How to Create a Divorce Settlement Agreement

Using a Divorce Settlement Agreement

Going through a divorce can be a stressful and difficult process. Luckily, our divorce settlement agreement makes this process as straightforward and painless as possible. Here is some more information about what you should include when using our divorce settlement agreement.

Child Custody

When thinking about issues of child custody, you will need to decide which parent will have legal and physical custody.

• "Legal custody" refers to the right to make important life decisions regarding the child, including decisions regarding education, upbringing, finances, and health care.
• "Physical custody" refers to the parent the child will primarily live with. You will also specify visitation rights for both parents in the next section.

There are many different potential arrangements for custody. One parent might have legal custody while the other has physical, one parent might have both legal and physical custody, or the parents might both have joint custody. Awarding joint custody is the modern trend among courts; however, custody usually depends on whatever is in the best interests of the child or children. Sometimes joint physical custody is impossible because the parents live too far apart. Other times, one spouse gets sole custody because the other spouse exhibited bad behavior toward the children in some way.

You will be able to specify the visitation rights for the spouse who does not have physical custody. You will need to specify holiday visitation rights whether or not you decide on a joint custody arrangement. Clarifying these issues will help ensure both spouses have time to see the children depending upon what is appropriate in the situation. You may well decide that the spouse without physical custody may not visit the children under any circumstance if that is what you feel is in the best interests of the children.

It is very common for one parent to be required to pay child support. Most states make it easy to find their guidelines online so that you can calculate how much child support will be paid. It is helpful to review your state's guidelines to determine an amount that the court will likely approve.

Division of Marital Property and Debts

One of the main things you will accomplish in your divorce settlement agreement is deciding how to divide the assets and debts you or your spouse acquired during the marriage. Typically, property that was received prior to the marriage, or after separation, will remain with the original spouse who purchased the property. However, you may choose to split up your assets any way you want, whether the assets are currently owned jointly or individually.

If you owned a home together, this will often be the largest asset that you must divide. You and your spouse can agree to let one of you keep it, or you may choose to sell the home and divide the net profits. If any one spouse retains title to the marital home and a mortgage exists on the property, that spouse must refinance the mortgage into his or her separate name within 60 days of receiving a final divorce decree.

Although you may specify how you want to divide any assets you wish in the agreement, you do not need to list every item the two of you own, unless of course that is what you want to do. It is sufficient to simply list the items that have significant monetary or sentimental value. Small knick-knacks do not need to be included unless you just want to be thorough or one of the spouses really cares about the item. The agreement states that all property not specifically listed here will remain with whatever spouse has physical possession of it (if it is a tangible asset, such as a boat or animal) or documented ownership rights over it (if it is an intangible asset, such as a bank account or stock).

Alimony

State law varies as to what kind and how much alimony or spousal support is permitted. If you live in a community property state (Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin), then an award of alimony in your case may be prohibited or greatly limited. The rationale for this is because the spouse in need of support will already be compensated more from the marital property than he or she would in non-community property states. For this reason, it is best to try to limit what you and your spouse agree on in the agreement as far as the amount and duration of the alimony to be paid.

Name Change

Our divorce settlement agreement allows you to specify whether a spouse wants a name change. Although you are not required to change your name when you get a divorce, many people choose to do so as part of starting their new life apart. Having the judge approve your legal name change will save you the additional hassle and expense of having to do it later on in a separate procedure.

Executing Your Agreement

The final step is to have both spouses sign the agreement in front of a notary public. If you and your spouse live far apart, or are not on speaking terms, one spouse can sign in front of a notary and then mail, email, or fax it to the other spouse, who will also need to sign in front of a notary. Both parties should retain a copy of the fully executed agreement for their records.

Create a Divorce Settlement Agreement Now

Create your agreement in just minutes online using our customizable divorce settlement agreement.