Divorce and the New Tax Laws: What You Need to Know

As if Divorce weren’t stressful enough, the GOP Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that was signed into law last December may be creating additional anxiety for divorcing couples. If you’re getting divorced or thinking about Divorce, you should absolutely be paying attention to these changes. Not understanding how they will affect your Divorce can be a very expensive mistake.

 1. Tax rates got lowered and the standard deduction got higher

• The new tax law lowered the tax rate for most taxpayers–generally good news, right? It also doubled the standard deduction that every taxpayer who didn’t itemize deductions used to get. That may make you think your income taxes will drop in 2018, but like everything this Congress does, there’s more to the story, and it’s rarely good news.
• Fewer people are likely to itemize next year because the standard deduction–what you can subtract from your income before figuring out how much taxes you owe–is nearly doubling to $12,000 for single filers, $18,000 for heads of households and $24,000 for married couples that file jointly.
• Despite lower tax rates, some filers who usually itemize could see their taxes rise because many popular deductions are being reduced or eliminated. State and local income taxes, sales taxes and property taxes were fully deductible under the old tax law. Now they are capped at a combined $10,000 annually. There are also limits on how much interesthomeowners can deduct on new mortgages.

2. Personal exemptions

• In the past, when you filed your taxes, you claimed yourself and each of your kids as dependents on your taxes. Known as “personal exemptions” or “dependency exemptions,” these tax breaks allowed you to subtract a certain amount of money from your taxable income for every dependent you claimed. The more dependents you claimed, the more money you could subtract.
• When couples divorced, they often argued over who got to claim the kids as dependents on their taxes. The new tax law has eliminated all of these personal exemptions. Beginning in 2018, and continuing through 2025, no one will get a tax exemption for claiming the kids as dependents.

3. Child tax credit

• Before 2018, the child tax credit lowered the amount of taxes that parents paid by $1,000.00 per “qualifying child.” In the new tax law, Congressincreased the amount of the child tax credit to $2,000. They also dramatically increased the amount of money that parents could make before the child tax credit gets phased out. That’s the good news.
• A child only qualifies for the child tax credit for the parent who can claim him/her as a dependent. In your Divorce settlement you still need to negotiate which parent can claim each child as a dependent. If you don’t identify who can claim the child as a dependent, you risk losing the child tax credit. That can be a big deal because the child tax credit directly reduces the amount of income tax you pay. It doesn’t just reduce your taxable income. It reduces your taxes. And really, who wouldn’t want to pay $2,000 less in taxes per year?

4. Education expenses (529 Plans)

529 Plans are special tax-advantaged savings accounts that parents could create to save money for college educational expenses.

• In the past, 529 Plans could only be used to fund “Qualified Higher Education Costs”–college tuition and certain other college expenses.
• Now, if your kids are going to private school, you or your spouse could use the kids’ college money to pay for it. That will save you from having to pay the private-school tuition yourselves.
• Under the new tax laws, parents can take up to $10,000 per year out of a child’s 529 Plan and use it to pay for that child’s elementary or secondary school tuition.
• Deciding what to do with your kids’ 529 Plans is now one more thing you can negotiate in your Divorce.

5. Moving expenses

When a couple divorces, someone has to move out. In many cases, the person who moved out also gets a new job.

• Before this year, if you were moving because of a new job, you could deduct your moving expenses from your taxable income.
• Now, you can’t, and moving can be expensive—this may be something you negotiate in your Divorce settlement.

6. Mortgage interest and HELOC payments

Under the current tax law, you can deduct the interest you pay on your home mortgage. You could deduct that interest if it was on any kind of a mortgage or home equity loan. It didn’t matter if you actually used the money to pay for your home or pay off your credit cards.

• That’s all changed now. The new tax law limits the mortgage interest deduction to interest paid on the first $750,000 of your loan—not $1,000,000.
• To be deductible, the loan must also be used to buy, build, or substantially improve the home that secures the loan. That also applies to home equity loans and lines of credit.
• The IRS has now closed a potential means of cash flow that often made settling your Divorce easier.

7. Medical expenses

The changes to the medical expense deduction are positive. Before, you could only deduct medical expenses that exceeded 10% of your adjusted gross income. Now you can deduct medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of your income. There’s a bigger chance that you’ll be able to deduct medical expenses on your taxes. Congress made this change retroactive to 2017 so that you can take advantage of this tax deduction immediately. But before you get too excited about this, be aware that there’s an insidious component to this tax change.

