Divorce 101: How to Effectively Allocate Extracurricular Expenses for Teenagers
If you are in the process of filing for divorce, it is time to consider the needs of your growing children. While younger children have financial needs that are more easily addressed during a divorce, teenagers need additional support that is often difficult to estimate, such as expenses and fees [...]
How High Conflict Parents Can Communicate With Each Other During Divorce
Divorce is never an easy event in one’s life, especially when there is a break down of communication. Divorce is even more challenging when there are kids in the middle. With high conflict parents, talking about kids’ schedules, appointments, and other aspects of the kids can be difficult and sometimes [...]
The Use of Mediation to Address Summer Parenting-Time Issues
All parents face challenges over the summer, but when you are in the middle of a divorce, parenting-time issues are bound to arise. Both parents typically want to have the children for as much time during the summer as possible. The problem is, your kids can’t be in two places [...]
New Tax Law Changes and the Impact on Divorce
The laws for 2018 taxes have changed, impacting those going through a divorce. As of January 1, 2019, spousal maintenance is no longer taxable to the recipient or deductible for the paying party. Due to this change, people are looking at other options for spousal maintenance, or alimony, payments. One [...]
The Best Parenting Time Practices for Summer
Summertime can present a rather rocky road for divorced parents when it comes to parenting time. Early planning can make a huge difference. It is not just timing with your ex that you need to consider. You also need to take into account expectations at work to ensure you get [...]
A Positive Divorce – What We Can Learn From Celebrities
There are certain normal events which create major stress in our lives. The top category is life transitions. These transitions include moving, starting a new job, marriage, divorce, and death. It’s tempting to instantly categorize each of these events as a positive or negative experience, but any one of them [...]
Cohabitation Effects of Spousal Maintenance in Minnesota
Minnesota law, under Minn. Stat. § 518.522, Subd. 6, allows a spousal maintenance award to be modified if the party receiving maintenance or alimony (also known as the obligee), moves in with a significant other. Typically, spousal maintenance terminates upon the remarriage or death of the obligee, but now it [...]
Financial Issues – Qualified Plans Subject to Division
In a Minnesota divorce proceeding, a qualified plan may include any marital portion of a retirement or investment account (IRA), pension plan, or deferred compensation plan that either party has an interest in. However, it is difficult to determine the value of these plans because of their after-tax value – [...]
Navigating FAFSA While Going Through the Divorce Process
Going through a divorce isn’t easy on a family, but when you pair that with one of the kids getting ready to go off to college, it can get a lot more difficult and confusing. Most issues concerning divorce and college are financial. Who is paying for which expenses? What [...]
Minnesota Divorce Issues – Depletion and Dissipation of Assets
Although Depletion and Dissipation of property carry different meanings, in Minnesota divorce cases the terms are sometimes used synonymously by the Court. Dissipation is defined by Minnesota case law as "wasting or expending funds foolishly." Volesky v. Volesky, 412 N.W.2d 750 (Minn. Ct. App. 1987). Spouses have a fiduciary duty [...]