California Divorce | Don’t Use Marital Settlement Agreement Format

California Divorce | Don’t Use Marital Settlement Agreement Format

Today, we’re talking about putting together your final agreement. This is known as your Marital Settlement Agreement in the years past.

And then a lot of people are still doing this as far as attorneys are concerned, the Marital Settlement Agreement was a lengthy drawn out narrative.

So a series of paragraph 20, 25, 30 pages long.

And the reason we’re doing this video is the courts are trying to get away from having this long narrative you know 20, 25 pages written document regarding your Settlement Agreement.

And have many years ago have gone to a forms type set up. And that’s how we process divorce cases.

We use the court forms and I want to explain why. We have a lot of people that come to us and say they already have a written agreement and they want to submit their case to the court.

And they’ll either have it done on a piece of paper or these are folks trying to do it with themselves. And it lacks the legal sufficient legal language to process through the courts.

And that’s one of the benefits of the judgment forms is they have all the required language and then it’s just a series of check boxes.

So it makes it very difficult to miss getting that legal language in because these are court, these are documents prepared by the court where you are just going through in checking boxes and filling in the blanks.

What we’re seeing is a lot of folks that are using these online type services where you get the forms complete it for you automatically that they do not meet the legal guidelines for submitting your case, your judgment to the court and they’re being rejected.

So people are paying a couple hundred bucks getting their forms done.

They’re having this written, I’m not saying these are created by a computer, and then submitting to the courts being rejected as the clerk is going through the MSA Marital Settlement Agreement, it’s missing all kind of legal language and they’re telling folks to add this, add that but they don’t do specific.

They’ll say this paragraph is missing, this such and such information per Family Code Section and you’re going to have no idea what is to go in there.

So when people come to us, we essentially will use their written narrative Marital Settlement Agreement as a guide.

But we’ll transfer that information on to the judgment forms which have all the required court information.

So if you’re trying to do your divorce case yourself, save yourself some time and frustration and use the courts judgment forms for each of your child custody orders, property orders, etc, if you have any questions about that feel free to give me a call.

We are a Full Service Divorce Paralegal Firm serving California. The number here is 661-281-0266 or you can go to Divorce661.com for more information.

Life After Divorce An Explanation Of The Healing Process

Life After Divorce An Explanation Of The Healing Process

Tim: When my clients come to us that is a major issue like they can’t see the end.

Patti: Yes.

Tim: They’re stuck in that moment or they’re like–

Patti: They’re in dark hole.

Tim: They’re how do I do this? How do I—we’re talking how do I tell my spouse?

And I try and tell them when we see our clients on the other end they are happy, they’re so glad they did it.

They didn’t say perhaps wait till our kids turned 18. We see a lot of that going on.

Patti: Yeah, you’re right.

Tim: They’re all happier. So there is life after.

Patti: There is a great life after.

Tim: Yes. How would you get them to –How would you say? I can’t tell that to people. I’m still married.

Why should they believe me? But you’ve been through that.

Patti: No, you know the analogy that I use it’s like going–it’s like giving birth to yourself.

We’re going to the birth canal right? And there’s a visual.

Tim: I didn’t know we’re going there. I’m kidding.

Patti: It’s really dark. It hurts. It’s you don’t know where you’re going. You didn’t know what’s in the other side.

At the other side it’s life. There’s just a period of time where it’s going to hurt. It’s going to be painful.

You don’t know where you’re going. It’s a blank faith situation.

And you then will come out at the other side and it will be wonderful. It’s a process.

You have to be patient with yourself.  Be patient with others.

It’s like a physical realm. If you were getting to accident and your leg will split open, right? And you just it’s hurt. You can’t wish it to heal fast.

You just need to get a doctor, get it cleaned out, protocast, rest and take care of yourself and let it heal naturally, same thing with the emotional world.

You just got to heal yourself carefully, take good care of yourself. That’s really a critical point taking really good point taking really good care of yourself, focusing on you, focus on your children.

And say process will happen. Mother Nature will take its course.

But just know absolutely, positively, without a doubt become much happier at the other end if you take care of yourself well.

Tim: Yeah.

50 Ways To Flourish After Divorce Book By Patti Handy

50 Ways To Flourish After Divorce Book By Patti Handy

Tim: Today, we’re talking to Patti Handy. And we have her here today about a lot of things talking about a new book she has written, ‘50 Ways To Flourish After Divorce’.

