Title ownership matters. Even with the changes to the 2016 Illinois law. Its a common misconception that once you are married, half of everything each spouse owns belongs to the other spouse. As a result, people often see little harm in transferring a pre-marital asset titled in their own name … [Read more...] about Pre-Marital Property – Title Still Matters
Divorce
Income Shares Comes to Illinois
Will there be a complete change to the way child support in Illinois is calculated? With the passage of income shares legislation (Pub. Act 99-764), the answer is an emphatic -- yes. Prior to the passage of the income shares legislation, Illinois had comprehensive changes to its family laws in … [Read more...] about Income Shares Comes to Illinois
Don’t Cancel Spouse’s Health Insurance
Don't cancel the health insurance for your spouse just yet. While it does not happen often, there are cases were as soon as a divorce starts, one spouse cancels a group health insurance plan for the other spouse. Usually, this is a serious financial mistake. First, the cancellation probably … [Read more...] about Don’t Cancel Spouse’s Health Insurance
Primary Driver of Divorce Cost
My father-in-law tells a joke involving two landowners in Ireland having a dispute. Each hires his own lawyer and files against the other. The lawyers meet for lunch. One lawyer leans over to the other and says "What we have here are two birds in fine feathers. You pluck yours and I'll pluck … [Read more...] about Primary Driver of Divorce Cost
Mediation for Other Issues
Mediation has gone from completely overlooked to mandatory for certain subjects in most of Illinois. In McHenry County, if there is any dispute regarding what we used to call custody or visitation [now referred to as allocation of parenting time or allocation of parental responsibility], the … [Read more...] about Mediation for Other Issues