Divorce can be a very expensive business. Everything from paying for solicitors to paying child support can put a serious burden on your finances. London is the most expensive region in the UK to get a divorce. In fact, a grade A or B divorce solicitor in London may charge you £350 an hour for their services. Are you going to be able to come out of the divorce with money still in your pocket? Here are a few ways to ensure you don’t go bankrupt after the divorce.
Know Everything You Can about Your Spouse’s Finances
You may start out knowing everything there is to know about your spouse, but as the years go by you might realise you don’t know much at all. You’re going to want to go into divorce proceedings with all the information you can get. If your spouse owns a business, you may be entitled to half of its worth. It’ll be too easy for your spouse to hide its true value, so you need to be able to investigate the finances on your own.
When it comes to hiring forensic accountants in London, firms like http://www.frenkels.com/our_people.html?c_id=4 will give you an edge in this area. A forensic accountant will be able to dig up all your spouse’s assets, income and even how much their business may be worth. They will be able to find out the total sum of your spouse’s finances and dig up any hidden assets that you may be entitled to in the divorce.
Protect Your Own Assets
You’re going to want to acquire personal money in order to survive the months it may take to reach a settlement. In a friendly divorce, you can ask your spouse to mutually freeze some open credit cards or joint home-equities. This way, neither one of you will be able to run up any extra debt while the divorce hasn’t yet been finalised. Any inheritances or pre-marital savings can stay with you as long as these were under your separate name. If you can prove that your money was used to finance your family’s business or your spouse’s education, then you may be able to agree upon a larger settlement.
Make Sure to Heed Good Advice
At the very beginning, make sure you get tax advice especially if there is a large sum of money on the table. You’ll need to have good working knowledge of how much the settlement would be worth after tax. Financial planning advice should also be sought from the start. You have to know how much money you’d need to support yourself and your children. Are your investments safe ones or risky ones? Questions like this require a professional answer.
This will help ensure that you don’t lose everything during the proceedings. Listen to your solicitor about what other strategies you need to adopt in order to get a fair settlement. Divorces usually get messy because of the financial tug-of-war. Be prepared to tough it out and hold on to your money.
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