Many Tennessee residents feel overwhelmed by the idea of divorce. You and your spouse may have been married for a number of years before deciding that the relationship had run its course, and now, you could wonder how you will separate your shared lives back to individual ones. This process often has it ups and downs, and depending on your specific circumstances and ability to work with your soon-to-be ex-spouse, your case could have more ups than downs or vice versa.
In particular, you may have concerns about how your property will fair as you go through property division proceedings. This type of concern often hits many individuals, but with proper preparation, you could feel less overwhelmed by the idea of separating assets.
Understand your finances
Many people go into their divorce proceedings thinking they understand their assets and debts only to find themselves at a loss. When you do not know the ins and outs of your finances, you could put yourself at a disadvantage. While you prepare for your legal proceedings, you may want to obtain records of financial transactions, bank accounts, retirement accounts, tax returns and work-related records.
After knowing where your assets stand, understanding your debt and your spouse’s debt could also prove beneficial. This information could help you determine whether you could potentially land on the hook for more debt that you anticipated and allow you to possibly find strategies for avoiding negative outcomes relating to that debt.
Marital vs Nonmarital assets
Once you understand your finances, you may want to look more closely at your property to determine which assets may fall into the marital category and which will fall into the nonmarital category. Nonmarital assets will remain the property of whichever person originally owned it. Knowing your nonmarital property could help you understand which assets you may retain after divorce and ones that should not go into property division proceedings.
Of course, some assets may come under scrutiny. If you believe an asset to be your nonmarital property, but your spouse considers it marital property, you will need documentation to prove that the asset belongs solely to you.
Knowing the property division laws of your state could also prove useful to you. Therefore, you could find it beneficial to explore local legal resources or divorce attorney in order to obtain reliable information on this area of family law and how it could impact your divorce proceedings.