One of the most difficult and time-consuming tasks your lawyer need to deal with in your divorce proceedings is the assignment and division of your marital assets. There is substantial paperwork required, especially if one of the parties in the divorce owned property prior to the marriage and it increased in value during the marriage. It will be necessary for both you and your spouse to work with your respective family attorneys to develop a balance sheet of divorce marital assets
Sources of Finance
In order to prepare useful balance sheets used to determine the marital estate in your divorce proceedings, your attorney will use each of the following financial sources:
- Business tax returns
- Personal financial statements
- Business financial statements
- Marital estate disclosures
- Loan applications
Below is a discussion of the more important and utilized sources of balance sheets. Your family attorney can provide you with a more detailed explanation of each source of income.
Business Tax Returns
If you own a business that you started during your marriage, it will be subject to property division upon divorce. It is necessary to obtain a comprehensive business valuation so that the baseline for property distribution discussions accurately reflects the true value of the business and the percentage of that value that is considered marital property. Your lawyer will use your business tax returns as a source of balance sheet to reveal changes in major asset and liability categories.
Personal financial statements
Your family attorneys will also help you prepare a personal financial statement. Typically, these statements are prepared when the individual is applying for loans, but there may be other reasons these personal financial statement may be valuable as well. Your personal financial statement will be prepared based on “fair market value.”
We Can Help
For a consultation please contact Zonder Family Law at (866) 632-6459.