What Do I Get to Keep After My Divorce?

When couples get divorced, one of the first things on their mind is: What do I get? Divorce is a stressful situation, so knowing that you’ll get something softens the blow a little. But still, you want to make sure you get your fair share based on what you contributed to the marriage.

Marital property division is complex, especially when the couple has been married for decades and has accumulated numerous assets during that time. Ultimately, marital property is divided in an equitable manner as the court sees fit. However, there is no formula for determining who gets to keep what assets. To be clear, you and your spouse may agree on property division during mediation. If you can’t agree on your own, though, a judge will. You may or may not receive the assets you deserve, which is why it’s a good idea to have a lawyer on your side.

What is Considered Marital Property?

Just about everything acquired during the marriage is subject to split in a divorce. This includes not only cash but also homes, vehicles, boats, furniture, antiques, collections, businesses, stocks, retirement accounts and pensions. This is referred to as marital property.

It doesn’t matter if a certain asset””such as a home, vehicle or 401(k) account””is titled in one person’s name only. If one spouse has a sports car in their name only, the other spouse still has the rights to it in the divorce regardless of titling.

What is Considered Non-Marital Property?

There are some exceptions to the above, though. Not everything acquired during the marriage may be marital property. For example, gifts and inheritances given to one person from a third party are considered separate property. The same goes for pain and suffering payments from a personal injury award. Property that a person bought before the marriage is also considered non-marital property.

It’s important to understand, however, that separate property can easily become marital property if it’s not protected. For example, if you receive an inheritance and put it in your joint checking account, it can now be used by the other spouse. This process is known as commingling.

The same applies to property owned before marriage. If you bought a house before you were married, but your spouse has paid to maintain it, then it is now marital property and subject to split in a divorce.

Contact a Highlands Ranch Divorce Attorney Today for Help

Dividing property can be tricky during a divorce since not all assets are worth what they appear to be once you factor in taxes, fees and other things that can decrease an asset’s value. It’s important that you understand what you’re entitled to receive in a divorce while protecting non-marital assets.

If you are going through a divorce, make sure you get your fair share. The Highlands Ranch divorce attorneys at Divorce Matters can help. We can assess your assets and help you make the right decisions. Schedule a consultation today by contacting us at (720) 408-6595.

How Can Adultery Affect Your Divorce?

We expect that our spouses will remain faithful to us throughout our marriages. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen. Sadly, some spouses stray and are unfaithful to their partners. When these relationships cross the line and lead to sexual intercourse, it is considered adultery. Many couples are not able to overcome this challenge; here, the marriages are ruined and the next step is divorce.

Colorado is a no-fault divorce state, so you don’t need a reason to get divorced. Adultery is not considered grounds for divorce. However, in some cases, the presence of adultery in a divorce case may affect certain parts of the outcome. Ultimately, anyone who is considering divorce as a result of adultery should reach out to a skilled legal professional for immediate help.

Distribution of Assets

In some circumstances, adultery can affect asset division in a divorce. For example, the unfaithful individual may spend money to support their affair. They may pay for hotels, dinners, flowers, expensive jewelry and other gifts. Here, it’s important to note that when a couple is married, they have a duty to manage finances in a way that benefits the family;. When money that should be going toward a mortgage, food, utilities and other household expenses is going toward another individual, it becomes an issue, and is known as dissipation of assets. If a married individual has proof of these expenditures on someone else, they can use it against their spouse and seek a higher amount of assets to make up for these spending habits.

Child Custody

A mother or father is not likely to be denied custody of their children based solely on the fact that they cheated on their spouse. A person can be a poor spouse, but a wonderful parent. It’s not fair to deny children their parents’ love simply because their parents could not stay faithful. This is not a parenting issue.

Adultery can rear its ugly head in child custody situations, however. For example, if the parents cannot move on from the situation after divorce, tensions can build up and affect the children. A different parenting approach””such as parallel parenting””may need to be used to allow both parents to raise their children in a way they see fit.

Adultery may affect child custody decisions if the parent carried on the relationship in front of the children. Exposing the children to inappropriate situations during the course of the affair can negatively affect a custody agreement.

