Author: Dina Haddad

Child Support in a Ca Divorce| Temporary vs Permanent Support

Post author By Dina Haddad
Post date March 15, 2023

When Does Child Support Start in a CA Divorce?

Child support in California is crucial. It guarantees that children get the money they need from their parents no matter how life changes. This applies to situations like divorce to parents who were never married. Most of the time, people come across two different kinds: temporary and permanent child support.

Temporary vs. Permanent:

You can receive child support once you’ve filed for divorce, and before you finish your divorce. Child support paid before you divorce is called temporary child support. You may need temporary child support because you are unable to financially support your children by yourself while you are divorcing. Most parents do not know about the process like how Child support starts, Book a Strategy call if you are looking for an experienced divorce attorney at an affordable rate.

You can receive temporary child support by filing a request with the family court. The judge will hear your case and decide if child support should be ordered. Unless an exception applies, which I’ll discuss further on, the judge will order guideline child support. Your other option is to reach an agreement with your spouse for temporary child support. Detailed instructions on how to file a request for child support, or to file your temporary child support agreement are in “Obtaining Temporary Orders.”

Some couples choose not to have temporary child support. This is common with couples doing their own divorce and still supporting each other financially as they did when married. If this is your situation, it is still a good idea to have something in writing, signed between you, saying this is your current arrangement in lieu of temporary child support.

When you finish your divorce, temporary child support ends and permanent child support starts. Permanent does not mean forever, only that it is paid after the divorce is final. The permanent child support goes into your final agreement. Just like temporary child support, permanent child support is a guideline and will be the same as the temporary amount unless your income or custodial time changes, you did not have all the income information available, or you and your spouse agree to a different amount.

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Whether you are preparing a temporary or permanent child support agreement, include a date for when that child support starts. This might be immediately or the time you stop sharing the joint account or depositing your salaries into that account. But the soonest it can start is when you filed for divorce.

At TheCompleteDivorce, we provide you with what you need to successfully do your California divorce on your own. We provide all the required family law court forms in our automated forms program, all the video tutorials, and an automated customizable Marital Settlement Agreement (Divorce Agreement). If you need more help, you can get our package that includes time with a divorce mediator.

Before you go, consider if we can help you. We have helped thousands of couples in California. Our guided DIY divorce is successful and cheap! Our services are all 5-star!

Child Support

2024 What Children Costs are Shared in a CA Divorce?

Post author By Dina Haddad
Post date March 15, 2023

What Children Costs are Shared in a CA Divorce?

Mandatory and Discretionary Expenses:

There are qualifying expenses that are in addition to the guideline child support amount. These are called add-ons, either mandatory or additional. Mandatory must be included in the child support order. Additional add-ons are sometimes referred to as discretionary and depend on your agreement or whether a judge will order them.

There are two mandatory add-ons that must be included in any child support order; child care and uninsured health care costs. The child care costs which are included are for when one of you is working or going to school, even if the care is not incurred during your custodial time. Your children’s uninsured healthcare costs are expenses like co-pays and deductibles, not the monthly premium which is already included in the child support formula.

In addition to mandatory, there are two categories of additional add-ons. These are not required but you can choose to include them or the judge has the option to order them. You can include costs related to your children’s education or special needs. This includes private school tuition, tutoring, special needs programs, and extracurriculars like sports, art, and music. You can also include costs incurred to travel for visitation for parents who live far from each other.

Each parent will be required to pay one-half of the add-on expenses unless the parents agree to a different division or a parent successfully requests that the judge order a different division. If you request a different division, you will need to prove to the judge why a different division would be more appropriate.

Payment of Mandatory and Additional Expenses:

You will also need to include a method in your child support order to pay the mandatory and additional add-ons or a way for you to be reimbursed if you paid more than your share. There’s already a required payment and reimbursement method for uninsured healthcare costs, which you can use for all add-ons. A detailed explanation is on the Notice of Rights and Responsibilities, FL-192, which must also be included with your divorce agreement. You can

also create your own payment method, such as doing all reimbursements on the 15th of every month

The add-ons can be deducted from your monthly child support as part of your order. If they are not, don’t deduct the reimbursement yourself. If you do, you will have a hard time proving that child support was paid. Instead, have your spouse reimburse you separately from your child support payment.

