“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein.
A marriage is a partnership…but all partnerships are not equal. Many marriages (especially the ones that end in divorce) have unequal contributions from the two spouses. One spouse will often have a high earning job and also manage the household’s finances while the other spouse devotes themselves to more frivolous, less lucrative activities. After years
The cartoon character Scrooge McDuck would keep all his wealth in one place: a giant vault. Scrooge would then swim in the money he had amassed in order to count it. In real life, wealth is never kept in one place. Often, wealth is not even money. Wealth is usually interests in assets balanced by
People move a lot of money around during an Illinois divorce. Sometimes, parties to a divorce even move real estate around. It is not uncommon for a divorce litigant to suddenly sell real estate to his brother and declare, “that house was always really my brother’s, anyways.” Unfortunately, there is no “automatic stay” that keeps
There are very few contested facts in an Illinois divorce. In fact, there are really only two sets of facts that matter, financially, in an Illinois divorce: the parties’ respective incomes and what assets will be marital property. W2s, Tax Returns and paystubs quickly establish what the incomes are for 90% of divorce litigants. Marital
A divorce with children often provokes selfless feelings by the parents. “So long as the kids are okay,” can quickly turn into, “So long as the kids get everything.” Parents can find themselves transferring marital assets to children to either secure their children’s inheritance or to effectively keep those marital assets from being split in
The first question I ask a potential client is “how long have you been married?” The length of the marriage impacts everything about an Illinois divorce. A short marriage will cause a judge to shrug and think, “They barely even know each other,” while a long marriage will result in pronouncements of permanent support and
Most people know quite a bit about divorce law before they ever even have to consider divorce: kids get a schedule with each parent, one spouse may pay the other spouse support and assets get divided. Below each of those principles are thousands of rules which help Illinois divorce courts come to equitable conclusions and
Employers want good employees to stay working for them. One way that employers can ensure that an employee will still be working for them next year or even five years from now is to offer them benefits which will vest in the future. Employers will offer employees retirement benefits or stock options which will only
Married people each have their own roles within the marriage. One spouse does the dishes. One spouse takes out the garbage. Often, one spouse is in charge of paying the bills. What happens when an Illinois spouse stops paying bills during an Illinois divorce? When an Illinois divorce is filed, the spouse that pays the
Divorces finalize the terms of a relationship…except divorces never seem to be truly final. People are always going back to court to resolve a remaining disagreement. While parenting time, child support, college expenses for children, and maintenance (formerly known as alimony) can all be changed after the final Judgment for Dissolution of Marriage is entered,