Posted on April 12, 2016 in Divorce

Once you and your spouse have made the decision to divorce, the next step is telling your children. This is not always easy. While all children react differently to the news that their parents are splitting, most parents should expect some confusion from their children. In time, and through healthy co-parenting, your children will recover. What is the best way to break the news to your kids? How many details of your upcoming divorce do you share with them? What do you tell them when you yourself are uncertain about the future? Following these tips from divorce experts and psychologists may help.

Be Honest

Announcing your split to your children can be devastating. No parent wants to alarm their children, or leave them confused, afraid, angry, or feeling alone. As difficult as sharing the news of your divorce may be, divorce experts say it is important that your children hear the news from you directly. Do not let your children draws conclusions on their own. Instead, pick a good time to sit down with your children and break the news. Remind them that even though their parents are separating, they are still loved and supported. Also reassure them that the split has nothing to do with them, and that even though the transition time may be difficult, things will get better.

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 Posted on April 07, 2016 in Child Custody

Even the most friendly of co-parents may struggle from time to time. Managing a child’s life can be difficult, especially from two different homes. As modern-day technology continues to simplify many aspects of daily life, it comes as no surprise that co-parents now have a bevy of new apps to turn to for support. Intended to be downloaded on a smartphone or tablet, these apps help co-parents be the best parents they can be, from helping them manage their children’s schedules to making child support payments. If you are a divorced co-parent, here are a few new apps that can help simplify your life.

Our Family Wizard

Our Family Wizard is one of the most popular parenting apps available. The program provides parents with numerous tools and resources to make co-parenting easier and more efficient. Parents can use the program to track parenting time schedules, share important family information, track child expenses, and make support payments. Additionally, the program provides a channel for communication between exes that can be tracked by court officials. Some courts have recently been requiring conflicted couples to download and use the app post divorce.

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 Posted on April 05, 2016 in Divorce

Have you ever wondered which country in the world has the highest divorce rate? You may be quick to think it is the United States, due to nearly half of all marriages in the United States ending in divorce today. America is high on the list, coming in at the third highest divorce rate in the world, with 4 divorces per thousand citizens. That number may be high, but it is less than half the divorce rate of the country with the most divorces in the world. Surprisingly, the Maldives, a tropical paradise comprised of 1,200 tiny islands, holds the Guinness World Record for the highest divorce rate in the world, coming in at a staggering 11 divorces per thousand people. What is causing this trouble in paradise?

Strict Religion, But Quick Divorces

According to the United Nations, the average female resident of the Maldives has been divorced three times by the time she is 30 years old. That number is significant, even as the stigma surrounding divorce dissipates around the world. According to an expert with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, the startling divorce rate can be accredited to the country’s primary religion. The Maldives is a Muslim country, and premarital sex is not permitted under Sharia Law. The country’s young population, experts say, have found a way around the disapproval of their religion. Instead of premarital sex, young Maldivians get married, which can cost as little as ten dollars, and is not as significant a process as it is in much of the rest of the world. Once married, the couple is free to do as they please.

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 Posted on March 31, 2016 in Divorce

Divorce is a challenging process for everyone involved. While you cope with your emotions, your children are processing their own feelings. Parents often feel guilty when it comes to divorce and their children. No, your children most likely did not ask for you and your spouse to separate, and they may struggle during the initial transition time. That does not mean divorce was the wrong decision. Instead of dwelling on guilt, focus on ways to help your children cope with the process and come out feeling loved and supported.

As a parent, you can help your children in a number of ways. You can reassure them, provide as stable a transition as possible, and work through any issues with your ex to ensure your children will continue to have both parents in their lives. All of this on top of dealing with your own emotions can be difficult. Too often, parents prioritize their children over themselves when coping with divorce. While your children do deserve extra support, you can only be your most effective self when you have taken care of you. Remember the saying on an airplane? “Secure your own oxygen mask before helping others.” You need to take care of yourself first, so you can be the best parent possible for your children during this challenging time.

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 Posted on March 29, 2016 in Divorce

While uncommon, financial fraud does occur during divorce. In most cases, one spouse attempts to hide or misrepresent assets, and their actions, if successful, can lead to an unfair divorce settlement. How can you tell if your spouse is hiding money from you, or trying to scam you out of a fair settlement in some way? There are a few common red flags that can indicate your spouse is being shady with your finances, and a few places you can turn to for help. The first step is recognizing that the problem is occurring.

