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Divorce/separation

Full financial disclosure - pros and cons?

1 reply

seaweedthins · 16/10/2014 22:33

I'm about to start divorce proceedings with Ex-P but I'm in a quandary about what to do with the financial side of things.

Basically, Ex has proposed a 60/40 split from our house (our only real asset) but given our different earnings and earning potential, I'm not sure if this is fair or not. We have a young son, who won't be starting school for two years and I am the main carer. I currently work part time, and will be happily stepping this up in time but right now, I do most of the childcare.

Historically, Ex-P has been a very high self employed earner, I earned around a quarter of his salary (me £20k, him £80k to £100k a year), but in the past two years, his business has struggled and his earnings have dropped considerably this year. He says he's hardly paid himself at all this year, and I know he has debts of around £25k. Previously we had a good standard of living, and had agreed to send son to private school but ex has now backed out of this, saying he might have more kids :( I'm currently self employed and freelance, so you can't get much shakier than that, security wise! My main issue is that his earning potential is much, much bigger than mine and always will be and he'll be in a much better position to get a mortgage than me.

I'm worried that he's chosen this year to get divorced as he looks stony broke. My solicitor has advised me to do full financial disclosure but I'm worried that actually this could leave me worse off, if his new circumstances have made us more 'equal' financially. Historically, he has form for being underhand - he took money out on a second charge on our house without telling me, and throughout our whole marriage the money side has been very difficult, with him refusing to keep me informed on his business.

So my question is, is FD really necessary? If his finances look shaky, will I end up just losing out? In other words, should I just be taking the 60 per cent and running? Can I say FD is purely part of the divorce process, see what comes out of it, and then negotiate from there? I would prefer a 65 per cent split as it would make a big difference to me and my son but obviously don't want to rock the boat if I could end up with much less.

Sorry it's so long and rambly, if anybody's got this far, I would welcome any advice. Thank you so much.

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STIDW · 17/10/2014 01:42

There is no way of settling the finances unless there is disclosure. Without disclosure no one can say whether a proposed settlement is fair (complies with the law) and your solicitor could be negligent if he advised without.

IF agreement can be reached you need to submit a simplified disclosure along with a draft consent to the court for approval. Only when a judge signs off an order is it legally binding and enforceable.

When no agreement can be reached and one party applies to court a judge directs them both to complete and exchange disclosures.

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