Not all assets are created equally. What should I ask for in my divorce?

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One of the questions I often get asked by clients when we first meet is what should I be asking for? I mean, certainly they’re going to ask for what is fair and certainly what is reasonable. But what is fair and reasonable can take a variety of different shapes and forms. So I like to start by understanding kind of what the needs of the client are. For instance, if the parties have a lot of their net worth in their home and don’t have a lot of liquid assets outside of that, you may have a client who is really emotionally attached to the home, wants to stay in the home, and it may be it’s that the value of the home is roughly equal to some cash and securities or retirement that perhaps the other party might keep.

And you might view that as an equal division. And that’s a simple and easy way to resolve the case. But is that really what’s best for the client financially? Does she have the ability to afford the carrying costs for the home on an ongoing basis? How long does she plan on staying in the home? Is she going to sell the home in the near future? If she’s going to do that, then you certainly wouldn’t want to negotiate for the home, turn around and sell the home a couple years later and incur all the costs of sale commissions or maybe some taxes, because now you’re not getting the real value that you negotiated for. And then you got to think about, well, you know, what are my long term needs? Would I better off receiving cash?

Maybe I use some of that to put a down payment on a smaller home and I free up money to enable me to meet my other needs. Oftentimes people get a little too attached to certain assets. And you want to make sure, whether through our advice to them or referring them to financial advisors, that they’re making sound financial decisions. Because what something looks like on a balance sheet doesn’t always have the same tangible benefit to the client.

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