From community property to parenting time, there are many aspects to be worked through before a divorce is finalized.
On the surface, a divorce can seem pretty straight-forward. You go your way, and I will go mine. But dividing one household into two is much more complex. From community property to parenting time, to sharing financial resources, there are many aspects that must be worked through before a divorce is finalized. The complexity of a divorce can increase with other factors couples encounter as part of the divorce process.
Emotions
Emotions make a divorce complex. There is no doubt that a divorce is an emotional process. You may not be emotionally ready. You may not have been expecting the divorce, while your spouse has been thinking about it for a while. The emotional fallout of a marriage ending can affect your mental clarity. There is anxiety, stress, insecurity, disappointment, resistance, a myriad of feelings. All of which can make the divorce process more complex because you’re not thinking rationally and logically.
When you can approach the division of property and finances required during divorce like a business deal, then you will be much more efficient. Once you’ve worked through all your emotions, calmly working through the numbers is all that is needed to complete the divorce process. However, you or your spouse may not be ready to have these conversations yet, you may still be riding the emotional rollercoaster.
In the Collaborative Divorce Process, a team of professionals is available to support both spouses through the upheaval they’re experiencing. You may start to get frustrated if your spouse isn’t ready for the divorce or your spouse may be frustrated with you delaying the process if you are the one who is not ready. Both spouses benefit when their Collaborative Divorce Coach/Communications Coach guides them to get off the emotional rollercoaster and onto solid ground.
Financial Knowledge
A disparity in financial knowledge can also cause the divorce process to become complex. In many marriages, one spouse manages the finances and investments while the other spouse handles household and childrearing, and that spouse may not have first-hand knowledge about the money. The less knowledgeable spouse will need time to become educated about the family finances which can make it more complex and take longer because you have one person who has more financial knowledge than the other.
Other times, both spouses may be financially knowledgeable, but the challenge is splitting the finances of one household into two. Simply put, it’s more expensive to have two households than one. The Collaborative Divorce team with a neutral financial professional helps you to get creative in finding financial solutions that work for the entire family.
Children
Children complicate the divorce process. You may be worried about having less contact with your children or being less present in their everyday lives. Sharing parenting time as equally as possible (often labeled 50/50) is the best you can do as children cannot be magically sawed in half to permit each parent to have 100% parenting time. Developing a good parenting plan that considers the needs of both parents AND the children is an important part of the divorce process.
In the Collaborative Divorce process, we address all the needs of the family.
You and your spouse each have an attorney to represent you. The goal is not to argue and fight, but for the attorneys to put their heads together to come up with solutions that work for the entire family. The Collaborative Divorce team includes the financial neutral to assist both spouses through the financial aspects and the divorce coach/communications coach supports you through the emotional rollercoaster so you can make better legal and financial decisions.
The Collaborative Divorce process offers all the tools that your family needs without walking into the adversarial courtroom. You and your spouse control the decisions in Collaborative Divorce process, not a stranger to your family – the judge wearing the black robe.
Since 2010, Burbank Lawyer Jami Fosgate has dedicated her law practice to assisting clients in a broad range of Family Law matters. In addition to helping couples and individuals peacefully resolve their cases in a timely and cost-effective manner, Jami Fosgate also provides Family Law Legal Documentation Preparation.
Jami Fosgate’s mediation practice is focused on bringing the parties together to control the outcome of their case and settle their disagreements amicably. By doing so, the parties will be better equipped to co-parent and work together to resolve any future conflicts.