• From 2019 on, the deduction threshold goes back up to 10%. But get this: Congress just gave us a two-year reprieve on the medical expense deduction.
• In order to deduct medical expenses at all, you must itemize your deductions. Since fewer people will be able to itemize their deductions in 2018, fewer people will be eligible to use this deduction.

8. A repeal of the deduction for alimony payments

In a previous article, we discussed the repeal of a deduction for alimony payments, effective 2019. Potential divorcees have the rest of 2018 to use the alimony deduction as a bargaining chip in their negotiations with estranged spouses. Many believe that removing this deduction will make Divorces more acrimonious, that people won’t be willing to pay as much alimony. Since it is women who tend to earn less and are most often the recipients of alimony, many believe this tax change could disproportionately hurt women.

Consulting a tax professional

Even if you are just thinking about Divorce, it’s wise to consult an accountant or financial planner who can identify problems and opportunities for deductions that may not be apparent to you.

We’ve assisted hundreds of couples with their uncontested Divorces

If you and your spouse are in agreement about your Divorce—including division of property and a parenting plan–we can assist you and help you save a significant amount of money. Contact us at one of our three Bay Area offices to schedule an appointment. Our dedicated team is helpful, compassionate and affordable.

Another Gap that Divides America: When Mothers Give Birth

Rather than identifying ways to unite us, the current administration seems to be finding ways to divide us. It’s not just the haves and the have-nots anymore, but the 1% and the rest of us. The middle class, that hardworking backbone of our country, continues to diminish. The proud values that have defined and united us as a nation are in jeopardy. It appears that a new gap further divides our country; this one based on the age that mothers give birth. But it’s not just about age; rather, it’s what women learn, what they experience and what they accomplish in those critical years between high school and the time when they start bearing children.

Sociological divide starts at birth, shaped by the age that mothers have babies

A recent New York Times article, The Age That Women Have Babies: How a Gap Divides America, by Quoctrung Bui and Claire Cain Miller, discusses education as a fundamental driver of a rift that has long-term implications for kids, for families and for our country.

Becoming a mother used to be seen as a unifying milestone for American women. But a new analysis of four decades of births shows that the age that women become mothers varies significantly by geography and education. The lifestyles into which children are born dramatically affect their future prospects.

First-time moms are older in big cities and coasts

First-time mothers are older in big cities and on the coasts—yes, that’s the liberal elite, but not entirely. It probably won’t surprise anyone that mothers are younger in rural areas, in the great plains and the south. Not surprisingly, San Francisco tops the chart at 31.9; Manhattan is next with 31.1. In Todd County, SD and Zapata County, TX., first-time mothers are just 20 and 21.

The biggest differentiator? Education

It all comes down to education–the single biggest factor that influences when women start their families. Women with college degrees have children an average of seven years later than those without. Those with degrees use these years to build their careers and incomes. They go to grad school, travel, gain new experiences that they will share with their children to enrich their lives.

Education: Investing in a cycle of upward mobility

Those who stay behind and have babies can claim emotional fulfillment, status in the community and a path to adulthood. Yet a college degree is becoming a passport to earning a middle-class wage. Those parents with college degrees and good jobs have money to invest in the violin lessons, math tutoring, summer camps and college savings accounts that will set their children on their ownupward paths that will help them get into good schools, preparing them for good jobs of their own. These parents are investing in a cycle of upward mobility.

Education patterns help drive inequality

“These education patterns help drive inequality because well-educated women are really pulling ahead of the pack by waiting to have kids,” said Caroline Hartnett, a sociologist and demographer studying fertility and families at the University of South Carolina. “But if going to college and achieving an upper-middle-class lifestyle seems unattainable, then having a family might seem like the most accessible source of meaning to you.”

The age of mothers follows red and blue political alignment

The education gap aligns with other disparities in the way Americans live, including differing attitudes about the role of women. Law professors June Carbone and Naomi Cahn described how red and blue families were living different lives in a book in 2010. The biggest differentiating factor, they said, was the age that mothers had children. Young mothers are more likely to be conservative and religious, to value traditional gender roles and to reject abortion. Older mothers tend to be liberal, and to split breadwinning and caregiving responsibilities more equally with men, they found.

