ACTIVITY: Financial Stages of Separation Checklist
Stage 2- During Separation
Seek information from a Family Justice Counsellor or Child Support Officer re: child and spousal support, time with your child, and guardianship. Private family mediators can assist with all the above as well as property and asset division. Seek legal advice from a family lawyer about support, property and asset division and options to litigation.
Each spouse generally needs to seek legal advice from a separate lawyer.
Consider revoking any power of attorney documents that name your spouse as your agent.
Contact banks, investment companies and brokerages where you and your spouse have joint accounts. Ask what actions, if any, you can take to protect your interest in those accounts.
Contact creditors with whom you and your spouse have joint accounts. Pay the balance and close the accounts, if possible.
Make copies of all legal, financial and other important documents.
Take your personal documents — birth certificate and passport, for example — out of joint files and create your own file.
Contact your insurance provider to review auto and homeowners or renters policies.
Work with your spouse to negotiate a division of family property, guardianship of children, child support and time spent with the children. If you want child support or spousal support, make a monthly and annual expense budget — including food, medical care, housing, clothes, day care, school supplies and activities, and other relevant expenses — that could be used to support your case.
Discuss and decide with your spouse who will take the dependent tax exemptions for children, and claim the Child Tax Credit/BC Family Bonus.
