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A BASIC CHECKLIST FOR A SEPARATION (I.E. DIVORCE) AGREEMENT
Download this checklist (.pdf format)
The Children
- Legal Custody (the power to make major decisions)
- Where do they live
- When does the other parent have access
- Removal from Connecticut, or moving within the state
- Emergency decisions
- Temporary incompetence of one parent
Alimony and Child Support (the Child Support Guidelines)
- Amount and timing
- Tax treatment
- Inflation
- Reductions
- Emancipation
- Remarriage and “cohabitation”
- Duration
- Child support ends when emancipated, usually
- When does alimony end? (cannot be affected by a child)
- Leave the question open?
- Waiver of all future alimony?
College And Other Education
- Summer camp, extracurricular activities, other costs
- Private school
- Graduate school
- Weddings, etc.
Medical Insurance And Expenses
- Insurance for the children
- Insurance for the non-employee spouse, if there is one
- Uninsured medical and dental expenses—braces, therapy, etc.
Life Insurance
- Duration, amount, beneficiaries, proof of insurance
- Relationship to support obligation
Income Tax Returns
- The pending refund or liabilities
- How to file for this year?
- If joint, how to divide liabilities
Property Division
- Equitable distribution under C.G.S. Sec. 46b-81
- THE HOUSE
- Use and possession
- Ownership
- Buy-out for cash or exchange for release of other assets, such as pension or business
- Liability for mortgage remains after transfer of ownership between spouses
- Tax consequence of transfer between spouses
- Timing for sale or transfer
- When the children are emancipated
- Some other defined time
- OTHER REAL ESTATE (vacation house, rental units, etc.)
- PERSONAL PROPERTY
- Pensions
- Business Interests
- Other intangibles: securities, royalties, receivables, bank accounts
- Inheritances
- Tangibles
Debts and Credit Cards
- The mortgage on the house, any equity loan, any other mortgage on any property
- Liability for joint mortgage debt remains after transfer of jointly owned property between spouses
- College or other student loans
- Individual debts
- How to eliminate all joint credit cards
Standard Provisions
- Separate wills
- Waiver of future claims
- Personal freedom to live his or her own life
- Mediation of future disputes
- Completeness of this agreement
- Status of the agreement
- Merged into the judgment
- Survives as an independent contract
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