At UCSF: Less fear and stigma about having babies after 35

“It feels like no one here has babies under 35 anymore,” said Mary Norton, interim chair of maternal-fetal medicine at the UCSF. Because of fertility treatments and genetic testing, there is less fear about health complications and less stigma about having babies after 35, she said.

The wage penalty for women who have children is high, so many try to advance in their careers before giving birth. They are more likely than young mothers to be married, and less likely to divorce. They’re also less likely to live near their children’s grandparents, or because their parents are older, they juggle child care with elder care. And they might have fewer children than they had hoped, because fertility declines during a woman’s 30s.

3/4 of first-time mothers under 25 are unmarried; many can’t afford birth control

This demographic tends to live in areas where they are surrounded by extended families. They are less likely to have significant savings, a college degree or a career. Their pregnancies are more likely to be unintended, and a shocking three-quarters of first-time mothers under 25 are unmarried. This statistic helps profile the growing population that lives in poverty. They may be working several jobs, trying to make ends meet. There is little time or money for the extras that the children of older, educated parents receive.

Natalia Maani, an obstetrician at Starr County Hospital in Rio Grande City, TX, where the average age of first birth is 22, said that very few of her pregnant patients are married, and she can count on two hands the number of pregnancies that were planned. Many can’t afford birth control, she said. Most wouldn’t consider abortion, and there is no provider nearby. Ironically, the cultural norm remains starting families young—even when there is no way to provide for those children.

Where children start in life influences where they end up

Research has shown that where children start in life strongly influenceswhere they end up. Providing resources for young mothers and children, and policies like affordable child care and college, can help smooth the differences.

So what does this have to do with us?

We think it has everything to do with all of us. We’re living in a time where we all need to be critical thinkers, able to make informed decisions that are based on facts. We need to be sharing the best of ourselves with our children to help them learn, to make the most of the opportunities that may be presented to them. As this study shows, the lifestyles into which children are born influence their future prospects.

California Document Preparers has been helping Bay Area residents with uncontested legal matters since 2003. Our services include Divorce, Business Formation and Probate. We also do Notaries and Deed transfers. Our comprehensive Living Trust package includes a Power of Attorney and Advance Healthcare Directive. Contact us at one of our three Bay Area offices for more information.

Grandma and Guns: Families Confront Dementia and Firearms

Dee Hill begged the 911 dispatcher for help. “My husband accidentally shot me in the stomach". A few feet away, her 76-year old husband, Darrell, a former police chief and county sheriff, sat in his wheelchair with a discharged Glock on the table in front of him, completely unaware that he’d nearly killed his wife of nearly 60 years. Darrell had been diagnosed two years earlier with a form of progressive dementia that had quickly stripped him of reasoning and memory. His wife needed 30 pints of blood, three surgeries and seven weeks in the hospital to survive.

Shesold her husband's car when it became too dangerous for him to drive, yet never removed his guns

Many of us these days are helping our aging parents with a wide range of issues, and a troubling problem that's getting more attention is aging gun owners with dementia. This scenario describes a disturbing situation that may be more common than we think. Gun owners steadfastly refuse to part with their weapons, even as they lose the ability to reason and make sound decisions. 

Darrell Hill was unaware that he'd nearly killed his wife

“He was almost obsessive about seeing and caring for his guns." Darrell accidentally knocked the pouch that had held the revolver to the floor. When Dee bent to pick it up, he grabbed the Glock and fired. “My concern had been that someone was going to get hurt. I didn’t in my wildest dreams think it was going to be me.” The incident was classified as an assault. Dee was outraged at the suggestion she consider pressing charges. Gun advocates insist that guns are not to blame. 

America's tragedy of gun violence kills 96 people/day 

There's a vast cache of firearms in the homes of aging Americans with impaired/declining mental faculties. When Darrell Hill died in 2016, he joined the estimated 9 percent of Americans 65 and older diagnosed with dementia, many of whom are gun owners and fierce supporters of Second Amendment rights.A 2017 Pew Research Center survey shows that 45% of people 65 and older have guns in their homes. 

No one tracks the potentially deadly intersection of these groups

A four-month Kaiser Health News investigation uncovered more than 100 cases across the U.S. in which people with dementia used guns to kill or injure themselves or others. Kaiser's research found 15 homicides and more than 95 suicides since 2012.The shooters often acted during bouts of confusion, paranoia, delusion or aggression — common symptoms of dementia. They killed people closest to them--their caregivers, wives, sons or daughters. They shot at people they happened to encounter--the mailman, a police officer.