I thought this would be great to talk about and introduce to you so you know we’re doing as many as divorce cases that we do in California.

And when she sent this to me I saw that you had some value potentially to my clients and I want to just give you an opportunity to talk about it.

This is your chance to—you know let’s talk about your book and how we can help people. It’s very interesting that you went through divorce as well.

You make that very clear here and here and so we can just tell our viewers a little bit about—

Patti: Sure.

Tim: …what this book is all about and—

Patti: Sure. After my divorce my divorce was something I was surprised. My son was 18 months old.

And there was a lot of craziness obviously emotionally, financially, physically—it was a hot mess basically.

And I found ways to a journey and we all go to a journey when we go to divorce.

And if you’re in a middle of a divorce I can tell you that the journey is worth it because at the end you will become such a better, happier person.

I wrote this book, maybe years after my divorce because going through my journey I found ways that I am healed and that helps me healed, things that I just found that brought me to my journey.

At the end of my journey I should say, ‘Well we’re all on a journey forever.’ I shouldn’t at the end of my journey but post divorce.

And I thought you know I want to show this information and it’s not anything I’m going to come from my financial background.

But it’s not financial related. It is purely from place of heart, it’s simple tools and tips that I used to really flourish after divorce.

So it’s literally 50 things that I did. And it’s some humorous embarrassing things and it’s things that I hope will help people.

Tim: Yeah, I really like how this is formatted. It’s literally just 50 things that some are short as just a page or half a page.

It’s a quick read. You could do one a day. I mean you could read a whole book in a sitting and if you wanted to can read the whole book everyday.

Patti: Yes.

Tim: Just to remind yourself. I mean do you have any recommendations or do you have people I’m sure you know people buying this book and say, I know you’re getting the acclaims and things that helped me, that they say how they utilize the book at all.

Patti: Yes. It’s one of the most things I remember when I went to my divorce that I didn’t have the bandwidth to sit and ready anything at length.

I just I don’t have it. Emotionally, crazy I was dealing with my son. You know life was just overwhelming.

So a friend of mine gave me a book. And it was a book that had short little bits. So from little I can read the page and put it down.

Then it was done but I gained a little nugget from that one page. So I wanted to do that same format in this book.

So it’s something you can pick up and read literally from page in 30 second and put it down or you can read it in one sitting.

And people had done both. And it depends on where you are, if you’re at that very raw, very vulnerable, very difficult stage at the very beginning.

You will have to begin with to read one page. And you put it down.

Tim: Yeah.

Patti: And you come back to it. But yes, you can come back to it six months later and you sort of recap ‘Oh yeah that’s right! I should do that.’

Tim: Yeah, I read through probably half the book and it’d be useful as a reminders.

When you’re going through this process and just open this up and you can just kind of flip page and read one.

Patti: Right.

Tim: You can tap things that you want to continue to remind yourself. Is there one in here that you—

Patti: One in particular?

Tim: Yeah, I always wanted to ask you that. Is there one in particular that you think or is it kind of implying as many as possible?

Patti: You know it’s there are some that are going to resonate more with others. I can’t say I like one more than the other in terms of any particular tip.

Tim: Fair enough.

Patti: However, if there was one thing I would say the onset to focus on is taking really good care of yourself.

Taking care of yourself physically, eating well, exercising, having a quiet time being with friends.

We all speak to the women at this time, women tend to be dealing with the kids, the house, they’re multitasking and we forgot taking care of us.

And we can’t give to our children what we don’t have in ourselves.

So my recommendation is to really start with yourself, fall back in love with yourself and really acknowledge all of your gifts and the beauty that you bring to the world.

And bring that back to you and then you’re able to give that to your kids if you have kids or to friends and family.

And it’s a great way to move forward from a better place.

Tim: So it’s really great information. How can they get a hold of your book?

I know you have this on Amazon. How can they find your book and order your book.

Patti: Yes, Amazon is the best source right now to buy that book absolutely.

Tim: So just Amazon and search for 50 Ways To Flourish or what’s the best way?

Patti: Search my name, yeah.

Tim: So search for Patti Handy.

Patti: Yeah, Patti with an i and Handy with the y.

Tim: Patti with an i, Handy with the y and it’ll bring up your book.

Patti: It’ll bring up this and I have another book.

Tim: Perfect. Alright, thank you so much for sharing that information and you guys can find that on Amazon.

Search for Patti Handy and order the book.

Patti: Thank you.

Tim: Alright, thanks for stopping by.

