Women in Arizona contemplating divorce might need to brace themselves for unexpected financial issues. A survey of 1,785 women found that 46 percent of them had experienced financial surprises when ending their marriages. Part of the problem arose from the high number of women who had not taken part in the management of marital finances.
According to the survey, 18 percent of women in the 55+ group had let their husbands handle money responsibilities, which included activities like working, paying the bills and making investments. In the group aged 54 and under, even more women, at 23 percent, reported leaving financial affairs in their husbands’ hands.
A Certified Divorce Financial Analyst saw familiar issues in the survey. She said that wives were too often uninformed about marital debts. They did not realize how much the mortgage, car loans, credit cards and other loans added up to. Some had expected child support or spousal support to last longer, and they had not planned on entering the workforce to support themselves. The high cost of health insurance shocked some people as well.
Any person about to get a divorce needs to have a clear understanding of marital assets and debts. This information could help a person make effective decisions when negotiating a divorce settlement and transitioning to a single income. Someone who owns real estate, has an inheritance and or has investments might want the advice of an attorney familiar with high-asset divorce. An attorney may aid in the investigation of marital finances by requesting financial disclosures from the other party. This effort might reveal unknown assets or debts. Legal advice may also help a person understand rights to certain portions of marital property and the tax consequences of distributions that result from splitting retirement accounts or selling property.