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At TheCompleteDivorce, we provide you what you need to successfully do your California divorce on your own. We provide all the required family law court forms in our automated forms program, all the video tutorials, and an automated customizable Marital Settlement Agreement (Divorce Agreement). If you need more help, you can get our package that includes time with a divorce mediator.

Before you go, consider if we can help you. We have helped thousands of couples in California. Our guided DIY divorce is successful and cheap! Our services are all five-star!

Child Support

Non-Guideline Child Support Findings Attachment, FL-342(a)|Family Code Section 4065

Post author By Dina Haddad
Post date March 15, 2023

FL-342(a) Non-Guideline Child Support Findings Attachment

There are a few exceptions to guideline child support. A judge has the option to order non-guideline support when the guideline is not the right amount to meet your child’s needs. This may happen when a parent has an extraordinarily high income; the guideline amount doesn’t fairly reflect the custodial time; or the judge believes there are special circumstances to order a different amount. Like, different time-sharing arrangements for different children; relatively equal time but one parent pays far more for housing relative to income, or a child with special medical or other needs requires more support.

You and your spouse can also agree to a different amount other than a guideline, called non-guideline child support. Non-guideline can be more or less than the guideline amount, referred to as above or below guideline.

If you have a non-guideline agreement, you must still state what is the guideline amount in your agreement and that you will not be agreeing to it. If it is below the guideline, you must also include the Non-Guideline Child Support Findings Attachment, FL-342(a), which has the Family Code Section 4065 stipulations written out.

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At TheCompleteDivorce, we provide you with what you need to successfully do your California divorce on your own. We provide all the required family law court forms in our automated forms program, all the video tutorials, and an automated customizable Marital Settlement Agreement (Divorce Agreement). If you need more help, you can get our package which includes time with a divorce mediator.

Before you go, could you please consider if we can help you? We have helped thousands of couples in California. Our guided DIY divorce is successful and cheap! Our services are all 5-star! Visit https://thecompletedivorce.com/pricing for our cheap online divorce packages.

Child Support

Calculating Child Support in a Ca Divorce | Family Code Section 4055

Post author By Dina Haddad
Post date March 14, 2023

Calculating Child Support in a California Divorce

The child support formula is in Family Code Section 4055. The formula takes the parents’ custodial time and their total net disposable income to calculate support. Net disposable income is the money you have after you paid taxes.

You can figure out your net disposable income by subtracting the taxes you owe, but adding back income for any tax deductions like health insurance premiums, mandatory union dues, and retirement benefits. Since your deductions reduce your taxes, you won’t be able to figure out

your net income just by looking at your pay stub, and you cannot use your gross income. If you do, the child support amount will be wrong and result in a larger support amount.

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Since it’s hard to figure out the net disposable income, the easier approach is to use a California-approved support calculator which uses your gross income. Your gross income is the income you receive before taxes. You complete the calculator by inputting gross income, tax deductions, and custodial time. After completion, the calculator will provide you with your net disposable income and guideline child support amount. A much easier and more reliable approach.

You can use either the free-approved calculator or a paid version. The free support calculator is on the California Child Support Self-Service webpage provided by the California Department of Child Support Services. This is a good calculator to use, especially if you are doing the divorce on your own. If you are going to use this calculator, take time to review the User Guide located at the site. The User Guide has a lot of useful information and explains each part of the calculator in detail, including how to input varying kinds of income and tax deductions. In the next chapter, I explain what information goes into the calculator and how to complete it.