California Divorce And Finances | Why You Should Trust But Verify

California Divorce And Finances | Why You Should Trust But Verify

Tim: We have clients come in through here, I think a good percentage of them have a pretty good idea of what the finances are.

I think much as far as I say husband made income like you’re kind of referring to.

We had seen about probably if I had to guess probably 50-50 of people who know what the finances are and some they are just clueless what had been you’ve experienced.

I mean you’ve written a book that we’re going to talk about here shortly.

Do you have any information on that like what you’ve seen people are aware, they’re not aware, they’re clueless, what have you seen in here?

Patti: You know it’s interesting even outside of divorce I think more times than not money is one of those topics that are it’s, I don’t want to say taboo but it’s uncomfortable for most.

And again whether you’re going through divorce or not it’s, there’s a lot of people that are uncomfortable with the process.

And I think to answer your question the majority of people that I see who aren’t the money managers, who aren’t  the people who pay the bills and take care of the investments they are somewhat clueless.

They don’t know where the assets are you know if the husband has a 401K and what, where is it, and how much is in it.

Other mutual funds, other investments, other stocks, checking and savings accounts that probably have a pretty good handled, where there’s any outside investments they don’t really know where they’re at and who to call.

If they would have called you know Vanguard or [inaudible 0:01:34] or Charles Robert or whoever.

Tim: Yeah.

Patti: You know here is my account number. What do I have in there? So I’m seeing more times than that many people not knowing.

Tim: Not knowing.

Patti: The spouse who doesn’t know the money managing they don’t know.

Tim: Yeah.

Patti: They just trusted their spouse to take care of their money. And they just dealt with the kids or a lot of times the woman is the money manager.

And the husbands are working. And that was the case in my marriage.

I was the person who dealt with the money. I manage everything. My husband is out working and I have a job as well but he was the one that just let me do well.

He said you know money you do it.

Tim: You know it’s funny here’s that trust factor we have you know. Say we have a wife in here filing for divorce and I say shame on me I should have read more attuned or I should have paid attention and I usually will tell them, you know now you’re saying that it’s too bad in life that has to be something you have to be concerned about.

You should be able to have a marriage and not be worried about these things. It’s not until this type of thing happened there.

Patti: No.

Tim: It becomes a real issue. And you know the other thing I think the courts got something right in that you know where parties aren’t informed of the finances.

You know when going through divorce you have to do what’s called your preliminary declaration for disclosures to list all your assets and debts.

This is so both parties become aware of what the assets and debts so there can be an even distribution of the property so –

Patti: And you’re right and the whole trust aspect going through a marriage and you don’t go into the thinking that you’re going to get divorce and I want you to watch out what you’re doing.

And you know you’re in love and you’re going to spend the rest of your life together and this stuff is never you know expected.

Tim:  Yeah.

Patti: And just it’s just smart and again whether you’re ever going to divorce or not you should know your money.

I mean if your husband gets off to work and he gets killed in a car accident—

Tim: Yeah.

Patti: You still need to know what’s, you know what things are happening financially.

Tim: Yeah. Okay.

Free Divorce Survival Tips Ebook California Divorce

Free Divorce Survival Tips Ebook California Divorce

Tim: Today we’re here with Patti Handy, Patti with an i, Handy with the Y. That’s great. Today we’re talking about a Ebook that she has.

So you’re going to learn her book here first of first and foremost.

Patti: I’m your mortgage adviser, yes.

Tim: But she has come up with an Ebook at divorcesurvivaltips.com

Patti: Yes.

Tim: That is the six steps to financial healing after divorce.

Patti: After divorce.

Tim: I can’t even read my writing. But it’s another resource if you follow our videos you know we always put information as much as possible, helpful tips.

And I thought this would be great to go on video and have another resource for you. So I thought maybe you could come on this video and tell us what they may learn or why should opt in for this Ebook.

Patti: Yeah, it’s a great resource for anybody who’s thinking about divorce, going through divorce even post divorce.

Getting their financial house of order, basically it’s again six steps of financial healing after divorce. It’s free. It’s an auto download Ebook at divorcesurvivaltips.com. Excuse me.

It is basically goes to steps that you should do in order to get yourself kind of dialed in financially.

Organizing and getting a handle on your credit score, pulling your credit reports, separating assets, separating credits specifically.

And just taking charge for what you’re doing financially because that’s a real painful parts of the process because when you do go through divorce you’re splitting everything in half and you’re starting over.