Reach Out to Our Highlands Ranch Divorce Attorneys Today

If you are divorcing because of your spouse’s adultery, you will understandably feel shocked and angry. However, your spouse’s indiscretions may not affect the outcome of your divorce.  Get help from the divorce attorneys at Divorce Matters. We can answer your questions about adultery and divorce. To schedule a consultation, contact us by calling (720) 408-7469 today.

How to Get Back into Dating in Aurora

Your divorce was finalized a year ago and you’ve adjusted to life as a single man or woman. By now, you may be missing having a partner in your life. Perhaps it would be nice to have someone to have dinner and do things and engage with on a romantic level.

Everybody has their own timeline when it comes to dating after divorce. Some people wait six months, while others wait a year. Two years is the golden rule for some people. Whatever you decide, you’ll have to prepare for your return to the dating world.

Depending on how long you’ve been married, you may not have dated in many years or even decades. Dating is different now, and you’ll need to take some time to get used to the dating game again. Here are some tips to help you find love again.

Getting Ready to Date Again

Before you start meeting new people, reinvent yourself by updating your wardrobe. Your work outfits may not be enough to make you stand out. Colorful clothing with accessories may do the trick.

Where to Meet New People

If your routine consists of going to work, swinging by the grocery store and heading home, you’ll need to change things up a little. In order to meet people, you’ll need to make an effort to get out more. Join a gym. Sign up for a class in something that interests you.

A bar might be a good place to find a date””but not just any bar. Consider hanging out a more upscale bar, such as one in a restaurant or hotel. Sit at the bar””not at a table””and order a drink or some food. These bars tend to have friendly people, so you’re sure to meet some fun people who are not necessarily looking to get drunk or have a one-night stand.

Many people find dates through speed dating. Speed dating allows you to meet a dozen or so men or women in a short amount of time. You sit down with them for a few minutes, and then when time is up, you move on to the next “date.” It’s a quick way to get to know people.

If you’re having trouble meeting potential dates in person, try online dating. Many people are in long-term relationships with people they met online.  There are many sites that can connect you with others who have similar interests.

Seek Advice from an Experienced Aurora Divorce Lawyer about Dating After Divorce

Divorce is a scary situation, and it marks a big change in a person’s life. After a divorce, you may feel lonely and want to begin a new relationship. The Aurora divorce attorneys at Divorce Matters can help you move on after your marriage ends and advise you on any other issues regarding family law in Colorado. For help with your divorce and the new life that awaits you, contact us at (720) 408-7469.

How Divorce Will Affect Your Lakewood Taxes

A divorce is probably the biggest headache a married couple in Lakewood could potentially face. A divorce splits apart a family, as well as the assets. One home becomes two. A divorce has financial implications for all involved.

You may have just finalized your divorce and now you have another concern: taxes. This year, tax day is on April 17, so you have just a couple more months to get your return filed with the IRS.

If you think your taxes were difficult in the past, they’ll be even more challenging now that you’re divorced. The date your divorce was finalized, as well as child support, child custody and alimony, will all affect your taxes

While programs such as TurboTax will be able to walk you through the process of filing your taxes after a divorce, you may want to invest in the help of a Lakewood accountant or other financial professional, especially if you are newly divorced. Here are some things to keep in mind throughout the process.

Choose the Right Filing Status

Your marital status on December 31 controls how you file your taxes. If you were not officially divorced by December 31, you have the option to file a joint return or file separately. If you were divorced by that date, you will need to file separately. You can file head of household if you had custody of a child for more than half of the year.

Child Support and Alimony Comes With Taxes

Tax laws regarding child support and alimony can be confusing. Child support is not reported as income and is not deductible to the payer. Conversely, alimony is tax deductible for the payer and is counted as income.

Claiming Children as Exemptions

The exemption for children goes to the custodial parent, unless the divorce decree says otherwise. If you share joint custody, the exemption goes to the parent who had the children for the greater number of days in the year.