DissoMaster Calculator:

The other option is to pay for a California-approved software program or pay a divorce professional to prepare a calculation for you. The programs are expensive but can be very useful for more complex income or tax issues. The paid-for calculators also have more functions than the State program. You can easily change amounts, save reports, and review in a more convenient format. Alternatively, divorce professionals will have one of these programs and be able to run a calculation for you. The most common is the DissoMaster Calculator by Thomson Reuters.

Whichever version you use, the most important part is that you put the right information into the calculator. Otherwise, you will get the wrong child support amount.With any child support agreement, you are required to attach the calculator print-out to show the guideline child support amount or provide the information used to calculate the guideline amount.

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(Divorce Agreement). If you need more help, you can get our package which includes time with a divorce mediator.

Before you go, consider if we can help you. We have helped thousands of couples in California. Our guided DIY divorce is successful and super affordable! Our services are all 5-star!

Child Custody

Child Custody Laws: Legal and Physical Custody in California (2024)

Post author By Dina Haddad
Post date March 14, 2023

Child Custody Laws: Legal and Physical Custody in California

During your divorce, your children will look to you for support and guidance as they deal with your separation. Although you are going through your own challenges, you still need to provide them the support they need.

The best support you can provide is to successfully co-parent with your spouse. Co-parenting is sharing the responsibility of raising and making decisions for your children with the other parent. Together, you can decide who the children will be with during the week, for holidays and summer; how to handle school, medical or religious issues, and anything else regarding their care. The decisions or agreements you make for your child are written into a Parenting Plan that is part of your divorce agreement. Check out our program which includes a fully completed and customizable Parenting Plan at thecompletedivorce.

If you are unable to agree, the judge will make child custody orders that the judge believes are in your children’s best interests. The judge will rely primarily on the parents’ testimony to decide what is in the child’s best interest. If the judge cannot decide what custody orders to make, the judge might order the parents to participate in a custody evaluation with a mental health professional. The custody evaluation might be with a court employee or a private evaluator. Both kinds of evaluations have a number of problems. The biggest problem is that you are not the one making the decisions for your family.

In some situations, working with your spouse is impossible because of serious parenting or safety concerns. Unless these concerns exist, work with your spouse to co-parent, so your children are less impacted by your divorce. Your children will feel emotionally secure, safe and adjust more positively to your new family structure if you work together. Parenting and Custody of Childs are really serious issues and most people didn’t know how to go through the whole process elegantly. Therefore, You can Book a Strategy Session with our experienced child custody attorney or lawyer who has helped thousands of people.

Definition of Child Custody:

There are two kinds of child custody, legal and physical. The parent with legal custody makes decisions for his or her child. When a parent has physical custody, the parent has actual time with his or her children. Legal and physical custody can be shared between the parents called joint custody, or only one parent, sole custody. You might have heard the term “primary” custody. Some counties use this term but it has no legal meaning. If your judge orders primary custody, ask your judge to clarify what is meant.

Types of Custody in California

Two types of Custody exist in California law:

Legal Custody
Physical Custody

What is Legal Custody in California:

Legal custody is the right to make decisions about your children’s health, education, and welfare. Sole legal custody gives you the exclusive right to make decisions. The other parent has no involvement. With joint legal custody, you share the responsibility together. Prior to making decisions, you must consult with each other and agree on the course of action.

For the majority, joint legal custody is the best option. Both parents have the opportunity to be involved and make decisions for their children. And the more you can work together, the better it will be for your children. In your agreement, you will want to differentiate between which decisions require a joint agreement. For instance, selecting a school or doctor requires a joint decision; but, routine medical and dental appointments do not – you only need to keep each other informed.

If working with your spouse causes more grief than good or there is a history of violence or abuse, sole custody might be necessary. There are a couple of ways to have sole legal custody. You might have sole legal custody in all areas giving you the exclusive right to make every decision for your children. The other option is to share sole legal custody because you and your spouse cannot agree and not because of any history of abuse. In that case, you each have the right to make exclusive decisions in those areas. You could be 100% responsible for education and religion, and your spouse is responsible for medical and dental, from routine to the more complicated decisions.

