When we get married, our hopes are always that our marriage will last the rest of our lives. Unfortunately, sometimes life happens, and marriages fail. If you and your spouse are going through or approaching a legal separation, there are things you want to do to protect yourself. Here are a few tips to ensure that you can keep your rights intact without adding more stress to an already stressful situation.
Do This as Early As You Can When Facing a Legal Separation
You should create a full list and photograph of every asset the two of you own. Whether you two bought your first home together or you were in a small apartment, you need to keep track of anything valuable. The more information you have about each item, the better.
Have all of your financial paperwork in one place that you can easily access. You want to include any type of investments you have, a list of your bank accounts, and all their balances. Your payments for things like rent or mortgage, utilities, and debts should be included in this list as well.
You should both open an individual bank account during this phase as well. It allows you to keep track of your income and what you have been paying in terms of bills during your separation. You should also get a legal separation over simply separating. This protects you both from someone selling property, taking out some type of loan that would be a joint responsibility to repay, or taking cash out of accounts that cannot be accounted for.
Reach Out to Bell & Shaw Law Today
The more you can document ahead of time, the more protection you will have during this separation. If you do venture on to get a divorce, you want to make sure you have as many protections in place as possible. Reach out to us here at Bell & Shaw Law today and let us help keep your rights protected. We can ensure that everything from your investment portfolio to your home are safe, no matter what the future holds.