Keep in mind that these statistics do not begin to tally incidents in which a person with dementia waves a gun at an unsuspecting neighbor or a terrified home-health aide.

Few topics are as polarizing as gun control and second amendment rights

Gun control is a politically polarizing topic. Only five states have laws allowing families to petition a court to temporarily seize guns from people who exhibit dangerous behavior. 

What families can do: Take a gun owner to court to evaluate competency

Federal law prohibits people who are not mentally competent to make their own decisions, including those with advanced dementia, from buying or owning firearms. Unfortunately, a diagnosis of dementia does not disqualify someone from owning a gun. If a gun owner were reluctant to give up his/her arsenal, the family would typically have to take that person to court to evaluate competency.

We’re seeing a small change. Since February's school shooting in Parkland, Fla., more states are taking action to make it easier for families to remove guns from their homes. 

Changes ahead for the NRA?

The NRA, traditionally one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, is experiencing tougher times. Many big brands are severing ties with the company. If the Democrats take back the House and Senate in the midterm elections, gun reform well may become a reality. 

Can California lead the way? 

California has some of the most stringent gun laws in the country and is intent on eliminating severely restricted weapons by making their transfer nearly impossible. 

Anyone found by the courts to be mentally defective or those committed to a mental institution cannot own firearms. 

This includes those deemed by a court to be a danger to others, mentally disordered sex offenders and those found not guilty of a crime by reason of insanity or found mentally incompetent to stand trial. 

It also includes those in custody because they present a danger to themselves or others, individuals undergoing intensive treatment for mental illness and those placed in a conservatorship.

Ultimately, it's up to every family to take away the guns

In my own family, it was the car keys. Our stepfather was a terrible driver and had been for years. Some of us wouldn't ride with him. Yet none of us would stand up to him and take away the keys. We could have found a way, but we didn't want to create an incident. In retrospect, a family fight is nothing compared to the chaos and tragedy of an accident. 

Helping family members with end-of-life planning is a challenge for many Bay Area families.

California Document Preparers assists families with our comprehensive Living Trust package that includes a Power of Attorneyand an Advanced Healthcare Directive. Contact California Document Preparers at one of our three Bay Area offices to schedule an appointment or find out how we work with our clients. We’re helpful, compassionate and affordable. 

Increasing Number of Millennials Creating Living Trusts

While many people still think Living Trusts are reserved for the elderly, a growing number of millennials are creating comprehensive estate plans these days, and there’s a range of socioeconomic drivers.

• Tech-worker wealth. No surprise here: This trend is most prevalent in tech-centric areas like Silicon Valley, where many young startup workers are making millions of dollars before their 30th birthdays. Investing and creating an estate plan are part of the dialog and the culture.
• Terrorism/tragedy. The trend is also strong in cities like New York. The tragedy of 9/11 was a big wakeup call. Subsequent terrorist attacks have made us all feel vulnerable, and many young people feel the need to protect themselves and their families with long-range planning.
• Deaths of iconic figures. The deaths of entertainment figures like George Michael and Prince hit home with a generation that grew up with their music.
• Family responsibilities. Those millennials who marry, have children and buy a home are hit with a big dose of adult reality and feel the need to protect their children and their assets.
• Committed relationships without marriage. Many young couples live together in committed relationships, but choose not to marry. A Living Trust, along with a Power of Attorney and Advance Healthcare Directive provide protections for partners if one becomes incapacitated or dies.
• Reliance for support. When there are other people who rely on millennials for support, and this needs to be detailed in a Will or Living Trust. For those who remain single, a Will or Trust will identify how their estates will be distributed among their designated heirs.
• Supporting causes. Millennials are a generation with a conscience. Many are driven by causes and want to ensure that their Wills or Trusts allocate money to a cause.
• Protecting wealth. Many smart millennials, especially those in the tech sector, have started their own successful businesses. Others work in the family business. A Trust can designate what happens to a small business if the owner dies or becomes incapacitated if a buy-sell agreement is not in place.