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What is Physical Custody in California:

Physical custody is about when, where, and who your children will be with during the day. Whether physical custody is joint or sole, it is important that both parents have time with the children. The parents’ time with the child is divided in a timeshare schedule and becomes part of your divorce agreement.

With joint physical custody, both parents have a significant amount of time with their children. It does not mean equal timeshare because the courts have not defined what percentage makes up joint physical custody. Some parents agree that even 25% time to one parent equals joint physical custody. Joint physical custody is important because it prevents one parent from moving away with the children without the other parent’s agreement or court order.

If joint physical custody is not possible, the other option is sole physical custody. The child stays the majority of the time with one parent, and the other parent may have visitation time. For example, the other parent might have Wednesdays for dinner and every other Saturday.

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Child Custody

Best Interest of the Child CA | Family Code 3011

Post author By Dina Haddad
Post date March 14, 2023

Best Interest of the Child in California

In the complex world of family law, one concept reigns supreme: the best interest of the child. It’s the guiding principle in custody disputes, determining what is best for the child involved. This blog post will delve into what the best interest of the child means, provide you with a practical checklist, and insights on how to prove it, and discuss its interplay with parental rights. Additionally, we’ll take a closer look at key California Family Code sections relevant to this vital issue.

What is the Best Interest of the Child?

When we talk about the best interest of the child, we’re referring to the overarching principle that guides family courts in determining custody arrangements. It means that any decisions made concerning a child’s living situation, education, and overall well-being should prioritize what is most beneficial for the child’s emotional, mental, and physical development.

In essence, it’s a child-centric approach that considers their needs, safety, and welfare above all else.

The best interest of the child is a concept deeply rooted in compassion and empathy. It recognizes that children, being vulnerable and impressionable, need protection and guidance. Parents, courts, and society at large have a responsibility to ensure they are provided with the most conducive environment for their growth and development.

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Best Interest of the Child Checklist

To understand how to put the best interest of the child into practice, let’s explore a detailed checklist:

Safety and Well-being: The safety and well-being of the child should always come first. This includes protection from physical harm, exposure to conflict, and any form of abuse.
Emotional Stability: Encourage a nurturing environment that promotes emotional stability. This means minimizing exposure to conflicts between parents and providing a supportive atmosphere.
Consistency: Strive for a stable living situation to provide consistency in the child’s life. This can include keeping a regular schedule, minimizing disruptive transitions, and providing a predictable routine.
Educational Needs: Address the child’s educational requirements and encourage their growth. This includes ensuring access to quality education and support for academic endeavors.
Healthcare: Ensure access to healthcare for the child. This means taking care of the child’s physical health, regular medical check-ups, and addressing any medical issues promptly.
Cultural and Religious Considerations: Respect cultural and religious beliefs that are important to the child’s upbringing. It’s essential to provide an environment where the child’s cultural and religious background is acknowledged and respected.
Siblings: Consider the importance of maintaining relationships with siblings. Sibling bonds are often crucial to a child’s emotional development, so efforts should be made to support these relationships.
Wishes of the Child: Take into account the child’s age and maturity when considering their preferences. While children may not make final decisions, their wishes can play a significant role in custody determinations, particularly if they are of an age where their input can be considered.

How to Prove the Best Interest of the Child

Proving the best interest of the child can be challenging, but it’s crucial in custody battles. Here are some key steps to help you make your case:

Documented Evidence: Gather relevant documents, such as school records, medical history, and any records of prior custody arrangements. These documents can provide a factual basis for your claims.
Witness Testimonies: Have witnesses who can vouch for your parenting skills and the child’s well-being. This might include teachers, doctors, counselors, or other professionals who can attest to your commitment as a parent.
Child’s Best Interests: Articulate how your proposed arrangement benefits the child’s best interests. Be prepared to explain how your custody plan aligns with the checklist mentioned earlier.
Legal Counsel: Seek the assistance of a family law attorney who specializes in child custody cases. An experienced attorney can guide the legal process and help you present your case effectively.
Mediation and Co-Parenting: Show a willingness to cooperate with the other parent and engage in mediation if necessary. Demonstrating that you can work collaboratively in the child’s best interest can be a compelling argument in court.

