Know Your Future Expenses And Your Spouse's Assets In A Divorce Proceeding

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In Pennsylvania, the divorce statute provides for equitable division of assets. Therefore, regardless of who owns the majority of the assets the Court will consider 11 factors including length of marriage, income of the parties and whether there are minor children. An examination of the 11 factors usually leads to a more equitable division of the assets based on the parties' current financial positions and future needs.

Some of the most common problems a divorced spouse finds pertaining to investments are a lack of current information or access to information to effectuate the transfer of assets to the financially dependent spouse. Pennsylvania permits discovery in a divorce action and parties are required to file inventories of their assets with the Court. But in many cases, a spouse doesn't comply with document requests or he or she provides only piecemeal information. Noncompliance with discovery can lead to long delays and be costly. After the divorce, assets will have to be distributed to the financially dependent spouse. This may be difficult if there is a transfer of a retirement plan from one spouse to the other. Most plan administrators will not speak to the nonemployee spouse or the spouse's attorney so it is difficult to get information to transfer retirement assets. There can be long, expensive delays in the transfer process which can result in a frustrated client.