Never Surrender the House in a Divorce

If you're about to file for divorce, think twice before moving out of the marital residence. When the tension is thick enough to cut with a knife, many spouses voluntarily move out of the marital residence. They surrender the castle before considering the consequences of such a move. Many discover too late that surrendering the marital residence will cost them dearly. Judges prefer to keep children in the marital residence. Where both parents want custody and are equally capable of caring for the children, the spouse who remains in the marital residence often times is awarded temporary custody. This often leads to permanent custody.

If the marital residence is ordered sold, the spouse who retains possession often lives in the house for months or even years at the other parties expense. This problem is amplified in these tough economic times as home sit on the open market for years before being sold. While it is possible to draft provisions in divorce settlements to fairly address this inequity, more times than not, this issue is simply ignored.

Because both parties are entitled to remain in the marital residence until a court issues an order to the contrary, it is advisable to remain in the marital residence until you are forced to vacate. Most divorce lawyers say never surrender the castle until you are forced to.

Parties going through a divorce often hide assets for themselves in order to gain an unfair advantage when a Judge divides up the marital estate. Unfortunately courts are reluctant to sanction a party when this attempted fraud is exposed. Consequently, this devious and deceptive practice continues to thrive in American courts.

The most common approach to hiding assets is to merely understate the value of an asset. Sometimes this is done with the aid of an expert witness, who is willing to compromise his or her integrity for a sum of money. Other times it is merely the litigant's personal opinion on the assets value.

A far more sinister approach, however, involves the complete disappearance or non-disclosure of a marital asset. People often empty out their bank accounts just prior to filing and later claim the money was spent on some untraceable expenditure. They also sell assets to friends or family members for a nominal amount in order to set up a sham transaction thereby preserving the asset for themselves once the divorce is finalized. Keep your eye on your eye on your assets, and hold onto that house.

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Waiting on An Inheritance That May Never Come

For centuries, tradition and familial loyalty dictated that wealth was to remain in the family at all costs. The result was that even the family "black sheep" typically stood to inherit something when the family patriarch or matriarch died. There were practical as well as emotional reasons for passing down wealth. There were also a set of spoken, or unspoken, rules that potential heirs were expected to abide by in order to remain in line to inherit the bulk of the family fortune in most cases. Times have changed and along with them the likelihood of inheriting a substantial amount of wealth from elderly family members. There are a number of factors that may turn waiting on an inheritance into a wait for something that never comes.

- Families do not work together as much as they once did. For this reason, the family leader may not have as much incentive to pass down the wealth in an attempt to continue the "family business."

- Families are divided, blended and reconstructed. With the divorce rate hovering around 50 percent, and blended families a significant factor, dividing and bequeathing family wealth can be complicated. By the time it is funneled down to everyone involved, the amount a beneficiary receives may be significantly less than expected.

- Family feuds can drain the wealth. Families have feuded over money for centuries; however, a modern day family feud can end up costing sizable legal which can reduce the size of the estate to be distributed to the heirs and beneficiaries.

- People are living longer. Living longer means that large sums could be spent on living expenses before it can be passed down to family members.

- Depression era family members aren't pleased with the way future generations have handled money. As a result, some are choosing to live it up at the end of life instead of passing the money on to heirs who will simply blow it themselves.

- Beneficiaries may end up spending their inheritance before they even see a dime of it. Many of the elderly do not qualify for government programs that help pay the bills. As a result, children and grandchildren may be called upon to help, effectively spending any potential inheritance money before it even gets to them.

Each of these circumstances present potential problems in the ultimate distribution of a person's estate upon their passing. The good news is that there are many effective planning strategies that can eliminate, or at least minimize, these problems. The place to start is a consultation with an experienced and qualified estate planning attorney.

Experienced estate planning attorneys Sacramento CA of the Northern California Estate Planning Counselors, LLP offers estate planning and business planning resources to residents of Sacramento CA. To learn more about these free resources, please visit http://www.norcalplanners.com/ today.

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