Things to Think About Before You Leave

Divorce and separation are incredibly difficult experiences for any spouse.
This is true regardless of whether or not you wish to divorce or separate
due to adultery, cruelty, or one year separation.

When two individuals decide to marry one another it is comparable to entering
into a partnership, the result of which may be a complete merger of every
aspect of their lives: social, financial, personal, etc. Therefore, before
you decide to divorce or separate from your spouse and terminate the relationship
you should consider the following:

• Talking to a marriage counselor or professional therapist who may be able
  to help you resolve your marital problems or help you cope with the divorce.
• Your ability to financially retain legal counsel.
• Obtaining copies of all relevant financial information or statements of property
• Staying in the matrimonial home so to increase your eligibility for exclusive
  possession (i.e. do not leave or move out unless it is absolutely unbearable
  or your safety is at risk).
• The possibility that you may need to draft a new will.
• • Marriage usually and definitely revokes any prior-existing wills and divorce
    or separation will not revive them.
  • Generally, spouses will create mirror wills designating each other as beneficiaries
    of the estate should death occur. Therefore, it may be in your best interests
    to draft a new will taking into account the eventual change in your circumstances
    and altering your beneficiary designations.
• The possibility that you may need to change the beneficiary designations
  of any life insurance policies, investments or pensions you may have.
  Divorce will not automatically revoke the designation rather you must
  expressly change it.
• severing any joint tenancies you may have with your spouse and transforming
  them into tenancies in common. With joint tenancies the right of survivorship
  applies. What this means is that all interests in the assets are held
  jointly and when one interest holder dies the other inherits his or her
  share through survivorship, it does not pass on to the heirs of the deceased.
  The effect of severing and transforming it into a tenancy in common will
  allow you to deal with your interest as you wish and you may designate
  it to whomever you like because the right of survivorship will no longer apply.
• Giving notice to the issuers of joint credit cards or banks who have extended
  joint credit that you will no longer be accountable for debts incurred
  by your spouse. However, it would probably be in your best interests,
  while you are waiting for your divorce to be approved and for an order
  to be obtained, to try and maintain the status quo. Therefore, if you
  and your spouse do possess joint credit cards or lines of credit you should
  not act drastically and begin overspending or attempt to cancel all credit
  cards or withdraw all funds from the line of credit. This could lead to
  the freezing of your accounts or the courts being less sympathetic with
  regards to you and your case. It is important that during this interim
  stage you continue to execute daily tasks and organize your affairs as
  you had done previously. An option could be to reduce the limit on your
  line of credit or credit card if you are worried about overspending or
  excessive withdrawals.

** Please note that the aforementioned considerations are not exhaustive.