When it comes to premarital or non-marital property, title matters. It's 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 into … [Read more...] about Pre-Marital Property – Title Still Matters
Illinois Requires Post-High School Support
Illinois remains one of only a few states that extends a parent's obligation to support children after the age of majority, even in cases where the child is not disabled. Thirteen states, including Illinois, require post-high school education support. An additional 11 states enforce contracts … [Read more...] about Illinois Requires Post-High School Support
Income Shares and Standardized Versus Individualized Taxes
Taxes affect the calculation of child support and therefore the issue based upon the income shares legislation about whether we base child support on gross income or net income will have a significant effect. Key language in the income shares legislation was a compromise allowing the critical tax … [Read more...] about Income Shares and Standardized Versus Individualized Taxes
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 should … [Read more...] about Don’t Cancel Spouse’s Health Insurance
Primary Driver of Divorce Cost
There are two questions that divorce lawyers cannot easily answer: How much will it cost? How long will it take? That's because almost all divorce cases are unique. The only real answer is that family-law courts in Illinois attempt to put significant pressure on cases to settle or be … [Read more...] about Primary Driver of Divorce Cost
Mediation for Other Issues
Mediation has gone from completely overlooked to mandatory for disputes involving children in divorce and parentage cases. In Illinois, 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 … [Read more...] about Mediation for Other Issues
