Collaborative Marriage Planning

At the annual Forum of the IACP (International Academy of Collaborative Professionals) this past weekend, I ran into a concept I really liked - Collaborative Marriage Planning, although it might better be called Collaborative Relationship Planning as it is really intended to help couples plan for th...

Tax Issues in Divorce

I saw a good article by Robert Bordett called "What Are The Tax Implications Of Divorce?". Several issues to be aware of are: Your marital status for tax purposes is determined as of the end of the year. In other words, if you finalize your divorce on December 31, 2014, you are considered single...

Mediation Skills for Litigators

At Seattle Divorce Services, we believe in having all of our attorneys go through mediation training, even if they don't plan on being mediators. I really think mediation training helps any attorney be a better negotiator. We are hosting a mediation training at our office this weekend and next that...

A Sample Debt Calculation

In some ways dividing debt in a divorce is just like dividing property, but in other ways, it is more complicated. Generally, community property and debt are combined to reach a net community estate value, and then that total value is divided between the parties....

Is Separate Property Off the Table?

In dividing property in a divorce, the Washington courts distinguish between separate property and community property. Community property refers to assets acquired by the couple during the marriage. Separate property refers to assets acquired by one of the parties outside of the marriage (prior to m...

Financial Planning in Your Divorce

Many people getting divorced fail to do any real financial planning as they go through the process. They basically are saying, "I'll see what I end up with and make do". However, sitting down with a financial adviser to start planning for your post-divorce life can be helpful in several ways....

Collaborative Pre-Nups

I have been finding lately that the Collaborative process lends itself very well to helping soon to be married couples prepare Pre-Nuptial Agreements, or "Pre-Nups". Too often bringing lawyers into the process of drafting pre-nups can lead to friction between the couple. This can happen when one par...

What Does a Divorce Cost?

A frequent question from callers is some form of "what will my divorce cost?" The problem is that there is no simple answer. In some ways it is like asking what does a house cost, or what does a car cost. The difference of course is that we don't know what your divorce is going to end up looking lik...

What is a PostNuptial Agreement?

A postnuptial agreement is an agreement made between a couple after marriage about what will happen if the couple divorces or one of them dies."Postnuptial" simply means "after marriage". Andrea Vacca wrote a good article on postnuptial agreements in New York, and much of what she wrote is applicabl...

What is Fair?

Very often clients say "I just want what is fair." That is a great thought, but the problem is that there can be big differences in what people view as fair. At a conference I attended last week, we discussed four different theories of fairness....