Consider Changing Your Tax Withheld

If you are employed, a change in marital status may require you to change your exemptions on the W-4 form. Now that you are single, you may not be having enough money taken out of your paycheck for taxes. This is especially true if you are now receiving alimony or have other tax liabilities. If you owe money this tax season, make some changes to your W-4 so you’re not having to write a huge check to the IRS next April.

Do You Have Questions About Taxes and Divorce? Seek Advice from an Experienced Lakewood Divorce Attorney

A divorce can impact many areas of your life, including finances and taxes. The Lakewood divorce lawyers at Divorce Matters can help you understand what to expect when tax season rolls around, and advise you on other matters involving family law in Colorado. To learn more about what you can expect in your new life after divorce, contact us at (720) 408-7469.

Child Support and the Gig Economy

Avoiding child support payments is nothing new, but the way people try to hide their income is new. There are tried and true methods for obtaining child support. Obtaining tax refunds, garnishing wages and bank accounts are straightforward methods that work. However, these tactics rarely work for the gig economy. The gig economy is a fancy way of saying the self-employed economy. Another word that people like to use is freelancing, but it all means self-employed.

Why Being Self-Employed Makes It Harder for Child Support Collections

The self-employed rarely have tax refunds, and they almost always owe taxes at the end of the year.  They can time their payments to the IRS to avoid ever having a tax refund. The self-employed often don’t have actual wages to garnish and bank accounts are often in a company name, not subject to garnishment for individual child support obligations. The self-employed are sometimes paid in cash which is almost impossible to trace or collect.  For these reasons, the self-employed have always posed a problem for child support collections.

One of the obstacles with the gig economy is that when someone is self-employed is not easy to track their earnings or income. Employers report new hires to data bases for child support enforcement, but employers do not have to report contractors. This means that companies such as Uber or Airbnb do not report to these databases because they hire contractors and not employees.

How Can You Overcome This Obstacle?

Payments to contractors can be garnished once they are discovered and a private family law attorney can assist in collecting. But often the self- employed person moves onto a new gig once the old gig is discovered and garnished. The new gig economy poses new problems for child support enforcement and as the gig economy grows, so does the problem of child support collections.

Contact A Divorce Matters Attorney For Help With Obtaining Child Support

If you have questions, contact us here at Divorce Matters. We can help you try and recover child support if you find yourself on the wrong side of the new gig economy. Visit us at www-divorce-matters.com for more information.

When Should I Get Divorced?

As experienced Denver divorce attorneys, one of the most common questions we hear from clients concerns the timing of their divorce. While this will depend on the specific circumstances surrounding your case, the following are ramifications you will want to consider.

The Best Time of Year to Get a Divorce

If you experience issues in your marriage such as a spouse’s alcohol or drug use and domestic violence, you may need to act quickly to protect your family’s safety and well being. If your breakup is more about long-simmering resentments or disagreements that have caused you to grow apart, giving thought to the timing of your divorce is a smart move.

Due to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax laws regarding filing status, January is often considered the best time for getting a divorce:

  • If you were separated or filed for divorce on December 31st or at any prior time during the year but your divorce was not finalized, you are considered as married for the entire year and can file a joint return.
  • If your divorce was finalized on December 31 or any time prior in the year, you are considered unmarried and are required to file as a single taxpayer.

Filing status can have a significant impact on taxes you may be required to pay or refunds you may be owed and is a common reason for timing a divorce.

Other Considerations in Timing Your Divorce

In addition to tax ramifications, there are other important issues to consider in deciding when to file for divorce. Under the Colorado Dissolution of Marriage Act (C.R.S. 14-10), couples must meet residency requirements, but since Colorado is a ”˜no fault’ state, the only grounds for divorce are irreconcilable differences.

