Unfortunately, filing for divorce can translate into a lot of work for you. While your divorce attorney is there to guide you through the legal process, answer your questions, and generally represent your interests in and out of court, you will need to pull together a wealth of information related to your finances.
In some divorce cases, including simplified dissolutions of marriage, spouses do not need to provide this seemingly exhaustive financial information.
If your contested divorce involves matters like child support, time sharing, alimony, or property division, then you will probably need to disclose numerous details about your finances.
What Do You Have to Provide?
In all, there are 16 areas your financial disclosures should address. First, you and your spouse must fill out a Florida Financial Affidavit. Depending on your annual gross income, you will fill out a short-form or long-form affidavit; the threshold is $50,000, though your spouse may request for you to complete the long-form version even if you make less than $50,000 per year.
The other required disclosures include:
- Income, gift, and intangible personal property tax returns going back three years.
- W-2, 1099, and K-1 forms for the past 24 months if you haven’t submitted your income tax return in the current year.
- Past six months’ evidence of income, including pay stubs.
- Loan applications and other financial statements produced within the past 24 months.
- Three years’ worth of deeds, 24 months’ worth of promissory notes, and any leases your name is currently on.
- Checking and savings accounts going back 24 months.
- Brokerage account statements going back 12 months.
- Statements associated with profit sharing, retirement, or pension plans going back 12 months.
- Pertinent documents related to any life insurance policies going back 12 months.
- Last three years of tax returns of trusts, partnerships, and corporations regardless of how much of the entity you own.
- Credit card statements going back 24 months.
- Prenuptial or postnuptial agreements.
- Evidence that certain assets are separate (and not marital) property.
- Existing child support or alimony orders.
- Current cryptocurrency holdings and past 12 months of crypto transactions.
This may not be the only financial information you need to disclose. During the discovery phase of your divorce case, you and your spouse can choose to ask certain questions, called interrogatories, related to each other’s financial circumstances. Sometimes, the answers to these questions must be in writing. You and your spouse also have the right to ask for additional financial records which may be necessary to prove certain elements of a claim or defense. In certain situations, you and your spouse might agree to waive one or more of these required disclosures. The exact documents you need to produce depends on the particulars of your divorce.
Having a skilled Florida family law attorney by your side will help ensure that you and your spouse fulfill all legal obligations. Producing what you need to produce will make your divorce more efficient, and it can help you get a fair settlement. Our firm believes in the merits of negotiating a divorce settlement outside of court, but we are not afraid to fight if your case requires that. To speak with our team over a confidential consultation, call us at (954)-447-2580 today.
