Protecting Retirement Assets in Divorce: What You Need To Know

A little knowledge, and the right help, can keep your former spouse from walking away with resources you're counting on to fund your golden years.

2012-04-21

April 21, 2012 (Press-News.org) You have been responsible, you've worked hard for years to build up your retirement accounts. Yet, you may not be aware that if your marriage falls apart, your ex could be running off with a significant portion of your retirement savings.

Retirement Accounts Subject To Equitable Distribution

Ohio is an equitable distribution state, meaning that in divorce, assets will be divided based on what a court sees as fair -- not necessarily what is equal. A number of factors may come into play in the court's decision, including the length of the marriage, attributes of given pieces of marital property (liquidity, indivisibility, inherent tax consequences, etc.) and each party's relative contributions to the accumulation of assets (including nonmonetary contributions, like those made as a homemaker).

Of course, you and your former spouse may come to a property settlement agreement outside of court. Nonetheless, even in out-of-court settlements the legal standards for division of marital property are important, as they underlie all aspects of negotiations.

Get the Most Out Of Retirement Funds in Negotiations

Any Ohio family law attorney will tell you that retirements accounts are one of the biggest assets in most divorces. Your former spouse may try to dip into a pension plan, profit sharing agreement, 401(k), IRA or stock options. So how can you safeguard your retirement?

Planning ahead with a properly executed prenuptial agreement is one way to hedge against the risk of divorce. Yet, even if you did not enter into a prenup before marriage, it does not mean you must inevitably face a retirement asset free-for-all.

There are many ways to help keep your retirement savings intact through your divorce. For one thing, you'll want to carefully document any retirement assets -- gather all pertinent records. You should also prioritize your retirement accounts in negotiations. In return for a higher stake in retirement funds, many individuals choose to relinquish assets that are less easy to replenish and do not have such significant returns over time (like the family home, which, as an added ownership disincentive, usually comes with vast post-divorce upkeep costs). Finally, avoid raiding retirement funds to pay for your divorce -- it will severely impact your potential savings growth, and there are other sources of quick cash that do not have early withdrawal penalties.

Call an Ohio Family Law Attorney for Legal Assistance

An experienced family law attorney can help you develop additional strategies for protecting your retirement assets in divorce. If your marriage is headed for divorce, contact a lawyer today to ensure you have the best chances at a bright retirement.

Article provided by Amy M Levine & Associates LLC
Visit us at www.ohiowvlaw.com

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

NIST mini-sensor measures magnetic activity in human brain

2012-04-21

A miniature atom-based magnetic sensor developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has passed an important research milestone by successfully measuring human brain activity. Experiments reported this week* verify the sensor's potential for biomedical applications such as studying mental processes and advancing the understanding of neurological diseases. NIST and German scientists used the NIST sensor to measure alpha waves in the brain associated with a person opening and closing their eyes as well as signals resulting from stimulation of the ...

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter brings 'earthrise' to everyone

2012-04-21

Imagine yourself in orbit, your spacecraft flying backward with its small window facing down toward the surface of the moon. You peer out, scouring the ash-colored contours of the cratered landscape for traces of ancient volcanic activity. Around you, the silent, velvety blackness of space stretches out in every direction. The spacecraft rolls over, and you glimpse a sliver of intense light starting to climb over the rough horizon. It might be dawn, except that the bright sliver quickly morphs into an arc of dazzling white swirled with vivid blue and then rises far enough ...

Body cooling cuts in-hospital cardiac arrest patient deaths nearly 12 percent, Mayo Clinic finds

2012-04-21

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Forced body cooling known as therapeutic hypothermia has reduced in-hospital deaths among sudden cardiac arrest patients nearly 12 percent between 2001 and 2009, according to a Mayo Clinic study being presented at the upcoming American Academy of Neurology 2012 Annual Meeting in New Orleans. The research is among several Mayo abstracts that will be discussed at the conference. The goal of therapeutic cooling is slowing the body's metabolism and preventing brain damage or death. It is believed that mild therapeutic hypothermia suppresses harmful chemical ...

