Organizing Financial Records for a Divorce

Matters surrounding money and divorce tend to be among the most contentious and complicated in a New Jersey marriage dissolution case. A key to being prepared to address money matters in divorce proceedings is to properly organize your financial records. Indeed, you best protect your important legal interests by appropriately organizing your financial records and documents. There are a number of key elements associated with organizing financial records that you need to bear in mind.

The types of actions you need to take to organize financial records to address money and divorce issues include:

• Gather your paystubs
• Gather your tax returns
• Collect your spouse’s financial materials
• Organize your financial statements
• Obtain real estate deeds
• Obtain vehicle titles
• Gather insurance policies
• Identify documents you believe are missing

Gather and Arrange Paystubs

A key step you need to take to be fully prepared to address issues related to money and divorce is to gather paystubs for the past year. If you are an independent contractor or in some sort of other business in which you do not have paystubs, you will want to pull together those documents that document your earnings or revenue.

Gather and Arrange Tax Returns

On a related note, you will want to gather and arrange tax returns and associated supporting documentation as part of organizing financial records for your divorce. These include state and federal tax returns, 1099s if you are an independent contractor, and any documents and attachments used to support your tax returns.

Collect Spouse’s Paystubs and Other Financial Documents

You will also need to make sure that you obtain copies of financial documents relating to your spouse. These include his or her paystubs. Depending on the state of affairs between you and your spouse, you may not be able to obtain these types of documents until divorce proceedings formally commence.

Organize Financial Statements

You undoubtedly have certain financial accounts. These may bank accounts, credit or debit cards, retirement accounts, investment accounts, and so forth. You need to gather together the basic documentation relating to these accounts as well as copies of statements from at least the past year, if not even farther back in time. In many divorce cases, this is one area in which collecting documents has the propensity for being the most challenging.

Obtain Copies to Real Estate Deeds

Another step you need to take when organizing weapons for money and divorce issues in your divorce case is to obtain copies of any real estate deeds. In most divorce cases, the one deed that you likely need to get ahold of is the one to the marital residence. In most New Jersey divorce cases, the primary asset of the parties is the marital residence or family home.

Obtain Copies of Car Titles

You will also want to get your hands on copies of the titles to any vehicles you and your spouse own. These include copies of titles to vehicles that you might not normally use or that are in the name of business owned by you and your spouse.

Gather Life and Health Insurance Policy Information

Locate all life and health insurance polices that may be in existence at the time you determine a divorce is the next step in your life. Insurance can become an issue during a marriage dissolution proceeding.

Identify Types of Documents You May be Missing

The possibility definitely exists that you may have an issue attempting to locate all of the documents associated with finance and money matters. If that is the case, make a list of what you cannot find and provide that to a divorce attorney, once you have retained legal counsel.

A primary initial step you need to take when preparing for a New Jersey marriage dissolution case is to schedule a free initial consultation with a skilled, experienced divorce lawyer, like a member of the legal team from the Law Offices of Peter Van Aulen. You can reach our firm by calling (201) 845-7400. A marriage dissolution lawyer from our firm can assist with all aspects of your case, including addressing issues associated with money and divorce.