How to Recover Assets After a Divorce
Going through a divorce can be both emotionally and financially exhausting. From lawyer fees to division of assets, you may be facing financial hardships that feel impossible to recover from. Your credit may have suffered during the marriage and divorce, making it hard for you to get credit that might otherwise help you get back on your feet. Despite the financial difficulties brought on by your divorce, you do have options that will help you reestablish your credit and recover your financial assets once the divorce is finalized.
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Instructions
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Protect your assets prior to the divorce by employing a lawyer who can help ensure you get a fair amount of the shared assets accumulated during the marriage. In many states, assets accumulated during the marriage should be split 50/50, including retirement earnings, property value and joint savings.
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Create a list of all your monthly expenses and compare it to your monthly income. Prior to your divorce, you and your spouse may have shared the monthly expenses, even in cases when the debt only belonged to one of you.
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Change your spending habits. Prior to the divorce, you may have been able to spend more frivolously because you shared income with your spouse. The limits of your single personal income may not allow you to spend in the manner you did while married, and curbing your spending habits will keep you from making financial mistakes that will make recovery difficult.
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Seek credit counseling if you find you have more debt than you can afford to pay on your own. You may need to renegotiate with your lenders for lower payments, or consolidate your monthly bills for a lower overall payment. Lowering your monthly expenses may help you recover your financial assets.
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Close out joint credit accounts as soon as possible. Joint accounts do not automatically close when you get a divorce. It's up to you and your ex-spouse to close those accounts. If the accounts remain open, your ex-spouse will still have access to the line of credit and may use it to make purchases you will be responsible for paying off.
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Review a copy of your credit report both before and after the divorce. Because divorce proceedings take months to complete, checking your credit report after the divorce is imperative to discovering information that may have damaged your credit. For example, if your spouse defaulted on a joint account she agreed to pay, it will appear on your credit report. Review the report and contact creditors to negotiate repayment terms improve your score. You can receive a free copy of your credit report each year from the Credit Bureau-approved sources Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
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Apply for a line of credit to help boost your credit rating. In the event that your credit was damaged during the marriage or divorce, you may need to begin rebuilding your personal credit score. While the negative activity suffered through the marriage will still be available on your credit report, new activity that shows potential creditors that you are making responsible financial choices may persuade them to offer you credit that will help improve your score.
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Pay your bills on time every month. Reestablishing your assets and your credit after divorce means you are solely responsible for your accounts. Timely payments will ensure that you don't default or damage your credit anymore than it may already have been damaged.
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Tips & Warnings
Talk to your attorney before the divorce is finalized if you allowed your spouse to control your household finances during the marriage. Your lawyer may help you discover hidden assets your spouse tried to keep hidden from you, and you may have a legal right to those assets.
The finalization of your divorce means the distribution of assets you and your spouse, or the judicial system, agreed upon is also final. You may not be able to recover assets, such as the family home, after the divorce if your spouse was awarded the home.
