If You Do One Thing in Your Divorce, Do This.

 Posted on August 15, 2017 in Family Law

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Read your divorce agreement.

That's right - thoroughly completely and more than once, read your own divorce agreement. It is the future roadmap of your life after your divorce. The more money you have the more important it is for you personally to read each and every page of your divorce agreement. Don’t rely on some else, even your attorney.

Simple as that seems many couples go through a divorce without actually reading each and every page and each and every paragraph of their divorce agreement.

We recently represented a Hinsdale Illinois couple who had been divorced for several years. The Wife was to receive maintenance plus a percentage of the Husband’s income from all sources.

Over the years since the divorce the Husband had not earned bonuses but instead his employer gave him stock options. His claim was that the stock options were his nonmarital property earned after the divorce and should not be counted as additional income.

Our client’s first lawyer told her she had no case. When she came to us we carefully analyzed her case and determined that her first lawyer was wrong. She had a very provable claim for stock options as a form of income and thereby substantial additional maintenance for her.

We successfully argued in DuPage County divorce court on the behalf of our client, the ex-wife, that her ex- Husband’s stock options were additional income and should be considered party of her divorce settlement. The result: our client receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars of extra maintenance from the stock options.

The take away: her ex-husband had never read his own divorce settlement agreement. He relied upon his lawyers to explain it to him. He never asked any of the right questions and didn't really find out what he had agreed to until his ex-wife brought him into Court seeking additional maintenance from his stock options.

Hinsdale Illinois divorcing couples are particularly prone to having complex financial issues arise including stock options as well as those dealing with life insurance, trusts, and the protections offered children by way of educational trusts. At Hinsdalelawyers.com we are familiar with the complications that arise when our Hinsdale neighbors divorce.

We work closely with our forensic accountants to find assets and value them properly. We create settlement agreements that cover all the bases for complex and High asset divorces.

By the way we insist that each of our clients read their divorce agreement themselves.

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