While fault grounds such as adultery, habitual drunkenness, desertion, and mental cruelty do not impact your ability to get a divorce, they can have an effect on issues such as property division, child custody, and spousal support. Remaining married to a spouse who has engaged in these types of behaviors may be viewed as condonation, meaning that you either forgive your spouse or accept their acts. Other issues to consider in timing your divorce include:

  • Impact on children: If you have small children, you may be reluctant to separate over the holiday or during their school breaks. At the same time, custody issues due to a divorce during the school year could necessitate a change in school districts.  
  • Financial preparedness: Prior to filing for divorce, it is best to be financially prepared. In addition to finding housing that is affordable on one income, you will want to have your own bank accounts and lines of credit established, make copies of important documents, and conduct a thorough inventory of all marital property and assets.  

When determining when the time is right for you to seek a divorce, it is important to speak with an experienced Colorado divorce attorney. Call or contact Divorce Matters online and request a consultation today. Serving Denver and the surrounding areas, we provide the trusted legal advice you need to protect yourself and your family.

Stock Options During a Divorce

Stock options are a common form of compensation, the idea being to align the interests of the company and the employee. Therefore, the employee will have a vested interested in the company’s performance. But when spouses no longer have a vested interest in one another, the question arises over who has a vested interest in the stock options.

Stock options present one of the more complicated issues in the division of property during a divorce. First a court must determine if the options are “vested.” The term vested for family law may be very different than vested for IRS purposes. In family law the courts look to determine whether the employer can withdraw or retract the options.
To be martial property the options must also have matured. By matured, the focus is whether the option holder can exercise the options or turn them into cash. Then, the court must determine whether a vested and matured option is martial property which is often very specific to each individual case. An option to induce some future performance such as continued employment is usually not marital property. An option for some past performance usually is martial property. For example, an option granted to induce a move in work location or an option granted to change companies would be marital property.
Each option grant has to be evaluated separately to determine the nature and extent that option is marital or separate property.

What Kind of Divorce is Right for You?

No two divorces are the same. The legal assistance and procedures you choose will depend on your relationship with your spouse, pertinent child custody matters, marital assets, and personal resources. There are several paths you can take to obtain a divorce. Find out more about the different divorce forms to learn which option is best for you.

Uncontested Divorce

An uncontested divorce is for couples that have no issues to resolve before the divorce can be granted. If the spouses agree on every aspect of the divorce, they may choose to file jointly. Uncontested divorces can be obtained without legal counsel if desired. This option works best for spouses with no children and limited resources that are seeking a “quickie divorce.” While uncontested divorce is typically the least expensive form of divorce, it can also be a risky choice. One spouse may be unduly influenced by the other to accept the “raw end of the deal.” Spouses that fail to address every issue in their divorce agreement may end up going back to court at a later date.

Collaborative Divorce

Collaborative divorce is the process of resolving divorce matters as a team. Each spouse hires a separate attorney, but all parties work together to find a solution to property distribution and child custody issues. This process works well for divorces with few contentious issues involving amicable, cooperative spouses. However, if the parties cannot reach an agreement, they may have to retain new counsel and start from scratch.

Mediated Divorce

Mediation can be a very effective approach to reach a mutually agreeable divorce settlement. The spouses, with or without separate counsel, sit down with a neutral third party to resolve their financial and parenting issues. This form of divorce works well for many couples, as long as both spouses are willing to cooperate and compromise.

Divorce Settlement

The most common form of divorce is the out-of-court settlement. Each spouse is represented by his or her own attorney who oversees the negotiation process. When the parties reach a divorce agreement, they submit their proposal to the court for approval.

Contested Divorce

When negotiation and dispute resolution attempts fail, a contested divorce may be necessary. In a contested divorce, the spouses present their arguments in front of a judge or jury, who decides the issues for them. This is the most complicated, time-consuming, and expensive form of divorce. It is only recommended for those with complex asset division or child custody issues, or those dealing with a hostile spouse.

Arbitration

A less commonly used option is divorce arbitration. The process is often faster and less formal than a full trial, but the issues are still heard and decided by a neutral third party. The arbitrator’s decisions are legally binding, so it is only a good option for those who wish to preserve time, money, and privacy, but have been unable to reach a divorce settlement.

Need Legal Assistance? Call a Colorado Divorce Attorney

Divorce Matters is a Denver-based law firm that focuses on divorce and family law issues. Contact us today to schedule a consultation and let us assist you throughout each step of your case.