Tim: I can tell you with our clients like we’re talking earlier when they go through divorce of course there’s the emotional tool that it takes but there’s also a financial tool.

And when you have one income, one household, you have one standard living, you have one income, two households, it’s totally a lower standard of living.

And I think it’s a real eye opener to folks to see what’s that standard of living is. So this is something that sounds would be helpful in opening your eyes to things that they are going to have to deal with in going through this transition.

Patti: Absolutely. And typically what happens in a marriage is one spouse will be the money manager that will be the one who pays the bills, that’ll be the one who does the investments.

They know where all the accounts are at. So the other spouse really doesn’t have a clue.

So if you’re the spouse that doesn’t know where things at I mean it’s absolutely crucial that you get to handle on where all the accounts are at, get the account numbers, get an Excel spreadsheet, get everything that’s part of the organization part of it.

And know where all those assets are and become empowered become knowledgeable with money and money itself is a topic that’s very uncomfortable for many people, divorce are not.

So the more you’re empowered and educated the more confidently you’ll be able to go through this process which is of course a very emotional exhausting process.

I have been got through divorce myself, I completely understand that.

So as frustrating as it maybe you know speak with your spouse, get everything organize, get all those statements, know the credit cards are.

Just know really what your financial house looks like. That’s going to be really the first step.

Affordable Divorce Service Atwater Village California

Affordable Divorce Service Atwater Village California

Today we’re talking to the folks in Atwater Village about our Affordable Divorce Service.

So our Affordable Divorce Service in Atwater Village, basically it takes care of your entire Divorce from start to finish as far as filling out the forms, going down to your local courthouse, filing documents, take care of serving the documents and we’ll also take care of preparing your financial disclosures.

When you go through a Divorce in Atwater Village in California for that matter you have to file and serve your financial disclosures which basically let’s the other party know what you know your assets and debts and how much your income is.

So you can come up with a fair and equitable division of your property and so there can be a determination of child support and spousal support if that’s applicable.

As a neutral third party we will assist both of you in preparing all these documents including and incorporating all of your agreements into the final Marital Settlement Agreement otherwise known as Judgment.

So everything is incorporated into finalizing your Divorce.

So we’re going to determine who gets what property, how you’re going to divide up your assets and debts, what is the custody and visitation arrangement going to look like as it pertains to your children and indicating any spousal support or alimony that we’ll be requested as far as the links and amounts of support to be paid.

As a neutral third party we do work with both spouses for one low flat fee. So make sure to give us a call.

I’ll be happy to provide you a free phone consultation. Our number here is 661-281-0266.

No office appointment is necessary if you don’t want to come in to our office.

We do a lot of our service remotely via email and fax. So please give me a call.

The number is on your screen or you can jump over to our website at Divorce661.com.

Uncontested Divorce Service Atwater Village California

Uncontested Divorce Service Atwater Village California

Today we’re talking to the folks in Atwater Village about Uncontested Divorce Service.

We are a Full Service Paralegal Firms specializing in Divorce in the Atwater Village area and we handle Divorce cases all throughout California.

So as a Full Service Divorce Paralegal Firm serving the Atwater Village area we take care of your entire Divorce case from start to finish.

This means we will take care of preparing all the documents, going down to your local courthouse and filling documents for you.

Take care of the service of documents as well as preparing all your financial disclosures as far as the assets and debts and income and expense declaration that’s required by the court.

Once that’s completed we put together all your final agreements. This is known as the Marital Settlement Agreement or Judgment.

This is where we include all your agreements such as child support, spousal support, child custody, visitation orders and the distribution of your property as far as who’s going to get what.

And that’s really these encompasses in Divorce. The paperwork is complicated that’s why you’re looking for a company like ours to take care of that.

For us as far as the process and procedure we handle everything for you as a neutral third party.

So for one little flat fee we will take care of both serving you and your spouse and assisting and coordinating with the court in completion of your Divorce in Atwater Village.

So if you’re looking for an affordable way to go through an Uncontested Divorce in Atwater Village please give me a call at 661-281-0266.

I’ll be happy to provide you a free phone consultation and of course you can always jump over to our website at Divorce661.com.

Affordable Divorce Service Montrose California

Affordable Divorce Service Montrose California

I’m talking about our Affordable Divorce Service in Montrose, California.

We are a Full Service Divorce Paralegal Firm serving the Montrose area and we specialize only in Divorce in California.

