Listing Assets on an Income and Expense Declaration

[archibald]

Hi. I'm in California. The gov site does not include online instructions for this form, and I'm stuck on something. Most questions on the first and second pages clearly differentiate between my property/income and my spouse's. But section 11 asks about assets--cash, stocks, bonds, real and personal property. I have a few questions about this section.

1) Is this section asking about my assets only--those that I currently have as a separated spouse--or all of our combined assets? If the first one, how do I handle the money in the joint bank account we still have?

2) What precisely counts as personal property? Every item, down to the last roll of toilet paper? Or every item that has potential resale value?

3) If this section is asking about combined assets, am I supposed to estimate what my spouse has or ask him to give me precise numbers so that I can fill in the form?

I'm sure I'll think of other questions, but that's it for now.

Thanks.

[525601minutes]

IS this the FL-150?

When filling out the assets you write the full amount for bank accounts/investments that are yours and yours alone. For joint bank accounts you can write is 50% of the value or write in "1/2 of $xxx".

Personal property is the resale value of your personal items. Your clothes, your jewelry, etc.

If you don't know exact numbers for joint accounts, get the info from your bank.

I saw from another thread you are requesting $3500 a month spousal support. That is quite a lot. You really should hire a lawyer to help you with this! If that just won't work for you, at least have the family law facilitator's office check out your paperwork before you file it. They are a free service!

[archibald]

Thanks. Yes, this is the FL-150. I meant to put that in my post but forgot.

I consulted an attorney last year (a one-time deal), and he recommended the $3500 amount because my spouse makes a six-figure income and I was making a very small income (my career is still in the beginning stages). It's not a number I pulled from my ass, if that's what you're wondering; he worked it out using what he called a standard formula or a typical formula, something like that.

Now I make substantially less than I did because I am unemployed. Guess I picked a bad time to be asked for a divorce.

My spouse also saw an attorney once, and apparently she (the attorney) did not find this request unreasonable, so my spouse has agreed to pay it. That was when I still had my job. I suppose I could ask for more because of my lack of employment, but I won't.

I guess I'll check out the facilitator this week.

Thanks again.

[525601minutes]

I did not assume you pulled the number out of your ass. But it IS a lot of money. My XH earns about $140K and I am not employed. We were married for 18 years. I received 6 years of SS at $1229 a month.

The facilitator's office can make sure you did your paperwork correctly. Expect to get there an hour before they open and be ready to spend another 4+ hours waiting to be seen and get everything taken care of.

What they cannot or will not do is help you calculated SS. If you are asking for more than your soon-to-be-X agreed upon - expect a fight. I still think you could be hurting your chances of getting even that SS without a lawyer.

I doubt the people at the facilitator's office even earn more than $3500 a month, so you certainly won't be treated with much empathy.
Your lawyer can request that your legal fees be paid by your X as part of the MSA.

[archibald]

I don't want to come across as obnoxious; I think I'm a reasonable guy. But I'm not convinced that it's appropriate for you to compare your SS situation with mine in this way. I mean, every divorce is different, and there are often other assets and other conditions that affect the settlement. In my reading and research, I've seen a number of patterns that seem to be consistently mentioned. One is that a "typical" SS arrangement lasts for half the length of the marriage. Another is that long-term marriages often involve an even longer term of support--perhaps even lifetime support. So I was surprised to see that your support lasted only six years. Of course, I don't know anything about your particular circumstances.

I also see that in California (since it is a community property state, I guess), spousal support is intended to maintain the receiving spouse at the standard of living that he or she was accustomed to during the marriage. If you were in CA and your support arrangement maintained your standard of living, then I guess it was appropriate--although it looks a bit lopsided to me. But (as I said), I don't know the exact circumstances of your marriage and your divorce, so I don't feel qualified to comment further.

My spouse and I were together for twenty years but did not marry until 2004. For a very long time, before his career took off and he started making a VERY comfortable income, I was the main breadwinner by a big margin. Now I'm at the other extreme. He also acknowledges that I made major life decisions based on certain assurances that he repeatedly made. For various reasons, including these, he agreed to the amount that I mentioned in that other post. Then there was some kind of miscommunication or misunderstanding. We're working it out.

I appreciate your advice and your perspective. But I feel that you don't know enough about my situation to make a fully informed judgment about it.

Thanks for the reminder that he is not technically my ex yet. I'm so used to thinking of him as a partner, and that's what I've always called him. But I can see that incorrectly labeling him as an ex could be misleading or confusing to people who are trying to give me good feedback and advice.

Well, I'll be a single man by the end of the year...and THEN I can call him my ex. And that label will actually be accurate. Finally.