Debt has a huge role to play in divorce

If you and your spouse were to decide after a long discussion — preempted by months, if not years, of unhappiness — that you wanted a divorce, there would be a lot of issues that you would want to talk about. What is going to happen to the property you own? What will happen to your children, and how will custody and support be resolved? How will all of your assets be handled?

There are many, many issues that you need to research and understand when you file for divorce. But one matter can fly under the radar, and it can have a huge impact not just on the divorce itself, but also the lives of the spouses long after the divorce is complete. What we are talking about is debt.

Whether you or your spouse has debt from school or college, or debt from credit cards or other lines of credit, debt can be an “asset” (so to speak) in a divorce. It can even be a bargaining chip in prenuptial agreement discussions. When you and your spouse divorce, you can discuss the merits of that debt and how it will be divided (if at all) among the two of you.

It follows that this discussion can be about hundreds of thousands of dollars, and as such, it can be an incredibly important topic for many divorcing couples. If you are unsure about how the debt in your family is being handled in light of a divorce, then you should talk with an attorney as soon as possible.

Source: creditcards.com, “Dividing credit card debt in divorce,” Amy E. Buttell, Accessed Jan. 21, 2016