What are the 5 Major Factors Of Getting a Divorce?
If you are getting divorced and have children, there are going to be five major issues you’ll need to resolve with your spouse to finalize your divorce.
1. Child Custody
There are two types of custody, legal and physical. Legal custody means decision-making. If parents share joint legal custody (which most parents do) that means they both have to equally contribute to decisions regarding the children’s education, religion, healthcare, etc.
A parent is required to share information about the children with the other parent and can make no unilateral legal custody decisions.
Second, there is physical custody, which refers to the day-to-day schedule you follow with your co-parent.
2. Child Support
Child support is based on a predetermined formula. The formula considers each party’s annual gross income, health insurance costs for the children, work-related childcare costs, tax implications, spousal support, and the parties’ parenting schedule, amount other things.
3. Spousal Support
At a base level, spousal support is 25% of the difference in the parties’ incomes awarded for one-third of the length of the marriage.
Typically, if child support is also awarded, spousal support will drop to 20%. The parties’ ability to pay support and need for support, will be important factors for the court to consider. Keep in mind, that spousal support is not a right, no one is guaranteed spousal support.
4. Asset Division
Unless parties have agreed otherwise through a document like a prenuptial agreement, all of the assets accumulated during the marriage will be divided equally by the parties. The court says assets must be divided equitably, that does not mean equal, but in most situations, the court will divide all the parties’ marital assets right down the middle.
Any assets owned prior to the marriage will be considered premarital and set aside for the party coming into the marriage with the asset. Inheritances and most gifts received by a party during a marriage will also become that party’s separate property.
5. Debt Division
The same rule governing the division of assets above applies to debt division. The court considers debt accumulated during the marriage and typically divides that debt right down the middle. In the event the debt is secured, that debt will usually stay with the secured item. Sometimes the courts will require marital debts to be paid off with marital assets with the remaining assets being divided.
Are you going through, or considering a divorce?
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