Trouble coping with the unfamiliar as you age? Blame your white matter

2012-04-21

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – If you are an aging baby boomer and you've noticed it's a bit harder to drive to unfamiliar locations or to pick a new brand of olive oil at the supermarket, you can blame it on the white matter in your brain. A brain-mapping study, published in the Apr. 11 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, has found that people's ability to make decisions in novel situations decreases with age and is associated with a reduction in the integrity of two specific white-matter pathways that connect an area in the cerebral cortex called the medial prefrontal cortex with ...

Florida Judge Slams Bank of America for Ignoring Bankruptcy Protections

2012-04-21

Did you know that in addition to offering a fresh financial start, bankruptcy grants you broad protections against creditor harassment? Don't feel bad if you didn't; apparently neither did one of the country's largest banks. Bank of America Agents Didn't Care About Bankruptcy, Violated Automatic Stay 38 Times Financial giant Bank of America posted $2 billion in earnings during the last three months of 2011. But, that didn't stop them from incessantly pestering one Florida bankruptcy filer over a few measly dollars in clear violation of the legal protections afforded ...

New brain-machine interface moves a paralyzed hand

2012-04-21

CHICAGO --- A new Northwestern Medicine brain-machine technology delivers messages from the brain directly to the muscles -- bypassing the spinal cord -- to enable voluntary and complex movement of a paralyzed hand. The device could eventually be tested on, and perhaps aid, paralyzed patients. "We are eavesdropping on the natural electrical signals from the brain that tell the arm and hand how to move, and sending those signals directly to the muscles," said Lee E. Miller, the Edgar C. Stuntz Distinguished Professor in Neuroscience at Northwestern University Feinberg ...

New stem cell found in the brain

2012-04-21

Grand Rapids, Mich. (April 19, 2012 ) – Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have discovered a new stem cell in the adult brain. These cells can proliferate and form several different cell types - most importantly, they can form new brain cells. Scientists hope to take advantage of the finding to develop methods to heal and repair disease and injury in the brain. Analyzing brain tissue from biopsies, the researchers for the first time found stem cells located around small blood vessels in the brain. The cell's specific function is still unclear, but its plastic properties ...

Moffitt Cancer Center researchers: Many breast cancer survivors worry about cancer returning

2012-04-21

"Cancer worry" is the fear that cancer will return, said researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center who studied cancer worry among breast cancer survivors and published their findings in Psycho-Oncology. They found that even three years after successful treatment, two-thirds of the 202 breast cancer survivors who participated in their study said they had "a moderate level of worry." "Little is known about the factors associated with cancer worry," said paper lead author Paul B. Jacobsen, Ph.D., associate center director for Moffitt's Center for Population Sciences. "In order ...

Alzheimer's plaques disrupt brain networks

2012-04-21

Scientist studying the way Alzheimer's takes root in the brain have identified important new similarities between a mouse model and human Alzheimer's. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that brain plaques in mice are associated with disruption of the ability of brain regions to network with each other. This decline parallels earlier results from human studies, suggesting that what scientists learn about Alzheimer's effects on brain networks in the mice will likely be transferable to human disease research. The study, published ...

Moffitt researchers find cancer therapies affect cognitive functioning among breast cancer survivors

2012-04-21

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues at the University of South Florida and University of Kentucky have found that breast cancer survivors who have had chemotherapy, radiation or both do not perform as well on some cognitive tests as women who have not had cancer. They published their study in the April 1 issue of Cancer. "Survivors of breast cancer are living longer, so there is a need to better understand the long-term effects of cancer therapies, such as chemotherapy and radiation," said study lead author Paul B. Jacobsen, Ph.D., associate center director ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

UVA’s Jundong Li wins ICDM’S 2025 Tao Li Award for data mining, machine learning

UVA’s low-power, high-performance computer power player Mircea Stan earns National Academy of Inventors fellowship

Not playing by the rules: USU researcher explores filamentous algae dynamics in rivers

Do our body clocks influence our risk of dementia?

Anthropologists offer new evidence of bipedalism in long-debated fossil discovery

Safer receipt paper from wood

Dosage-sensitive genes suggest no whole-genome duplications in ancestral angiosperm

First ancient human herpesvirus genomes document their deep history with humans

Why Some Bacteria Survive Antibiotics and How to Stop Them - New study reveals that bacteria can survive antibiotic treatment through two fundamentally different “shutdown modes”