Being that we’re a full service we take care of your entire divorce case from start to finish.

We are a neutral third party that can work with both of you and your spouse as we have no attorneys or lawyers in our firm.

We’re not required to be supervised as we are licensed and bonded by the County of Los Angeles to provide direct to consumer Affordable Legal Self Help.

What that means is we will take care of your entire divorce from start to finish including filing out the forms, going down to the court for you, filing your documents, serving your documents ands taking care of all the financial disclosures that are mandatory by the courts and preparation of all of your agreements.

Now when you go through a Divorce in Montrose what do you have to do is come up with agreements regarding all related items.

We’re talking about the kids, child custody, child visitation, child support and spousal support if amicable.

And distribution of your property, how you’re going to divide up your property, who’s going to get what and etc, all that is incorporated into a Divorce when you’re going through a Divorce in Montrose.

So give us a call and we’ll be happy to talk to you more about our Affordable Divorce Service in Montrose.

No office appointment is necessary. We do handle clients throughout California so we are set up to work with you remotely.

You don’t have to come in to our office. Again we have clients everywhere throughout California and can assist you via email, fax, phone or whatever is convenient for you.

We do work with your local courts so you won’t have to worry about going to court.

If you’re going through of Amicable Divorce no court appearance is necessary if you guys come to agreements and all the terms of your Divorce outside of courts which of course we’re here to facilitate.

So feel free to give me a phone call. I’ll be happy to provide you a free phone consultation.

The number is 661-281-0266 and of course you can always go on to our website at Divorce661.com for more information.

Uncontested Divorce Montrose California

Uncontested Divorce Montrose California

Today we’re talking to the folks in Montrose, California about our Uncontested Divorce Service.

We’re talking about our Uncontested Divorce Service in Montrose, California.

We are a Full Service Divorce Paralegal Firm specializing in California Divorce serving the Montrose area.

Being that we’re a Full Service we take care of your entire Divorce case from start to finish including filing out the forms.

We go down to the court and file your documents for you. We take care of the service of documents and preparation of all financial disclosures.

So all the processes and procedures that the courts require we will take care of.

This includes putting together your Marital Settlement Agreement otherwise known as a Judgment which will incorporate all of your agreements such as child support, child custody, child visitation, spousal support and distribution of your assets and debts, essentially, how are you going to divide up your stuff.

So we take care of the entire process for you. We work with both parties as we are a neutral.

So if you are going through an Amicable Divorce we are the best option for you.

We’ll save you a bunch of money. We can even save you court fees and we do work off of flat affordable fees.

You can jump over to our website at Divorce661.com and you can find out your cost right there on the spot.

And most importantly when you use our service as we do facilitate the court process for you we can save you over $435 in court fees.

So make sure to call and ask us about how we can do that and obviously it helps to offset some of our cost.

Feel free to give me a call at 661-281-0266, I’ll be happy to provide you a free phone consultation.

Talk to you about your specific circumstances and answer any specific questions you have.

And then hopefully we can assist you in getting through your Divorce in Montrose.

Affordable Divorce Service La Crescenta CA

Affordable Divorce Service La Crescenta CA

I’m talking to the folks in La Cresenta, California about our Affordable Divorce Service.

We are a Full Service Divorce Paralegal Firm Legal Document Assistance to be specific.

We are Licensed and Bonded to work directly with clients throughout California and provide a neutral third party Divorce Service preparing legal documents, taking care of the entire Divorce from start to finish.

What’s best is we are a neutral third party.

We can work with both of you and your spouse to facilitate the Divorce process in La Crescenta and work with your local court to get your case completed without a court appearance if, if everyone is agreeable to the terms.

As a Full Service we take care of everything from A to Z including filling out the forms, going down to your local court house, filing documents, serving documents, all the processes and procedures that the court requires we will handle.

We take care of the postage, photocopies, trips to the court and coordinating between you and your spouse as a neutral third party to complete your Divorce cases amicably as possible and as of course as affordably as possible.

So feel free to give me a call. We handle all of California.

We are in Los Angeles County so we definitely serve the La Cresenta.

No in house or in office appointment is required. We do a lot of our work remotely right over the phone and via email.

And we still do that as a full service capacity. And that you won’t have to go to court if all parties agree to the terms of your Divorce.

We will do that for you. So give me a call.

I’ll be happy to provide you a free phone consultation at 661-281-0266.

You can also go to our website at Divorce661.com for more information and we look forward to talking to you soon.