Despite this little uptick of millennials creating Living Trusts, 64% of the 18-and-over population did not have a Living Trust in 2016. An estimated 60% of Americans die without a Will or Living Trust, which means their families will be faced with Probate at a very difficult time. Probate can be time-consuming and expensive. If there are minor children, the state chooses guardians for them.

A few things to be thinking about as you prepare a Living Trust

• Update Trust with life events. Keep Trusts updated with births, deaths, divorces and significant investments. Anything that will affect the inheritances of those you love.
• Synch beneficiaries. Crosscheck the names of beneficiaries on brokerage accounts, 401(k) accounts and life insurance policies with those listed in a Will. The beneficiaries listed on financial accounts will override those on a Will or Living Trust.
• Save logins. Store login information to your digital assets, including passwords to banking and financial services sites, social media accounts, healthcare providers, etc. Spend some time compiling this list—most of us have online accounts for a wide range of services. Think about what information your family would need to access if something happened to you.
• Planning for pets. This is no longer an afterthought. Pet owners need to make arrangements for their pets. Give some thought to those who would love your pet the way you do and include them in your Trust. Some pet owners allocate a yearly allowance to offset the cost of pet care.
• Distributing valuables. If you have valuable collections or antiques, use precise wording and avoid vague terms like “my memorabilia” or “my antiques.” Be specific about these items and leave them to individuals. Don’t leave them to your heirs to divide among themselves—it can be a recipe for disaster. Note that these items don’t necessarily have to have great monetary value. Items with sentimental value have caused many family disputes.
• Informing family of location. Make sure your family knows that you have a Trust or Will and its location. We provide a bound hard copy and a soft copy. Many of our clients share the soft copy with their beneficiary designates and/or several family members. If something happens to you and if no one can find your Trust, it’s as if it didn’t exist. The result? Your family will have to go through Probate.

Our comprehensive Living Trust package includes a Power of Attorney and Advance Healthcare Directive. Contact us at one of our three Bay Area offices to schedule an appointment to create or update your Trust. We’re helpful, compassionate and affordable.

What Can Happen to Your Last Wishes May Not Be What You Planned

This is not how it was supposed to happen

Many of us these days are caring for aging family members. We’re having difficult conversations about end-of-life planning that includes a Living Trust, Power of Attorney and Advance Healthcare Directive. We’re making sure doctors understand our wishes and making decisions about nursing care and hospice.

This patient had done everything right

A New York Times article by Daniela Lamas, M.D., You’ve Detailed Your Last Wishes, but Doctors May Not See Them, resonates for many who are dealing with aging family members. In this case, the patient is an elderly man who had done everything right. He was brave enough to talk with his doctors about his cancer and knew that time was short. He had designated a healthcare proxy and signed all the right documents.

Yet here he was in the ER, surrounded by strangers, the intubation he didn’t want looming, his carefully recorded plans buried somewhere in his electronic record. He was pale, feverish, too confused to communicate, with no family around. The medical team wondered what the patient would have wanted.

One doctor surfaced a note from the patient’s oncologist

Just a few weeks before, the doctor and patient had talked about the realities—that there were no further therapies to slow the growth of his cancer. The patient had requested that when things got worse, there would be no breathing tubes or chest compressions. Only comfort and quiet. Yet the ER team, busy with X-rays, ultrasounds and medications, didn’t see the note. Thankfully, a resident found the notation and flew down to the ER to stop the Hail-Mary efforts and simply follow the patient’s wishes.

We have a system that doesn’t protect patients from getting care they don’t want

It would be easy to blame the oncologist for not sending the patient home with a legally binding directive documenting his end-of-life wishes, or the emergency doctors for not searching harder in the chart, but it’s not that simple. It’s not about individuals, but about a system that doesn’t sufficiently protect patients from getting care they do not want.

Increasingly, doctors are trained to have difficult conversations with patients about prognosis and care goals. Outside the hospital, people with serious illnesses are encouraged to discuss these issues with their friends and family. But what happens after those difficult conversations can be a mystery.

Don’t assume you can tell your doctor your wishes and it will enough

It’s tempting to assume that if you tell one doctor your end-of-life wishes, that’s enough. That what you want will be clearly documented and retrieved when needed, and the record will follow you wherever you go. Yet this critical information is sometimes not documented even when conversations do happen, or they’re scattered through our electronic records, only intermittently accessible, with few standards or best practices to guide us.

