I had a client sign up for services that I just had to comment on. You see, their family was what I would call high net worth / high income earners. They earned around $25,000 a month from their business which i would consider to be a fairly high income.

When I first spoke with this family, I asked them why they had decided to use me instead of an attorney since they likely could afford it.

Their answer was one that I was familiar with. They said that once the divorce attorneys would look at their income and they spoke about their net worth and possessions that the attorneys seemed to feel they could get a lot more money out of them.

The clients actually said that even over the phone when they would speak to attorneys that they would ask where they live and that the attorneys would even comment and say something like, “oh, you are in that part of town” referencing the expensive homes in that particular neighborhood.

Make sure to listen to this quick podcast where I talk more about this issue. You can also download the pdf of this blog post below as well.

How To Process A QDRO |Preparing The QDRO Is Only 1/2 The Battle

I received a call the other day from a guy who said he needed help with his QDRO. He said that he had paid someone to prepare it. But once the QDRO was prepared, he was mailed the QDRO with a list of instructions of what needed to be done.

You see, having the QDRO written up is just half the issue when handling QDRO’s and once it is prepared it has to go through several channels before it is finalized. I want to bring this up because when people call about our QDRO Service, which is a full service process, I tell them that it can take several months to finalize.

We do not just prepare the QDRO and then turn it over to you with instructions, although doing so would certainly be easier, but like with our full service divorce, getting the paperwork through the courts is challenging and we don’t want to leave that up to out clients.

Here is the various channels a QDRO will go down when being processed.

QDRO Process:

1. Obtain Model QDRO Language from the Plan – Every pension or 401k has specific language that needs to be included in the QDRO.
2. Draft Joinders and File with the Court (Read Here About Joinders)
3. Serve filed Joinders and Draft QDRO to Plan for approval (This can take several months)
4. Once QDRO Approved, Obtain signatures from clients.
5. File QDRO with Court. (This can take several weeks)
6. Once filed with Court, obtain certified copy of QDRO.
7. Serve Certified copy of QDRO on plan.

So you can see, drafting the QDRO is just one small part of the overall process.  While the QDRO and Joinder can be “prepared” relatively quickly, it is the approval and court process that adds much time to the overall process.

So while you can find companies out there who will “prepare” your QDRO for a few hundred dollars, our Full-Serve QDRO service takes you all the way to being prepared, filed, and submitted to the plan.

Please give me a call for more information about our QDRO service.

How Would You Like Divorce661 Signs In Your Valencia Neighborhood??

I don’t know about you but it really bothers me when people or business’s place these “bandit” signs around Valencia. I don’t know what goes through people’s minds when they think, “Let me have some signs made and plaster them all over the city.

I personally feel that it is low class to do this and I think other people feel the same way.  I also think that when I see these signs, I think to myself that the business must not be doing good if they have to resort to this type of advertising.

A few months ago, I was walking my dog Hudson along McBean Pkwy and Northpark Drive and came across another sign. I snapped a photo and said some choice words on Facebook. (see below)

Today I saw another sign and this one was from 1-800-got-junk.  It was posted right in the grass, right on Northpark drive.

It made me think how these people would fee about me posting a Divorce661 sign in their neighborhood. (more below photo)

I don’t think they would like it very much if I put a Divorce661 sign in their neighborhood.

Now you may be thinking that this does not look so bad. For those of us that live in Santa Clarita, we don’t have to see things like this everyday or even that often.

But take a drive down to the San Fernando Valley and drive down any major street. The streets are littered with these bandit signs all over the place and it looks terrible. Not that there is anything wrong with the San Fernando Valley, but I don’t want Santa Clarita to look like that.

I remember when I was an Police Officer back in the day working Devonshire Division and patrolling the streets. I would see all these bandit signs and think just how awful it looked.  I was glad to be able to drive home to my house in Santa Clarita after my shifts, that is for sure.

What was interesting about the post I did on Facebook is that there were actually people who defended the company that posted the sign, saying maybe they didn’t know or maybe they hired someone.  That is just bull. Whether they physically placed it there themselves or hired someone to do it, they are still responsible.

And if you are the one that did this and read this post, you know exactly how I feel. And I still need to go back and pluck that 1-800-got-junk sign right out of the ground!

Have a nice day 🙂

The New York Post published and article yesterday that stated that New York has a massive backlog of divorce cases. I thought this was interesting because of the reasons they cited for causing the backlog of divorce cases.

The New York Post stated that the reason for the massive backlog of divorce cases in New York was due to the fact that in 2010, New York went from a state where you had to prove fault “Fault-State” such as cruelty or infidelity to a no-fault state which simply means you can get divorced without the need for having a reason.

There are three things I wanted to comment on here. First, is that there are several states in the U.S. that are still fault states; states where you have to prove the other person did something wrong in order to get divorced.  I just find this to be so wrong. Maybe it is because I live in California and deal with divorce everyday where couples file for divorce without the need for posing a reason.

In fact, in my book, “Why You Don’t Need A Divorce Attorney“, I even speak about how odd it would be if you had to really have a reason to file for divorce and that many couples getting a divorce cannot really put a finger on why they are getting divorce, just that they are “not happy”.

No imagine that these people that had no real reason to file for divorce could not get divorced for “not happy” but had to prove that “something happened” such is the case in New York and other “Fault” divorce states.

The second thing I wanted to comment about is the backlog they say is occurring now that they are a no-fault state.  This just goes to show that there are many people out there that are not happy in their marriage but where something has not really “happened” to cause it, but they are still not happy enough to stay in the marriage.

These people in these unhappy relationships are forced to remain married simply because of the laws of the land they live in that says they have to remain married.  Sort of makes you want to investigate a States policy on divorce before you move there, doesn’t it.

The last thing I wanted to state is about the backlog. In California, we have always had a backlog of divorce cases. This is for 2 reasons. First, the court’s are under staffed.  I know when I worked for the Divorce Courts in the San Fernando Court which is is now in Chatsworth Superior Court, the Court’s calendars were so full that it would take about a year to get to trial for your case.

And this is just one problem. The other issue is in regards to California’s 6 month “Cooling Off Period” which states that your divorce cannot be completed any sooner than 6 months. I think that this is a good policy for those people that get upset with their spouse and run out and file for divorce. What would happen if you could divorce in a day? There are many people that make this mistake and would have to be married if this policy was not in place.

But what about those people that have been separated for many years? I have many clients who have been separated for a year, 2 years and even 10 years or longer. How silly is it that those people should have to wait for 6 months to get divorced. Obviously, they have had plenty of time to think about it.

I believe that there should be an exemption for those people who want to file for divorce and who have already separated. They should be able to file for divorce and not have to with the 6 months in this case I believe.  And I know that people in this position would agree with me because when I tell them they have to wait 6 months for their divorce to be finalized, they always ask, “Why, if we have already been living apart for X amount of years?”

In any event, I thought this was an interesting article in the New York Post which you can find here to read the entire article and wanted to add my 2 cents.

 

Divorce 661 Review | Divorce661 Reviews From Gonzalo | Tim Blankenship Divorce661

This is a review from Gonzalo who was a client of ours and nice enough to write a review about Divorce661.  Because so many people search for reviews about Divorce661, and end up on the websites where all they do is review companies, I thought it would be a good idea to post these reviews directly on my website.