Jon Arnold asked:

When you take a good long hard look at your marriage and have come to the conclusion that divorce is in your near term future, this is a great time to be thinking about your financial future and how to protect as much of your finances and assets as possible. You need to be doing this prior to starting divorce proceedings because after you've started the process, you may be severely limited as to what you can do financially that would be seen as benefiting you personally.

In talking with your spouse, if it appears that the divorce is going to be a friendly one, also known an uncontested divorce, this may be unnecessary but it is still a good idea. Even the best of friends can part ways in a hurry if there is money at stake.

Sit down with your spouse and determine where you can cut back, starting immediately, so that you can keep more money in your pocket. Perhaps you can just get a Sunday delivery of the newspaper instead of daily. Maybe you can reduce your cable TV bill by removing the premium movie channel option. Depending on how the divorce proceedings work out, you may need the money you are saving here via these reductions.

One thing that many do not think about but which is critical is that you should close all your joint credit cards. If you still need the credit card, then you can contact the credit card issuer and ask them to reissue a card that is just in your name instead of in both of your names. As time goes on, if your spouse gets upset with you, this would prevent them from going on a shopping spree to charge all your credit cards to the hilt, where you would end up being responsible for at least half of the balance due, if not all of it.

You should also close any joint bank accounts that you may have. When you open a new account, do so at a different bank in your area. If you have been with the same bank for a long time, there is a chance that your spouse could withdraw the entire balance of the account just because the teller happens to recognize your spouse by sight. Legally this should not happen but it does happen, so take steps to prevent it.

If you are like most people and your employer has a 401k program or some type of retirement or pension program that you contribute to, contact your employer about temporarily stopping your contributions to that program. Remember, in worst case, your spouse will get half of that, so there is no sense in continuing to put more money into it. You can resume your contributions after your divorce is finalized.

Be smart about your divorce preparation. If you prepare for the worst, then you are ready and hopefully things will not go totally south. Even if it looks like the divorce will be friendly and uncontested, things can change in a heartbeat and there is no reason to leave yourself exposed financially.

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Peter Kenny asked:

If you are in the unfortunate situation of getting divorced, then you may be wondering how to sort out your joint bank accounts. Whether the divorce is amicable or not, it is important that you both agree on how to split the monetary funds in your joint accounts so that you both get a fair deal. Here is some advice on how to handle joint bank accounts and the problem of divorce.

Freezing accounts

If you ware worried about funds in the account being removed, then you can get a freeze placed on the account which requires both parties to give permission before any money is removed. Although this may be a good temporary solution to avoid money being removed, it will obviously harm both of you if no money can be released. However, it is a good point to start from and ensures that the account remains untouched and there is motivation on both sides to solve the situation.

50/50 split

If the divorce is amicable and you feel that you are both of an equal financial standing, then the easiest way to sort out the problem of joint accounts is for one person to open a new account and deposit half of the money into that account. The other partner can then change the joint account to a single account, thus leaving each of you with half the money in the account. This is the quickest and easiest way to sort out any problems, but is not always possible if you are of different financial standings and an agreement cannot be reached.

Don't leave the situation

Although you might think the situation will sort itself out, if your ex partner removes all of the money from the account and liquidates it without your knowledge, you could be left in serious financial trouble. Although you should be able to get the money back through the divorce settlement process, this could take months and leave you short of funds in the meantime. Whatever you do, make sure that you don't just leave the situation to sort itself out.

Credit cards

If you hold joint credit cards, then it is important that you cancel your card and inform the bank in writing that you want to be removed from the credit card account due to impending divorce and that you will not be held responsible for any extra debts that are accumulated. Obviously, you will both still be responsible for any current debts, but make sure that anything your ex partner spends is not your concern. This applies to other bills such as phone bills etc.

Safety deposit boxes

Perhaps the hardest type of joint monetary asset to control is a safe deposit box. If one or both of you is self-employed then you might keep money in a safety deposit box. If you get divorced then there is no stopping one of you from emptying the box and leaving the other person with nothing. As soon as divorce is a possibility you should try and get the box frozen so that neither you nor your partner can access it on their own. If your bank won't comply then take photos of the contents and get someone to sign it to confirm the contents in case they are removed. If you can remain civil with each other and take the necessary precautions, then you can both end up with the right amount of money from your joint accounts should divorce occur.

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