Proving that You’re Fit for Custody

To establish yourself as a fit parent in the eyes of the court:

Provide a Stable Environment: Demonstrate your ability to provide a stable and loving home for your child. Stability often involves a consistent living situation, routine, and financial support.
Support Emotional Well-being: Show that you can support your child’s emotional needs and well-being. This involves being attuned to their emotional state and providing them with the necessary emotional support.
Engage in Co-Parenting: Be willing to cooperate with the other parent for the child’s benefit. Co-parenting can be essential for a child’s development, as it ensures they maintain relationships with both parents.
Attend Parenting Classes: If necessary, attend parenting classes or counseling to improve your skills. Demonstrating a commitment to personal growth and learning as a parent can be beneficial.
Comply with Court Orders: Always adhere to court-ordered visitation and custody arrangements. This shows your respect for the legal system and your willingness to abide by its decisions.

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Child Custody

Child Custody Timeshare | Three Popular 50-50 Plans

Post author By Dina Haddad
Post date March 14, 2023

Child Custody Timeshare Schedule for Divorce in California

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Timeshare Schedules:

The Child Custody timeshare schedule details determine who your children will be with for the school year or regular schedule, the holidays, and the summer. You want to create a schedule that is age appropriate and well-suited for your children. The basic starting point is the 50/50 timeshare schedule, which has three variations. Depending on your children’s needs, 50/50 may not work. One parent may need to have more time because the children may be too young or one parent can’t care for the children 50% of the time because of other life issues, like a more taxing work schedule.

Also, some parents may want the children to have fewer transitions during the school week. For both scenarios, you can address this situation by starting with a schedule that works now but increasing to an equal timeshare over time. Alternatively, you can start with an equal timeshare as a trial period, and if it doesn’t work, try another plan.

The three popular 50-50 plans:

The week on and week off
2-2-5-5
2-2-3

They are used for the school year schedule and the summer schedule.

Week On and Week Off

The week on and week off is ideal for young adolescents and teenagers. The children spend one week with one parent, then the next with the other. A good day for the exchange is Friday after school so the receiving parent has time to transition with the children, enjoy some weekend time, and then prepare for the school week. With this schedule, there are fewer exchanges, which older children really appreciate. Some parents are hesitant to impose any schedule on older children but the parent that is not at the family home will have a harder time seeing their children.

The children will be resistant to moving from one home to another, especially with their school commitments and extracurricular activities. This schedule meets them halfway and allows both parents time with them.

2-2-5-5 Schedule

The “2-2-5-5” schedule is also good for older children but works for younger children too. In this schedule, Parent One always has Mondays and Tuesdays; and Parent Two always has Wednesdays and Thursdays. The weekends rotate from Friday morning to Monday’s drop-off to school. The advantages of this schedule is its predictability. The parents and children know where you are going during the school week. It’s also an easier schedule for employers. If you

have Mondays and Tuesdays, your boss knows those days you leave early and you can stay later on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Also, children are not away from any parent for more than 5 days. If you are considering this schedule for younger children, you need to be careful that five days is not too long for them to be away from either parent, particularly if one parent has been the primary caregiver. It doesn’t mean you won’t use this schedule later, but you might need to start with another schedule and gradually move to this one.

2-2-3 Schedule

The “2-2-3” schedule is ideal for younger children because the children are never away from either parent for more than three days. In Week One, Mom has Monday and Tuesday and Dad has Wednesday and Thursday. In Week Two, Dad has Monday and Tuesday and Mom has Wednesday and Thursday. The parents then alternate weekends so that there’s not more than a 3-day period. This schedule is the most difficult to follow of the three schedules because it is constantly changing.

