When facing a high net worth divorce, you may be concerned about your finances and how you can prepare for your upcoming divorce. As the stakes are high when dividing your assets, you may want to do anything you can to help your attorney prepare to advocate for your desires during this process. Our Warren asset division attorneys explain how you can prepare your finances for your high net worth divorce.
Organize Your Financial Documents
You should first compile all of your financial documents so that you have access to all necessary paperwork. When searching for documents, you should include:
- Bank statements for at least the last five years,
- Tax documents for at least the last five years,
- Pay stubs for each income,
- A copy of your mortgage statement for your home,
- A copy of your home insurance,
- Copies of your home’s utility bills for the last five years,
- A copy of statements for student loans, automobile loans, or any private loans you may have,
- Financial statements regarding the purchase of high valued assets, such as cars, recreational vehicles, and
- Copies of personal identification documents, such as driver’s licenses, social security cards, passports, and any immigration documents.
You can never be too prepared when compiling documents for the division of property in your divorce. If you are unsure of if you should include a certain document, you should include it for good measure.
Once you have compiled these documents, you should organize them in folders by file types, such as banking documents, home documents, identification documents, and any other categories you wish to use. If your documents are both physical and digital, make sure to have each document organized and then create a backup copy of your files. You can photocopy your physical files, or make a backup or copy of your digital files to an external drive so you can access them if you have an issue or loss of your computer.
At your next meeting with your attorney, share your file banks with them so they can consult the documents when creating their strategy for your asset division process. If you have certain wishes for when your assets are divided, you should also share those with your attorney. Common wishes are the family home, recreational vehicles or cars, pensions or retirement accounts, and investment accounts.
Create a Timeline of Finances
Once you have your documents organized and filed, you should create a timeline of your finances to track when assets were acquired and paid for. This can help your attorney and the courts identify the ownership of each asset, as they will need to determine if assets are separate or marital assets before the division process is underway.
Your timeline can also assist the courts and your attorney if there is suspicion of hidden assets, as they can identify the original owner of these assets. Your attorney may consult a forensic accountant to review your financial documents, who can help uncover any hidden assets you may find during your divorce.
Warren High Asset Divorce Attorneys
At DeTommaso Law Group, LLC, our team of attorneys is prepared to provide an aggressive edge to your divorce and advocate for your interests throughout your divorce. When it comes to your finances, it is too risky to take a more passive approach. We can help you obtain your best possible outcome and fight for your best wishes during the entire process so that you can take home some of your most desired assets.
Are you preparing for a high net worth divorce? Schedule a consultation with our aggressive team of divorce attorneys today by calling (908) 274-3028 or contacting us online.