How To Split Your Finances Successfully in Your Separation or Divorce in Ontario!
If you’re like most people getting separated or divorced, you want to make the process as simple and as easy as possible, especially when you are dealing with your finances.
Finances can certainly be a tricky and frustrating thing to try to handle during your separation or divorce.
Hi, my name is Thomas O’Malley. I’m an experienced family lawyer in Durham Region and the GTA.
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However, you can make the issue of your finances more manageable in the separation and divorce process with some careful thought and planning.
Here’s six key ways to help split finances successfully during your separation or divorce:
- Dealing with the Family Home
If you and your spouse continue to live in the family home after your marriage or relationship has ended, you have to decide who will pay for the household expenses.
In many cases, each spouse can continue to pay for the household expenses as they were previously doing.
However, if one spouse moves out and the other spouse continues to live in the family home, the spouse living in the family home should contribute more to the household expenses since they are now the only spouse enjoying the benefits of living in the family home.
If the spouse moving out earns much more than the other spouse remaining in the family home, the higher-earning spouse might have to continue to contribute to the household expenses so that the other spouse and the children can continue to live there, at least, on a temporary basis until you have decided what to do with the family home.
You can even get a court order in some cases for the higher-earning spouse to continue to pay for certain household expenses, such as mortgage payments, especially when you also have children living in the family home with you.
2. Joint Bank Accounts
If you have a joint bank account, you want to make sure that your former spouse does not take all of the funds out of this account. They are only entitled to half of these funds. Check on this immediately.
Close the joint bank account if you can.
You might have to arrange for certain expenses, such monthly hydro bills and mortgage payments, to be paid from a different bank account now. Take some time to check on this.
3. Get Everything in Writing
When your marriage or relationship ends, you want to have a solid handle on your financial situation so that you can create a good financial future for yourself.
You have to create a new life for yourself. Based on you what you want your new future to look like, you have to create a budget so that you can afford your new life for you and your children.
Don’t rely on anything in untangling your financial affairs with your former spouse based on verbal promises.
You need to get the advice of an experienced family lawyer to advise you on what you are entitled to receive in any financial settlement with your former spouse or what payments you must make to your spouse as part of any written agreement.
Here’s the bottom line: you need to get everything in writing to create a solid financial future for you and your children.
I will discuss more key ways to successfully handle your financial situation during your separation or divorce in the next video.
If you have any questions about your separation, divorce or family law case and you would like our help, feel free to contact on my Facebook law office page, that’s O’Malley Family Law, or call me at 905-434-8837 and I’ll point in you in the right direction.
Click here to join my free Facebook GTA and Durham Region separation and divorce support group: GTA and Durham Region Separation and Divorce Support Group
Please make sure to share this important information with your friends, family members and co-workers.
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