Process for financial separation?

[Jimmintcricket]

Hi, can someone advise please? My ex and I are trying to reach agreement on the split of assets and have reached verbal agreement. It’s reasonably amicable so far. We have engaged solicitors to draft up the agreement. My solicitor has advised we should each provide 12 months bank statements as part of the discovery. We both have a good idea on what the assets/bank accounts are and she said this is just a formality in case either of us was moving money to a new accounts. I’m wondering if anyone can advise is this is normal procedure. My ex has said his solicitor has advised different and this requirement can be waived? (I know that sounds suspicious, but can understand he has valid reasons for wanting it waived). Can anyone provide any help in understanding the process until I can get speaking to my solicitor. Thanks

It’s usual practice however if you already have a level of transparency, know what assets and incomes are and agree a ‘fair’ split then you don’t have to provide these

i didnt

We are doing a lot more DIY divorce so not doing a "discovery" process at all.
We sit on sofa together, login to get numbers (can see over each other's shoulders), & just type our numbers into a jointly edited spreadsheet.

I suppose that The logic of "discovery" is you both are showing willingness to be transparent & honest. It's usually easy to get 12 months history.

The logic against how you're doing things is the lawyers are making a lot of money (by handling all these documents) : money that you guys could split instead. Especially if there are several bank accounts to look at & lots of numbers to add up.

I imagine if you both went & got lawyers then you both want a structured process, which means you have effectively agreed in advance that you will both go along with reasonable requests by other side's lawyers; this request is probably small beer compared to how much time lawyers can cost.

Try this - this simplified the process for me because I had no idea what I was doing for the financial stuff https://iamlip.com/help-guides/the-court-process-of-dividing-your-marital-assets-finances-and-pensions/

Might make the process a little easier.

@Jimmintcricket We only completed D81 as we knew what was in the bank accounts / assets / pensions etc.....