Table of Contents
What You Need to Know
Find Your New Financial Footing
In divorce, financial worries keep almost everyone up at night. It doesn’t matter what scenario you’re coming from either. The lower wage earner is anxious about the drastic lifestyle shift they might be facing. The higher earner frets over losing all they’ve built to unequal property division and overwhelming spousal maintenance. Professionals with equal incomes wring their hands over the intense and complicated number crunching, especially if business ownership is in the mix.
At DuBois Levias Law Group, we focus on your financial future from the jump. No matter what, your economic situation is about to change markedly. There is typically no going back on what you can get after the divorce. Our financially savvy attorneys and expert advisors give you the best shot at securing a solid settlement you can actually live with.
Gathering Paperwork
The first order of business? Finding out what you have. Even before initiating your divorce, start getting together all your financial paperwork, especially if you have a secretive or greedy spouse. Find bank accounts. Tax returns. Business records. Credit card statements. Mortgages. Titles. Stocks. Bonds. Retirement accounts. Even non-marital assets for accounting purposes.
“Paperwork” might be a misnomer too. This is no longer as easy as rifling through file cabinets. Many of our financial documents exist online now. It can take some sleuthing, or even subpoenas.
Adding It Up
Our paralegals are skilled at helping gather financial data and putting together spreadsheets. Once you have all the raw data, it’s time for a math exercise. Even put it on a flip chart, like lawyers do in the courtroom all the time, to see the straight numbers.
First, list the value of your marital assets. Next, subtract the debts you have on those assets. Then you can figure out what the net marital portion of your assets will be. You’ll also want to chart your separate assets.
Dividing It Out
Washington State starts from the proposition that assets are generally split 50/50. Nearly all assets, property, and debts acquired during a marriage are subject to division.
Does this mean everything will be equally divided in half? Not exactly. Courts typically start with the idea that things will be split evenly but analyze other factors that might support a different percentage split. It really does depend on the bigger financial landscape of each spouse.
Hire a Law Firm that Loves to Crunch Numbers.
We dig a solid gold spreadsheet—and know how to follow convoluted paper trails to uncover assets. Financially complicated divorces are our strong suit. We have a long history litigating high asset cases, especially those involving a business. We hire back-up too. Our CPAs and valuation experts are skilled at both complex accounting and speaking on the stand.
Dividing Property
Washington is one of only nine community property states that exist in the US. This is often not a straight, down-the-middle split of all marital assets however. Various factors can tip a property distribution to favor one spouse over another.
High Asset Divorces
Substantial and diverse assets add immense complexities to property division. It can be especially difficult to value real estate assets, investments, stock options, RSUs, and interest in a business (or several). We have extensive experience helping high net worth individuals in the Seattle area through divorce and complex property division.
Spousal Maintenance
There is no magic formula for spousal maintenance in the state of Washington. Several factors are considered—including income, education, lifestyle, and disability—and a wide range of outcomes possible. It’s up to some creative lawyering on both ends.
Our Experience
Legalese Defined: Discovery
Discovery is the process of uncovering the assets from the other side. This legal step before your settlement or trial is critical in a divorce proceeding. This can take the form of everything from voluntarily sharing information to legal requests for production to interrogatories to subpoenas. Discovery can root out misconduct, falsehoods, and hidden assets.
Related Resources
The Divorce Planner
Learn MoreFAQ
I am not entirely sure what assets we have.
If you are in the dark about some parts of your finances, or think your soon-to-be-ex is hiding assets, there are legal routes to take that ensure accountability. One initial step is sending out interrogatories—formal requests seeking information—that must be answered under oath. A more forceful route could be a subpoena sent directly to the credit card company, for example. Or taking a deposition where your lawyer asks the opposing party questions under oath.
Accounting for assets owned before marriage.
This is an all-important question: “What is mine and what is yours?” Say you came into marriage with an inheritance. Or owned a business beforehand. It’s a complicated analysis to figure out what can be carved out as a separate property, and what ends up a community asset. Tracing these interests can be tedious and painstaking. We’re skilled at parsing out shared and separate assets backed by legal logic and clear proof.
All the numbers look good on paper but do not translate to reality.
Sometimes, you’ll get a financial settlement that seems ideal. When push comes to payouts, however, the actual dollars might not make sense. Why is this? Stocks, house values, pensions, and other assets can vary in valuation at different points in time. Both tax consequences and future growth possibilities are involved. We look out for this—and look out for you.
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