Paperwork. Ugggh. Is that the reaction you have to it? Or is one of your superpowers relishing pulling information together, tabulating it with nifty little post-its and cross referencing it all in a spreadsheet?
With any separation or divorce, there will be a feast of paperwork and information to gather and digest. Most of this will be about your finances and property. Being ALL over the paperwork will help save you costs and make for a more efficient and seamless property division!
Your lawyer or financial consultant will no doubt have a list of information that is needed in order to properly advise you. Compiling this information yourself, rather than having your professional gather it, will…
… save you lots of money
… along the way, give you opportunities to learn more about your finances
… mean you can pick up on things that won’t be immediately apparent to your lawyer (like transactions on a credit card that aren’t usual to you).
Even if you are not using a lawyer, getting together your financial information is still important. Having sufficient information allows you to make sound, fully informed decisions as you work through your separation. Under New Zealand law, a full exchange of information and independent legal advice is required for this very reason.
If you are thinking about separating, pulling together information in advance can save you the time and cost of being led a tortuous dance by an ex who may want to delay matters or avoid revealing information.
If you are already separated, gather the information promptly – I know, you are busy and the days just fly by, right? But, think about the additional cost of being chased by your lawyer for it and the stress of having the task HANGING OVER YOUR HEAD all the time.
If you are facing paperwork tasks in your separation and gathering up information...
…make sure you are providing the exact information that you have been asked for. For example, if you have been asked for bank statements from 1 March to 12 April, provide them for that complete date range not a “close enough” range! This will save your lawyer coming back to you and you having to get the information again.
…Identify the information you don’t have. If you can access the information by making a request for it (to your bank, insurance company, trust lawyer, retirement fund provider etc), then do so. If you cannot legally access the information or have difficulty accessing it, then note that down to discuss with your lawyer or financial professional.
…Provide the information in the format your lawyer or other professional prefers it. He or she may want hard copies or just electronic copies or both.
…Collate the information in an organised fashion. I once had a client who literally provided me with shoe boxes full of receipts, statements and various other documents in no order. Can you imagine the cost to the client of my team and I having to sort through it all to find what we needed compared to the costs to my other client who gave me a folder of documents, tabbed and indexed so that I could easily find things?
…Make each item easy to locate and identify. Use labelled tabs (if in a physical file) or easy to identify and consistent file names for electronic documents. Again, simply scanning a lot of documents and emailing them to your lawyer is akin to sending them that shoe box of documents! Take the time to ensure the file name for an electronic document describes what the document is. It’s a lot easier to know what the document or folder named “Bank Statements 2018” is than what its previous scanner generated name, “IMG20190716”, suggests!
…If you dread this sort of task, do what you can to make it more pleasurable for example, use gorgeous stationary, set up a nice work-space, organise someone to look after the kids, treat yourself to some of your favourite foods and music while you work. Organise some rewards for yourself. Break the tasks down into small chunks and reward yourself after each one.
…Use your super-organised friend! If you really can’t face the task alone, arrange a time to have your most organised friend come and help you (you know the one - they colour code their diary and have the neatest pantry and garage in the nation). You may decide this is an area to invest some money and get a financial expert in or contract a freelance assistant to come in and assist you for a couple of hours. Making a commitment to incurring some cost or your friend’s time will drive you to get the job done and make it feel less overwhelming.
Go on, what are you waiting for? Get to it. You’ll feel more in control, informed and organised and you will have saved yourself some money. How awesome will that feel?
Need help getting organised in sorting out your financial issues after a separation or divorce? Call us on 0800NAVIGATE to book an initial free consultation with one of our team of lawyers.
Names and any identifying information have been altered to protect the privacy of individuals. The information in this blog is current at 1 April 2024. The information in this blog is general, educative information only. As such, it should not be relied on in place of getting your own legal advice.
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