The answers may surprise you.
Are hurt feelings from a bad marriage enough to justify filing for divorce now? Work with your family law attorney and think strategically.
Learn about how filing for divorce affects pensions, IRA & 401K accounts, closely–held businesses and alimony. Find out why timing is everything when it comes to filing for divorce.
File for divorce now because of:
● financial trouble
● extramarital affairs
● parenting problems
● poor communication
● drugs and drinking
This article is about filing for economic advantage. Work with your family law attorney and think strategically. The marriage ends on the divorce filing date – Rothman v. Rothman – 1974.
Divided benefit Pensions
Pensions are subject to equitable distribution. Pension service time during the marriage results in a division of the pension to the non-title spouse. Definitively, marriages end upon divorce filing.
Accordingly, the non-title spouse stops accruing pension after the divorce filing date.
Contributory IRA and 401K accounts
File divorce now because every dime you contribute or your employer contributes, during the marriage is subject to equitable distribution.
Filing divorce cuts off the other spouse.
Hence, every dollar contributed to and added to your IRA / 401K is yours and theirs.
Closely-held business
Ordinarily, one spouse will keep the closely held Business. Hence, the date of evaluation is the divorce filing date. Accordingly, you can grow your business post-divorce filing without sharing.
Imaginative new products and better customer accounts are all yours, post-filing. Whereas your spouse is limited to the business valuation on the filing dates.
Clearly, filing is a simple way to protect your interests in the growth in value of your closely held business.
File for divorce now to limit alimony exposure.
You are likely an alimony payer. Of course, you prefer lower alimony for a shorter time frame. Who wouldn’t?
By statute, the payment of alimony on marriages under 20 years is capped at the duration of the marriage.
For example a 10 year marriage is limited to a maximum of 10 years on alimony. Conversely, marriages of 20 years or longer, expose the payer to open durational alimony.
Separation does not stop the marriage clock.
On the contrary, sharing contributions to your retirement accounts like 401(k) and IRA plans, cuts off on the day of filing.
Timing in life is Everything. Why file for divorce now? This article only addresses pure mercenary, economic advantage. Of course, real life decisions are more than dollars and cents.
The take-away, control the aspects of divorce in your power, including filing when the advantage is yours.
Pro-Tip – If you start the process in rabbinical court – remember to include a cut-off agreement that will be enforceable in civil court at the beginning of the arbitration process.
Otherwise, file in civil court and mediate and arbitrate in Bais Din.