In any of these schedules, you can modify them to fit your needs. In the Week On/Week Off, the non-custodial parent might have a Wednesday night dinner or overnight, to break up the week. In the 5-2-2-5, you can also add a dinner in the 5-day spread. A good day would be Friday and Sunday. You can also create your own schedule. Some choose to exchange the children every other day, temporarily, while the children are young. This eliminates too many nights away from either parent.

If a 50/50 timeshare plan does not work for your family, there are many other options. One parent might be the primary caregiver, and the other parent has Wednesday after school until Thursday morning drop-off and every other weekend. You can change the Wednesday overnight to just a dinner and add another overnight during the week. The options are pretty endless.

Holiday Schedule

In addition to the school or regular schedule, include a Holiday Schedule. We have included one for you to download in our program, The Complete Divorce. The Holiday Schedule is very important. Identify which holidays will be part of the holiday schedule; national holidays, religious ones and school breaks. Decide the start and end time for each holiday, and the location of the pick-up or drop-offs.

If Christmas Eve is a holiday, you might say it starts at 10 a.m. on December 24th and ends on Christmas Morning at 10:00 a.m. Then determine who will get each holiday. It’s very common to alternate holidays. Mom gets even years and Dad gets odd years.

If your work schedule changes in the summer, like a school teacher, you may need a different schedule for that time. Otherwise, your schedule will remain the same. If you do keep it the same, consider each parent having some summer vacation time. For example, you agree each parent gets 10 consecutive days of summer vacation. Parents select their days by April 1st of that year. In case of conflict, Mom has priority to select her days in odd years and Dad in even years.

Whatever timeshare schedule you choose, you need to follow it. Especially in the beginning. This establishes a routine for you and your children. It also lets your children know that you are serious about the schedule, you are working together, and your children can rely on the schedule to know where they will be that day.

After you have all adjusted to the schedule, you can be more flexible and request changes from the other parent. If you do this too soon, you might unravel the entire schedule because the exceptions will be more important than the rule. Even so, life happens. Remember it’s in your and your children’s best interest to be flexible and patient with your spouse.

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Child Custody

2024 Easy way of Creating a Detailed Parenting Plan for California Divorce

Post author By Dina Haddad
Post date March 13, 2023

Creating a Detailed Parenting Plan for California Divorce

A parenting plan details your responsibilities to care for your children. I’m a big proponent of detailed parenting plans and believe it’s the best way to set yourself up for co-parenting success. With a detailed parenting plan, parents know their parenting role and what to expect from each other. Even if you and your spouse are easygoing and agreeable when it comes to the children, unlike before, you can’t rely on being in the same house with your spouse to discuss parenting issues. You also won’t always know what’s happening with your children in the same way you knew what was going on when you were all together. A detailed parenting plan addresses these issues. It provides you the rules to follow and acts as a tiebreaker when there’s a disagreement.

There are many details you can include in your parenting plan. You will include whether you have sole or joint legal and physical custody, and your timeshare schedules. Regular or school schedule, holiday schedule, summer schedule, and summer vacations. Then, you add more details about extracurriculars, school, medical and other child-related information. For example, you agree you will each receive information about your children directly from the school. You also agree to extracurricular activities for your children or schedule those activities only on that parent’s time. Add any other areas you and your spouse are likely to have more trouble, like introducing children to romantic partners or having licensed firearms in the house. You can also

include details about the children’s birthdays and birthday parties, or even your birthdays.

An excellent parenting plan also includes ways to handle disagreements. You can have a disagreement about how to follow a provision in the parenting plan or a disagreement with the parenting plan itself. Suppose, in your parenting plan, you are both entitled to half of Spring break with your children. You and your spouse cannot decide who gets which part of the week. Your parenting plan can resolve this problem before it happens. You include a provision that says you have priority to select your weeks in odd years, and your spouse in even years. If this happens in an odd year, you get the disputed week.

