Six Action Steps to Take Immediately After Your Divorce

After Your Divorce It might seem as though the biggest of the hurdles is over after you’ve gotten through the process of getting your divorce approved in Florida. Hiring the right attorney to help you from start to finish can make all the difference when you are terminating your marriage.

Some of the most pertinent aspects decided in Florida divorces include child support, alimony, child custody, and division of property. That being said, however, thinking about the end of your marriage and managing your life after divorce doesn’t end when you’ve had the divorce decree handed to you.

There are several important steps you need to take in order to protect yourself after your divorce is final.

1. Apply for New Credit Cards and Open New Accounts

Hopefully you will have already closed any joint accounts with your former spouse but it might make sense to apply for a new credit card as well.

Some individuals choose to apply for a new credit card before they cancel joint accounts depending on their credit situation.

While a credit card should never be relied upon as your primary financial resource, it can be an important emergency access fund in the event that you need to get back on your feet after divorce has happened.

2. Set Up a Meeting with Your Insurance Broker

You need to update the beneficiaries on your insurance policies, especially life insurance. Remember that if something happens to you, the insurance company is only going to follow through your instructions as they were most recently updated.

This means that if you’ve still got your spouse in your life insurance account, he or she would be entitled to receive the benefits. Of course, divorce is also a great time to enhance your umbrella liability coverage.

Look at all of the assets currently on your homeowners’ policy and screen out anything received by your spouse in the divorce.

3. Set Up a Meeting with Your Investment Broker

If your spouse is the one taking control financially, there may be things that you own or have access to that you’re not quite familiar with.

This is a good chance to educate yourself and set up a meeting with your investment broker to make sure that all of your information is accurate and so that you can get a better picture of your future financially.

4. Retitle Any Newly Received Assets

If the assets you have received in the divorce decree were previously titled jointly between you and your spouse, you need to get these retitled. This is particularly true if a house is one of those assets.

5. Think About Moving

It’s never easy to contemplate whether it’s the right decision to move from your family home or not, but your previous residence can be tied up with all kinds of unfortunate memories that can trigger the emotional impacts of the end of your marriage. Think carefully about whether or not selling the home is the right choice for you.

If you receive the property in the divorce and are counting on the sale of the home to generate short term cash flow for you, remember that it can take a while to sell a home and to see the financial benefits from this.

It can be a very difficult process to decide to move because it is expensive and that your house is not necessarily a liquid asset. Approach the home as an investment asset and make decisions from that standpoint too.

6. Evaluate Any Assets That You Might Be Able to Sell

If you have concerns about your financial future and are wondering how to get your footing more solid in the immediate aftermath of a divorce, you may have some assets that you owned personally before the divorce or that you received in the division of property award that can be sold allowing you to move on.

If finances are holding you back from being able to make important decisions about your future, such as where to move or whether or not to purchase a new home or take a new job, selling off a couple of valuables can give you the cash to make this a reality.

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Speak with a Knowledgeable Tampa Divorce Attorney

If you’re thinking about getting a divorce in Tampa, finding the right Tampa divorce attorney to help you through this process can make a tremendous difference on your internal stress and understanding of the process.

Learn about whether a divorce party could make the process of ending your marriage easier for you: https://www.bchanlaw.com/can-divorce-parties-ease-the-pain-of-splitting-up/

By Blair H. Chan, III, PLLC | Posted on August 1, 2016