Posted on March 20, 2020 in Divorce

A divorce often results in a host of financial challenges. This is especially true when it comes to gray divorces. If you are getting a divorce while over the age of 50 or after retirement, you may experience significant difficulties due to the need to live on a fixed income with very little opportunity for income growth. However, there are some things you can do to live comfortably enough after your divorce, despite major changes to your finances.

What Should I Do if My Divorce Settlement Is Not Enough?

In many cases, a divorce settlement might not be enough to allow you to meet your living expenses after the divorce, or the resulting financial issues may not allow you to truly enjoy your retirement. In times like these, you might want to consider the following ways to increase your income:

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 Posted on March 18, 2020 in Divorce

On Monday, March 16, 2020, the Dow Jones saw its worst point drop in history. The coronavirus continues to stir up a volatile market, causing gains from the last three years to disappear completely in a matter of weeks. Especially in cases of complex divorce, this could mean significant losses to you and your former spouse’s investment and retirement accounts, which are tied to these plummeting markets. To help alleviate losses, there are some strategies you should consider when drawing up your divorce decree and figuring out how to divvy up these accounts.

Planning Your Divorce Around a Volatile Stock Market

There is no way to predict the future, and there is certainly no way to know for sure what will happen in the stock market in the days, weeks, and years to come. While the common belief is that everything tends to stabilize over time, it is difficult to see this when faced with market nosedives like those taking place lately. Regardless, here are some tips to consider during divorce when deciding how you will safeguard your investments and retirement accounts against these market downturns:

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 Posted on March 16, 2020 in Cohabitation

On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that COVID-19, commonly referred to as the coronavirus, is enough of a global threat to humanity that it can now be classified as a “pandemic.” As more and more events with large gatherings are getting canceled or postponed, couples planning to tie the knot may be concerned. Here is why weddings are particularly susceptible to the coronavirus and what you might want to consider doing about it, including postponing it and choosing to work on your prenuptial agreement or cohabitation agreement instead.

Why Weddings Are Dangerous Due to the Coronavirus

Although most people have aimed their attention on the cancellation of major events and other public gatherings, including festivals like South by Southwest and Coachella, and sporting events like the NCAA March Madness Tournament, not enough focus has been placed on weddings. Weddings are particularly dangerous when it comes to the coronavirus because:

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 Posted on March 13, 2020 in Divorce

It is difficult enough for your child to deal with his or her parents’ divorce, but adjusting to your new romantic partner can add additional stress. This can complicate things further and make the post-divorce transition more challenging for everyone involved. In these cases, it is a good idea to make plans for how you will help your children get acclimated to your new significant other. By keeping your children’s best interests in mind, you can help them accept your new partner and ensure that your family is prepared for success in the years to come.

Ways to Help Your Children Get Comfortable With Your New Partner

Your new partner will likely want to be a part of your kids’ lives and help you out with parenting duties where they can. You can help ease them into this new role in the following ways:

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 Posted on March 06, 2020 in Divorce

For many years, people have insisted that there has been a definite trend in which the number of divorces has increased every year. However, the truth contradicts this belief, and that truth is far more complex than most people would imagine. Divorce is often not an easy decision or an easy process, and it takes time and careful deliberation to come to an understanding and acceptance of it. Because of this, it is not something that people take lightly.

Dispelling the Myth That Half of All Marriages End in Divorce

Before getting married, people are often warned that “half of all marriages end in divorce,” and this supposed statistic may be used to suggest that a person should think long and hard before taking the plunge. However, the actual statistics show an entirely different story. These days, the national divorce rate is not 50%; it is actually closer to 39  %. Overall, divorce rates have been steadily declining since the 1980s, which is when they peaked. In addition, the state of Illinois itself has a much lower divorce rate than the national average.

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 Posted on March 03, 2020 in Divorce

The “five stages of grief,” which were first theorized by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, have been common knowledge for years. While many thinkers have made changes or additions to the original list of stages—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—understanding these five steps can still be a good starting point for anyone dealing with loss. Even though they originally applied to the grief resulting from a person’s death, these stages are relevant to any type of loss, including the loss you will experience when you get a divorce.

How to Address Divorce-Related Grief

With the stages of grief to guide you, here are five productive tips to help you manage the grieving process when getting divorced:

1. Be prepared. The end of your marriage is a major life event, and as with a loved one’s death, it is a significant loss in your life. As such, it must be handled with the same degree of care and awareness as bereavement. You need to be prepared for many of those usual grieving stages. Most importantly, you need to know that it will take time for your world to settle into some semblance of stability again. If you are not mentally prepared, you could find yourself suffering through the grieving process much longer than necessary.

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 Posted on February 28, 2020 in Divorce

In many cases, finances can be a leading factor in the choice to get a divorce. Married couples might be faced with difficult financial challenges, such as the expenses related to serious health problems or the loss of income resulting from unemployment. If a marriage was already unsteady, or even if it was seemingly going well, disagreements over finances can often be the catalyst for the breakdown of the relationship. Depending on your financial situation as a married couple, you might be considering both divorce and bankruptcy. Since both of these are major life events and significant legal decisions, careful thought must be given to them, and the appropriate time must be chosen to proceed with each.

Reasons to File for Bankruptcy Before Divorce

If you and your spouse are on the same page about your finances, and you share the majority of the debt, filing a joint bankruptcy before beginning the divorce process might be the right move for you. Here are some reasons why you may choose this option:

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 Posted on February 25, 2020 in Child Custody

Most divorce cases involve a variety of complex issues, but there are some situations that may leave spouses wondering about their rights and how they can protect themselves going forward. One concern that some divorcing couples may face is determining how to proceed when they are expecting a child. Emotional and psychological issues notwithstanding, there are many challenges that may arise when getting a divorce while a spouse is pregnant.

Legal Issues Involved When Divorcing While Pregnant

A spouse’s pregnancy can greatly complicate the divorce process. Some of the issues that may need to be addressed in these cases include:

• No Simplified Divorce—Although some married couples can get a simplified divorce, this option is not available if the spouses have children together or are expecting a child. This means the divorce proceedings will be more involved, and they may take longer to resolve.

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 Posted on February 21, 2020 in Family Law

In 2011, Illinois passed into law the Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act. This law enabled both same-sex and opposite-sex couples the freedom to enter into a civil union that would give them the same legal rights in Illinois as those provided by marriage. With the new term "civil union" meant to be a substitute for "domestic partnership," all prior domestic partnerships registered would be honored, but any future similar relationships would be referred to as civil unions.

While civil unions in Illinois were initially meant to help same-sex couples achieve similar legal rights to married couples, these legal partnerships may now be pursued for other reasons. After the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage throughout the United States in 2015, most states converted all domestic partnerships and civil unions to marriages; however, Illinois is one of the few states that kept civil unions despite this legalization. Now that all couples, regardless of sex, can get married, why would anyone choose a civil union instead of a marriage?

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 Posted on February 18, 2020 in Divorce

For many couples, pets become a part of their family. In fact, couples who do not have kids often treat their pets more like children, caring for them and their best interests as if they were the couple’s own offspring. As a result of this growing trend, the legal system has recently needed to adapt, and when it comes to divorce, pet custody has become a much more complicated issue.

Trends in Pet Ownership

It is true: pets are becoming more and more a part of our families. Your cat might rub its head against you out of warm affection, or your dog might try to comfort you with a lick on the face when you are upset. It is easy to see why pets are viewed as sentient beings like children as opposed to property. Statistics show that this trend is likely to continue:

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