How to Protect Your Assets During a Divorce

Video Transcript

"Hello, have you ever wondered how to protect your assets during a process of a divorce. It's not easy, is it, it's a very tense time in your life. I'm Dr. Ferrara, and I'd like to share a few tips with you. For instance, a lot depends on whether your assets are public or private. And what I say by public, those would be items that are in a safe deposit box, a public savings account, IRA account, or a retirement account. Things like that are very much subject to personal liens, pendants to be put on. And if you happen to be the one who's the aggressor, and you are looking for these properties to be shared with you, you would probably put the less penalties. However, if you're the victim and you're looking to have these items protected, you would probably put an injunction on those to keep the other party from withdrawing from that particular account, if their names are on it too. The other thing that you would do, of course you're going to, most likely when you get to that point where you're fighting for the assets, you have an attorney, you follow your attorneys advise, because all person have to file an affidavit of financial assets and responsibilities at the beginning of a divorce. So if you are at that stage of fighting over the public items, you're kind of limited as to what your recourse is. Personal items I consider things like, your family heirlooms, personal collections of items that you have. Now there may be a thin line between whether they're your personal belongings, or whether they're marital properties, that depends on the jurisdiction in your state, so you want to check with that, again check by your attorney. But if they're personal items that are definitely yours, obviously you can leave them with friends or family during the process of divorce to protect them. But you don't want to do anything that's considered illegal if they're considered community property. The other thing of course, one way that people protect themselves is with a pre-opt, premarital pre-opt, and that's something that may or may not stay in affect through the course of the marriage, depending on the terms, and depending on the length of the marriage and circumstances. So through all of these items you really need to consult with an attorney during this time. Assuming that the fact that you're getting a divorce you're not agreeing in the first place, so each one has their perception about what belongs to who. Alright, may you have good luck, I know it's a very tense time, but hang in there. People do survive well after divorce. Good luck, and god bless. Dr. Felicia here. Thank you."