The second kind of disagreement is with the parenting plan, whether it is the entire plan or a provision in the plan. Suppose you no longer agree that the regular schedule is working. Your parenting plan can include a process to resolve this problem. You try to resolve it together. If you cannot, you must go to a parenting coach or mediation for a minimum of three hours. Then, if that does not work, you can file a motion with the court to modify child custody. This process wouldn’t apply in situations where the child’s well-being is at risk. If you find your child’s well-being to be in immediate danger, call your local police department. You may also file a motion with the court on an emergency basis, called an expert.

You can also include a provision in your Parenting Plan that changes can be made via email and doesn’t require a court order. If you can’t agree, the Parenting Plan remains in effect until you do reach an agreement or have a court order.

Creating a Parenting Plan:

You can prepare your parenting plan for the divorce agreement by writing one, using our template, or using the court’s Judicial Council Family Law forms. If using the court forms, you will want to use the FL-341 series of forms, which include a form to include the regular schedule, preprinted chart for the holiday schedule, and important co-parenting agreements. These forms make it easier to put a parenting plan together, but can also be limiting if you have more agreements. In that case, you can review these forms for ideas to include in your parenting plan. write.

As you work through your parenting plan, keep your children the priority. Part of that is working cooperatively with your spouse. Unfortunately, there are parents that threaten to use the court if they don’t get the parenting schedule that they want. That’s never a good idea. Litigating custody has negative consequences to you and your children and the court can impose sanctions against parents who over litigate their custody issues. This behavior threatens your chances to co-parent successfully and makes it harder for your children to recover from the divorce. Children of divorce do the best when their parents get along. Handling the custody discussions in a healthy way now, will result in a more stress-free and successful co-parenting relationship between you and your spouse in the future. The best you can do for your children is to agree on how you will co-parent them post-divorce. There are plenty of resources to help you, including free co-parenting classes through the court and private custody mediators, who are experts in this

field. If you need a custody agreement or order while you are working on your case, follow the steps in Obtaining Temporary Orders.

Your hard work and collaboration with your spouse on your Parenting Plan and Holiday Schedule will become part of your Marital Settlement Agreement, which is your divorce agreement.

Before you go, consider if we can help you. We have helped thousands of couples in California. Our guided DIY divorce is successful and cheap! Our services are all 5-star!

Property Division (Community & Separate)

2024 Dividing Retirement Accounts in a California Divorce

Post author By Dina Haddad
Post date March 13, 2023

Dividing Retirement Accounts in a California Divorce

Retirement Plans:

Many couples have community retirement accounts. Any contributions made during marriage, whether 401(K)s, 403(B)s, IRA, Keoghs, military retirement benefits, or pensions, are community and each spouse is entitled to one-half. This includes any years of service earned as part of a pension plan during the marriage, or contributions your employer made on your behalf during marriage. If you contributed before marriage and after the date of separation, that portion is your separate property.

Retirements are grouped into two kinds; either a defined benefit plan or a defined contribution plan. With a defined benefit plan, you receive a monthly benefit at retirement based on a predetermined formula that uses factors like years of employment, salary, and age. This is typical of pensions. With a defined contribution plan, either the employer, employee or both make contributions to the retirement plan on a regular basis. Common examples are 401Ks and 403Bs. In order to divide the community portion, you will need a Qualified Domestic Relations Order, called a QDRO. QDROs are very complicated and require legal expertise. It is very important to have a QDRO specialist prepare one for you.

IRAs have less restrictions. You do not need a QDRO to transfer funds. You can rollover the funds from your IRA to a rollover IRA in your spouse’s name as part of your divorce agreement. Just determine what portion is to be transferred from one spouse to the other, and include that in the agreement. The spouse that owns the IRA gned agreement to the financial institution and requests that the funds owed to the non-owner spouse be rolled into a separate account for the spouse.

So long as the retirement division is in your divorce agreement, you can divide these accounts without incurring any penalty fees or taxes.

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