for parents who are not married) does not count in Chicago! You have to have a paternity test or have signed some special paperwork at the hospital that we did not know about at the time. Ward Family Law prepared the court filings so that we could establish our parental rights. Thank you!
At the end of my divorce case I realized that the paperwork required us to provide the court with a Qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) in order for our retirement and investment accounts to be divided as we had agreed. The problem was that we did not have them done in time. Jennifer and her team stepped in and handled contacting the plan administrators, completing the draft QDROs, submitting them for pre-approval of everyone and then presenting them to the court. While we had hoped this was super easy there were a lot of steps and a lot of things…
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