Signed Financial Affidavit Made Easy

Esign financial affidavit

you're watching single-process with Joe and Bob we've created this series of videos to help you navigate the difficult process of divorce we hope this helps you topic this episode is on your financial affidavit what is e finance lob can you believe I didn't even drop my own I had my ex-husband draft it for me because I didn't know where to start I'm that can't be a good idea no I can't which is why I mean what a relief Carol's gonna explain what it is what you need to find to put on it because it is probably the most important document it drives so much of the divorce well I understand so anyways Carol Orland who is a founding member and partner at Broder at Orland with law offices in both Greenwich and Westport Connecticut has been practicing family in matrimonial law for over almost 40 years but over 30 years she's consistently recognized among the top 10 attorneys and family law in Connecticut among many other distinctions you're lucky to have you thank you I'm glad to be here good morning yeah this doesn't sound very exciting but the financial affidavit is what it's critical so the financial affidavit is a statement of income expenses assets and liabilities these are expensive okay just an entire financial snapshot on one document it is okay and it sounds easy but sometimes it's complicated because you know some people have sophisticated financial situations alternative assets private equity private businesses okay so hold on what's that glass so for the most basic person who doesn't have complicated is this a form you find somewhere that you can fill out the court actually issues a form there's a short form and a long form can I do the short form to us we don't use the form we've adopted our own form which is acceptable on the court because we think it's a little more tailor-made to our clients needs but it fits the bill and what we typically do is we give our clients a financial affidavit worksheet usually at the first meeting and then then they go oh my God my eye is a classy we try to convince them it shouldn't be that difficult and really there's wines to help you our new expenses what do you pay for groceries what do you know this I wouldn't know where to find this information I don't track what I spend on it it's an it can be a daunting exercise so what people typically will do if you don't keep it you know on your computer or on QuickBooks or whatever and the new fancy app is typically they'll go back to let's say a credit card or they'll go back to their checkbook over the last year like American Express will break up great spending in a little rain I talk right right and I'll tell you groceries entertainment that's maybe sometimes yeah you use a credit card so you know others in addition to American Express do it now and they've broken it down now the trick is your financial affidavit a couple things typically it has to be exchanged pretty early on in the case and practically speaking it's not done so early or it's not done as early as it really should be but parties find their comfort level boys find their comfort level and we exchange them at some point so we'll have our client fill out that financial affidavit worksheet we'll take it and we'll put it into the form but then it's a give-and-take process I mean we need to talk to our client and say look this is how we're reflecting this is this correct did you forget to do this this doesn't make sense let's make sure we footnote certain things out so for example if you don't know what your bonus is going to be in any given year but you had a bonus in the last three years you might put in your base salary in the forum and you might footnote it and say I'm anticipating that I'm getting a discretionary bonus in March of 2017 it may not happen and I don't know how much it will be in past years it's been and maybe even out of schedule because you want to be upfront you want it to be really accurate it's really important sometimes you'll go back to your tax returns previously your tax returns to get some information you'll go back to your bills if you get bills at home or your bills online and you really do the best you can the hardest part is not usually the income for most people your w-2 employee let's say you're gonna look at your last pay stub you at it the harder part is the expenses you know because I remember that I was being asked like what do you spend on personal care well I get my hair done every three months or whatever so how do you analyze that and say what I spend a week right because you have to break it down to what you spend every week or every month and I just found that hard to do and does that really impact how much you get it can because expenses is something the court will look at let's say on the alimony award they'll want to know what are the needs of the parties so that's where expenses come into play and it is hurt because first of all all of us really keeps those kind of records that accurate if you if you file an affidavit on day one of the divorce process and it takes you a year and a half to get divorced what happens to the affidavit along the way so typically it's on on day one but it's supposed to be pretty early so that you exchange it then anytime you have to go into court let's say it's for a pending daily they order a temporary order you're supposed to file or exchange financial affidavits five days before that hearing okay anytime you go in for him and you have to have that financial affidavit if there's anything remotely to do with finances but it has to be current within 30 days of that hearing so you have to constantly update the financial affidavit to be current because things change right so thanks for how much you have in your bank account and Corral of those numbers fluctuate perfect or about any expenses have changed you know it's supposed to be a three month snapshot going back but it doesn't always work that way because sometimes you know of an expense that's coming up and it hasn't happened yet oh you might want to footnote that and say look it's not in my expenses now but this is what I'm gonna have going forward sometimes it's the other way around you've had the extraordinary expense within the last three months but you're not gonna have it any more so you're not gonna annualize that because that doesn't give you a very accurate snapshot Bob you talked to me about what happens if you try and increase your spending and put that near your current right or lie what if you lie I never want to lie ever ever me and you don't want to fluff it up either you want to be true and accurate because each party is entitled to discovery every it's an open book the courts gonna know what you've been doing okay the year being honest and not honest the minute you're caught in a lie your credibility is gone for the rest of the case just don't want to do that you know the other question is what about people who need to depress they're spending pandava see that there's not enough money to go around because maybe wife has moved out and got enough gotten apart yeah that's costing more money so it's more expensive so smart people will you know cut their expenses and they're gonna condense them they're gonna try to get by or less money because the money is not available but going forward there's a recognition that you're gonna necessarily need more money so again if you have a lawyer who's very capable and confident that lawyer is gonna be able to get that message through to the court look this is a financial affidavit now this is my clients expenses but going forward she's gonna need to move to another place she's renting now this is what it's going to cost and we need additional funds to be able to do that okay and if you don't know where to begin with this should you get a certified financial analyst you don't need to do that at all no you just almost every client we have is very capable of going back and figuring out what his or her expenses are they just don't want to know it so we we try to help in that process as much as also you're expensive we are her knees expensive so yeah we try to get the client to do it I'm not saying you can't ask you know I suppose a financial assistant to do it you don't know but most people if they want to can do it on their own okay this is just a question I'm trying to push off something we don't want to do exactly but just do it and we'll help you with it and we'll make it accurate we'll ask you questions and will tell you where to get the information that you think you can't get and that's the other thing if you really don't have access to the yeah because sometimes you don't right we put on the financial affidavit husband does not have access to this financial a financial information wife has it under the bed or in her pocketbook or you know in the vault and I can't yeah you could do that I like that okay you just have to cover everything you got a cover you have to come okay I have to be a buckboard honest straight and do the best you can and if you think you've made a mistake then you're gonna correct it okay really the way you need to deal with it I love it this is great this is great I think what a sample financial affidavit on our website for people to use as a key this is very terrific Thank You Carol you're so thank you for information on this topic and more please log on to our website at single processed on me [Music] you you