Searching electronic records for notes: A common dilemma

“As a doctor working in the ICU I knew firsthand the frustrations of searching the electronic record for notes and scanned documents and had no idea how common this problem was.

• I heard stories of patients who had been transferred to nursing facilities without their advance directives and returned to the hospital intubated when that was explicitly not what they wanted.
• Other patients had grown ill on vacation, ending up in a hospital they’d never been to, with an entirely different electronic medical record. No one could access prior documentation.
• Others described situations in which last-minute “saves” through extreme diligence or chance had led to good outcomes.”

Few existing regulations on advance care planning

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service are relatively silent on advance-care planning. Recently, a handful of startups has stepped in. Software and clever patient apps that work outside the electronic record are working to help systems communicate with each other.

Creating standards for sharing across all electronic records, everywhere

What could really make a meaningful difference is standards for sharing, or “interoperability” across all electronic records that would benefit every patient, everywhere. At the very least, all related advance-care planning documentation should be in one place in the medical record and accessible with one simple click of the mouse. Beyond that, maybe all health systems could require identification of a health-care proxy for all patients, so we would know who should make decisions if the patient can’t.

The medical industry is playing catch-up

This story is a good example of the medical industry trying to catch up. While this patient never got strong enough to make it back home, his family arrived, and he was quiet and comfortable in the end. Just as he had wanted.

Is it time to create or update your Living Trust?

Our comprehensive Living Trust package includes a Power of Attorney and Advance Healthcare Directive. Contact us at one of our three Bay Area offices to schedule an appointment to create or update your Trust. We’re helpful, compassionate and affordable.

Contemplating Divorce? An Incentive to Finalize by Dec. 31

If you and your spouse are thinking about Divorce, and if there’s a likelihood that your Divorce will include an alimony payment, it’s time to get busy. Last winter’s GOP Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will eliminate a tax break for alimony payments finalized after Dec. 31.

Americans who finalize or modify Divorce agreements in 2019 or later will no longer be able to deduct alimony payments. The loss of the deduction has large financial implications for those couples where one partner earns substantially more per year than the other.

The breakdown: $1 of alimony is actually costing just 60 cents

What does the deduction mean for divorcing couples? For those in the highest income-tax bracket, it means that every dollar someone pays to support a former spouse is actually costing him/her a little more than 60 cents. Potential divorcees have the remainder of 2018 to use the alimony deduction as a bargaining chip in their negotiations with estranged spouses.

An increase in acrimonious Divorces that disproportionately target women

Many believe that removing this deduction will make Divorces more acrimonious, that people won’t be willing to pay as much alimony. More couples will end up fighting in court because they won’t be able to agree on alimony terms. Since it is women who tend to earn less and are most often the recipients of alimony, many believe this tax change could disproportionately hurt women. One family law attorney believes that the repeal reduces the bargaining power of vulnerable spouses, mostly women, in achieving financial stability after a Divorce.

For decades, alimony has been tax deductible

For decades, Americans paying alimony to a former spouse have been able to deduct the payments from their taxes. Depending on the size of the payments and the earning gap, they gave themselves a generous tax break. According to the IRS, an estimated 600,000 taxpayers claim this deduction each year. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that elimination of the tax break will increase federal revenues by $7 billion over the course of a decade.

There is evidence that some high-net worth clients are devising complicated workarounds in the event they cannot complete their agreements before the Dec. 31 date.

Leverage to negotiate lower spousal support in 2019

Divorce professionals expect that there will be less money for the spouse receiving alimony — or, at the very least, a major source of contention in negotiations between parties. ”The payer is going to have a lot of leverage to negotiate lower spousal support in 2019,” said Jeremy Runnels, a financial planner at West Coast Financial in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Couples looking beyond alimony to reach equitable solutions

Financial planners say some spouses may choose to forgo alimony payments and explore alternatives such as lucrative real estate, larger shares in tax-deferred retirement accounts or some complex combination of the two that maximizes tax advantages. Options include a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) that sets up future payments to a lower-earning spouse from a higher-earning spouse’s retirement account, taxed at the lower earner’s rate.

We’ve assisted hundreds of couples with uncontested Divorce

If you and your spouse are in agreement about your Divorce—including division of property and a parenting plan–we can assist you and save a significant amount of money. Contact us at one of our three Bay Area offices to schedule an appointment. Our dedicated team is helpful, compassionate and affordable.