Co-Parenting During the Holiday Season

Co-parenting isn’t always the easiest to navigate during normal times of the year but when you inject the holidays into the mix it can seem downright impossible. The important thing to keep in mind is that it isn’t really about you or your ex, it’s really about your children. When you remember this, it can help you through anything the holiday season might throw your way. And with a little advanced planning with your co-parent, this holiday season can go off without a hitch!

The biggest thing to remember is that your children are the focus this holiday season. Try to make things as easy as possible for them even if that means you won’t get them on exactly the days that you want. This will require advanced planning between you and your co-parent, seeing which days make sense for whom so that your children get to visit with family and still enjoy their time. This will also require some flexibility on your part in case things don’t go exactly as planned. If you need to go with the flow the stress shouldn’t felt by your children.

You will also want to make sure that you coordinate gifts with your co-parent. Not only do you not want to repeat a gift for your child, but you also want to make sure that you both agree upon a certain level of spend. You’ll want to make sure that one co-parent doesn’t feel alienated because the other buys extravagantly. You also want to show a united front and to do so you must make sure that things off limits in one household aren’t being provided in another.

Finally, make sure that you prioritize a little bit of time for yourself. If you aren’t going to have your children the entire holiday season don’t let that time alone daunt you. Use this time for yourself, to relax and enjoy yourself. Spend some quality time with friends you haven’t seen in a while and catch up. Or you can use the time to take a relaxing bath and watch your favorite movies. Whatever helps you destress, use the time you have alone to do just that and you’ll feel rejuvenated.

Surviving Divorce During the Holidays

There is never an easy time to end a marriage, but going through a divorce during the holidays can be particularly challenging. Dealing with loneliness, custody battles, and nosey extended family members is enough to turn anyone into a Grinch. While there is nothing fun about getting divorced this time of year, it doesn’t have to ruin your holiday. Here are some tips to help you make it through the new year stronger and better than ever.

Loneliness During the Holidays

Being suddenly alone during the season of togetherness can be hard. It is normal to feel sad, angry, nostalgic, or any mix of indescribable emotions. If you find yourself in this unfortunate boat this holiday season, know that you are not alone. Let yourself be sad, but do not allow yourself to wallow in self-pity.

To combat loneliness in a healthy way, invest your time in strengthening relationships with family and friends, cultivating a hobby, or learning a new skill. Start a new tradition or check something off your holiday bucket list. Avoid unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as overindulgence in alcohol. Finally, do not be afraid to reach out to a friend or professional therapist if you need to talk.

Holiday Custody Issues

If you are newly separated or divorced, this season may mark the first holiday you spend away from your children. Some families decide to split the holiday in order to give each parent time with their children. Whatever your custody arrangement is this year, remember to be flexible. If you compromise to accommodate your former spouse’s Christmas schedule this time, your ex may be more willing to extend the same grace to you on the next big holiday.

For those who are already successfully co-parenting, consider celebrating the holiday together with your children. This allows a child to maximize the time she can spend with both her parents. If you are not ready or willing to spend Christmas in the same house as your ex, it’s okay (few recently divorced spouses are). In time, you and your former spouse may be able to set differences aside to share the occasional family dinner with your children.

Family Matters During Divorce

If this is your first Christmas since the separation or divorce, your children may face a difficult time adjusting to the changes. Let them know it is normal to be sad or disappointed that the holidays are different this year. To ease their transition, keep their favorite holiday traditions alive, and introduce a couple new ones as well.

Recently separated or divorced couples should also be prepared to field awkward questions from extended family members and acquaintances during holiday get-togethers. Whether your distant relatives are well-meaning or simply nosey, a conversation can quickly take a dark turn when you are newly divorced. If you anticipate the third degree from your great aunts when you show up to the Christmas party sans husband, try to plan your answers in advance. Practice delivering a brief “statement” that explains your new life situation without rehashing all the ugly details.

Divorce and the Holidays

For assistance with divorce, custody, or other family law issues, contact the Denver divorce lawyers at Divorce Matters. We are eager to assist you today.