Choosing to divorce before your children turn 18 years old means arranging custody, doubling your child’s belongings and moving them back and forth. For this reason, some parents wait until their children reach adulthood to divorce.
However, while conducting the legal aspects of a divorce may be easier with adult children, it’s still important to consider how the event will affect them emotionally. Here are a few tips for helping your adult children through this transition.
Like many other states, Florida allows for the payment of alimony from one former spouse to another. While most people think of alimony as associated with an absolute dissolution of marriage, that is, a conventional divorce, alimony may be available as part of Florida's limited dissolution proceeding as well.
There are several different types of alimony available to residents of Lakeland and the surrounding communities in Central Florida.
In part because healthcare is so expensive, many Florida residents who live in or around Lakeland may have it on the forefront of their minds if they are going through a divorce.
Especially if they are on their spouse's plan, they may be honestly worried about how they are going to afford their own insurance premiums, not to mention those inevitable out of pocket medical expenses.
The reality is that many children in Lakeland, Florida, are not being raised by their biological parents. In some cases, the child may still have a relationship with one of his or her parents, but that parent's new spouse, the child's stepparent, has truly stepped in to fill the role of that child's mother or father.
In other cases, grandparents or other relatives fill the role of that child's parents. Sometimes, this happens under tragic circumstances, like when the child's parents both die. In other cases, the child's parents may be unwilling or unable to care for their child because of a drug addiction, a mental illness or the like.
In many ways a relationship is like running a business. The partnership between a couple can mimic a business partnership in many ways. In some cases, you and your spouse may even run an actual business together. In these cases, what happens if you and your spouse decide to call it quits on your marriage? Do you call it quits on the business, too?
Deciding how to handle and divide your assets during a divorce can be complicated. When a business is involved, this process can be even more complex. You may not even know what your options are.
Like many other states, Florida courts will typically assume that a child whose parents live in separate homes will best benefit by having plenty of time and opportunity to develop a meaningful relationship with each parent.
While this does not always mean each parent will have the child a perfect 50 percent of the time, it does mean that a court will work hard to be sure that both parents are involved in their children's lives, at least under ordinary circumstances.
When you are going through a divorce, the idea of being on your own at some point may be of concern since you may have grown accustomed to a life living with a family. Being on your own and co-parenting on a part-time basis may feel daunting and stressful.
Co-parenting after divorce will likely have its challenges. You may find that your kids are not adjusting to the new arrangement as quickly as you hoped or the communication between you and your ex continues to diminish. However, there are strategies you can enlist to help make co-parenting easier and satisfying.
A previous post on this blog touched on how residents of Lakeland, Florida, would have to go about dividing a pension, 401(k) or other retirement plan in the event of a divorce or permanent separation.
As that post discussed, dividing a retirement plan may require jumping through some additional legal hoops even when all parties are in agreement about how it should be divided.
Going through a divorce is difficult enough and when you bring children into the mix, things can get even more complicated. If you intent to split custody with your ex, creating a parenting plan should be a top priority, but these can be complex.
Parenting plans are a crucial part of joint custody and there are many elements you will want to consider when creating one. What are the most important parts of a parenting plan?
Many times, a couple who is going through a divorce or a legal separation will have a lot of their wealth stored up in one or more retirement plans. These sorts of plans can include 401(k)s or other work-related plans, as well as private retirement funds like an Individual Retirement Account, or IRA.
Not surprisingly, Florida law requires that retirement plans be equitably divided between the two spouses. In practice, this means that, unless there is some negotiation, someone who has a retirement plan may be ordered to share all or part of the asset's value with his or her spouse.
Discuss Your Case With An Experienced Family Law Attorney Today. Call 863-266-4122.
Bold labels are required.
625 Commerce Drive
Suite 205
Lakeland,
FL
33813
Phone:
863-266-4122
Fax:
863-680-2641
Lakeland Law Office Map
Sebring Office
212 Pomegranate Avenue
Sebring,
FL
33870
Map & Directions
