Divorce Health Insurance

    




    



Recently, I had a question from someone who was going through a divorce and was concerned about lost health insurance coverage because she was covered under her husband's insurance. She was concerned not just for herself, but for her children as well. This question comes up a lot. See is this answer helps you better understand what to do. If you have additional questions on this topic, feel free to add to the blog, and I'll answer them.
Medical Insurance and Divorce
To answer your questions specifically, here are some ideas to consider.
1) You and your children are automatically covered under your husband's insurance as a dependent until you divorce.
2) When your divorce is final, you have the opportunity to continue your husband's insurance by triggering what is called "COBRA". (Note: there is another blog entry that defined COBRA.) This will continue your coverage for an additional 18 months; unfortunately, you will have to pay the full cost of the coverage (and the company can have you pay 102 - 105% of the coverage cost).
Your children, by law, will becovered under the parent's coverage whose birth date occurs first in the calender year.
3) One suggestion is that when you hire an Attorney to assist with your divorce, you might want to ask, in the settlement negotiations, to have the price of the COBRA payments included in your settlement. This would be particularly important if you happen to have the early-in-the year birthdate, and will be paying for the children's health insurance coverage. This cost should not have to come out of your child support, as it can be VERY EXPENSIVE.
4) Whatever you decided to do, keep all documents together. Whenever you talk to anyone, document to whom you talk, get the name and tele #, and what was said by all in the conversation as soon as possible after the conversation. In this way, you document what is said, and do not have to rely on memory. Also, when you send anything to anyone, keep a copy for yourself, and send it by registered mail, so that you have proof of receipt.

About The Author

Carolyn Magura
Disabilitykey.com (http://www.disabilitykey.com) is a website designed to assist each person in his/her own unique quest to navigate through the difficult and often conflicting and misleading information about coping with disabilities.
Carolyn Magura, noted disability / ADA expert, has written an e-Book documenting the process that allowed her to:
a) continue to work and receive her ?full salary? while on Long Term Disability; and
b) become the first person in her State to qualify for Social Security Disability the FIRST TIME, in UNDER 30 DAYS.
Click here (http://www.disabilitykey.com/products.htm) to receive Carolyn 's easy-to-read, easy-to-follow direct guide through this difficult, trying process. If you are disabled, don't let this disabiling process disable you. Read Carolyns Disability Key Blog (http://www.disabilitykey.com/disabilitykeyblog.shtml).


    

    

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Divorce and Hidden Assets

    




    

Not surprisingly, assets are often hidden in a divorce situation. Why - well simply greed, or the feelings of betrayal or anger at the need to divide assets in the divorce, or the fear of not having enough after the divorce all motivate the behavior of hiding assets.
In divorce, the parties assets are divided. Under the divorce laws of some states they are divided equally and under the divorce laws of other states, they are divided "equitably" or fairly. Equitably often means equally to overworked divorce judges.
There is no way to know in advance if your spouse has or will hide assets in a divorce. You know your spouse better than your divorce attorney will and you will need to alert your attorney to the possibility of your psouse hiding assets. Before you get to that point, however, there are some easy steps to take to prevent your spouse from being able to hide assets. Those steps include finding out everything you can about your assets before divorce.
Before you alert your spouse that you are considering divorce, you need to complile and/or stockpile documentation about all of your assets. If you do not have knowledge of your marital assets, it is time to find out what is there. If bank and other statements come to the house, open them and write down account numbers and balances.
If you have access to the cancelled checks, copy those as well. It is not unusual for a spouse who is planning a divorce to transfer money to friends or relatives with the plan being that they will give that money back after a divorce is finalized. So, you should review those records and carefully scrutinize all large or suspicious transfers that take place in the two or three years prior to or just after the filing of a divorce action.
Make sure that you know where the copies of your income tax statements are. If your spouse has a business, make sure you have a copy of several years of tax returns for that business. All of these documents can be copied and hidden safely somewhere outsided of the house in the event that you need them. Taking these simple pre-emptive steps can mean the difference in obtaining a fair settlement in divorce. It will also be incredibly helpful to your divorce attorney to have this information in advance .
If banking and other statements and financial records are not kept at or mailed to your house, you will need to obtain those records in other ways. You can contact the IRS to obtain copies of any tax returns that you signed. Request copies of those returns and have them mailed to a different address - either a friend or relative or your divorce atttorney. If there are returns that you have not signed, such as business tax records, you will not be able to obtain copies of those returns from the IRS. If you have access to your spouse's place of business, you may be able to find those tax returns there. If you are worried about your spouse hiding assets in a divorce, you really do need to find those returns and make copies of them - for as many years as possible.
If you have valuables, antiques, jewelry, art or other collectibles in your home, catalog all of them and if you have appraisals, make copies. It is not unusual for those items to disappear or even to be pawned by a spouse in need of more funds.
If you suspect that your spouse has engaged in some divorce planning and is hiding assets, let your divorce attorney know. Ask your divorce attorney to subpoena records from any other idividual or entity who could be involved in assisting your spouse in hiding those assets. If need be, your attorney can use the services of an investigator to help to obtain financial records that have been withheld.

About The Author

Jean Mahserjian is an attorney and the author of numerous websites and books devoted to helping consumers through the process of divorce. To download free excerpts from her divorce and custody books, visit: http://www.millenniumdivorce.com.
jmm@millenniumdivorce.com

    

    

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