Warning Signs

If you and your spouse are about to divorce, or already in the midst of the divorce process, you may be dealing with some unresolved emotions. Anger, betrayal, frustration, and sadness are common. If your spouse was unfaithful or asked for a divorce out of the blue, your trust in them may be shaken. What else have they been keeping from you? Are they trying to skew your divorce settlement, or commit some other type of financial fraud? If you have a solid grasp on your family’s finances and do not notice anything out of the ordinary, it is unlikely any fraudulent activity is taking place. The more complicated your shared finances are, however, the more chances your spouse has to commit fraud against you. The more places you have assets stored, the easier it is for your spouse to be fraudulent. Divorce experts say to pay attention to these few key indicators:

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 Posted on March 24, 2016 in Divorce

Choosing to consult a divorce attorney can be a difficult decision. Many people hesitate to seek help, as they may feel their marital problems are unsolvable, or that they failed at their relationship. In reality, an initial consultation with an attorney is just that - a chance to learn more about your options without being committed to anything. Simply meeting with an attorney does not mean you are locked into a divorce, but an experienced attorney will be able to present to you your future options should you choose to proceed.

People often wonder what their first meeting will be like, and for many individuals, a consultation with a divorce lawyer may be the first experience they have with an attorney of any kind. While you should not feel nervous or uncomfortable, you should come prepared to be honest and inquisitive. Prior to your first consultation with an attorney, consider these steps for preparing yourself.

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 Posted on March 22, 2016 in Prenuptial Agreements

According to a recently released survey by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), 50 percent of divorce attorneys nationwide report an increase in couples seeking postnuptial agreements. You have likely heard of prenuptial agreements, documents that couples draft before their marriage that detail what should happen in the event of divorce. Lawyers across the country recommend prenuptial agreements, and say that, while nobody enjoys discussing a divorce before their marriage, the documents help couples avoid potential marital conflicts before they arise. In Illinois, a prenuptial agreement can cover a variety of topics, such as property division and inheritance matters. A postnuptial agreement serves a similar purpose but is accessible to couples after they are married.

Why Get a Postnuptial Agreement?

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 Posted on March 17, 2016 in Domestic Violence

When thinking about domestic violence, our minds tend to picture a female victim on the receiving end of emotional or physical abuse. While the numbers on female domestic violence victims are certainly startling, domestic violence advocates across the country are hoping to bring attention to the fact that domestic violence affects men as well. Men in same-sex and heterosexual relationships can and, unfortunately, often do become the victims of domestic violence. In fact, according to the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey conducted in 2010, one American man is abused by a spouse, intimate, or domestic partner every 37.8 seconds. That is over three million male victims each year in the United States alone. Those numbers may pale in comparison to statistics on female domestic violence victims, but advocates believe the issue still deserves more attention.

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 Posted on March 15, 2016 in Divorce

As smartphone apps like Tinder and OkCupid continue to gain popularity, dating in America has become increasingly digital. Most of us know a happy couple who met and fell in love through a dating app, and many of those relationships lead to happy marriages. Not all of these apps, however, are about finding love. A group of new companies are hoping to simplify another aspect of relationships: separation. Companies like Wevorce and Separate.us now offer users the ability to divorce their spouse through an app on their smartphone or tablet, and at a much lower cost than a typical divorce. Can the complex divorce process really be navigated via an app?

Divorce Online

Promising to keep couples from paying large legal fees, new start-ups like Wevorce and Separate.us allow users to navigate the divorce process for a significantly smaller fee. A simple "traditional" divorce with assistance from an attorney can still be relatively inexpensive, as little as $2,500, according to John Slowiaczek, the president-elect of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. These divorce apps, however, purport to offer couples solutions for under $1,000. Wevorce, for example, has a step-by-step guide that helps users navigate the divorce process, complete with mediators who are accessible through video-conferencing. Wevorce’s packages start at $749. Another company, Separate.us, makes it possible for users to divorce for as little as $1,000, depending on the circumstances of their divorce. These companies aim to help couples divorce without legal representation, which is where the high costs typically associated with divorce often come into play. Divorce, however, is complicated, so can couples really trust these apps? In some cases, maybe, but they are not for everyone.

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 Posted on March 10, 2016 in Divorce

High net-worth divorces can become complicated for a number of reasons. Take, for example, a case where two spouses marry but make different lifestyle choices. One spouse pursues a career and amasses wealth while the other focuses on raising children and maintaining the household. The money-earning spouse asks for a divorce, and suddenly, the other spouse has no access to funding to finance her side of the divorce. Should the ‘non-monied’ spouse be left at a disadvantage? Now, financiers hoping to profit off of the high divorce rate in the United States have spearheaded a new industry known as “divorce lending,” which has risen in popularity, especially in high net-worth cases.

How Does Divorce Lending Work?

Major divorce lenders have spread across the United States, each with a varying method of supplying their clients with funds to finance their divorce and living expenses. BBL Churchill, one of the major players in the divorce funding industry, offers its clients loans and charges interest on them. Balance Point Funding, out of Los Angeles, funds their clients and then takes a cut of any marital assets that are won. Those in the divorce funding industry says the goal is to help clients fight for themselves and ensure that they do not settle too early.

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