Menu
Upon divorce or separation, you’re required to make some financial decisions and this can only be made once you have disclosed all the information about your finances.
To do this, you will Need Form E and most people fear the form not only because it is superbly long and might take quite some time to finish but also because they are not sure how to go about filling the form.
With that said, you should know that the Form E financial information that is required in this form refers to all you own and have invested in whether within the UK or outside. In simple terms, everything you own should be included in one category of the Form.
In case you have problems interpreting some of the terminologies, here are some interpretations of some of the terms used in the Form E as well as what you should include when you see such terms.
As a firm of dedicated professional mediation experts, we have the experience and motivation to offer highly effective services to help you to resolve a family, community, civil or commercial dispute.
Fundamentally, the Form E finance mediation process has been devised to encourage a satisfactory self-resolution to be reached between disputing parties, efficiently and cost effectively without the need of expensive litigation.
Barclaydevere provides mediation at a local level – seven-days a week – at a time and place best suited to the participants.
The first asset that you’re bound to come across is assets. This refers to anything that is owned or co-owned by you which has realizable value regardless of whether it is now or in the future.
A good example of an asset is the family home. In total, these are the things that are divided between the individual and they play an important role in making sure that both individuals are able to start their own independent lives.
While at this, you may come across the term equity. This refers to the amount of money that remains once a house has been sold and the money has been used to pay all the debts and fees. This is important since it can be split between the disgruntled couple.
This refers to the dwelling of the couple. If you intend to sell this, it is vital that you get a valuation for the same.
The good thing is that most estate agencies are able to do this at no extra charge.
Once you get the valuation, you should include this in the form and attach the necessary documentation.
Also indicate any fees that you may incur with the sale of the house. The reason as to why you should do this is so that it helps to court to know how much money will be at your disposal.
These are anything that you currently have outstanding and you owe. They can include credit card accounts, loans and what have you. However, as long as there is a debt that is owned to you and is recoverable, that is considered as an asset and that should appear in that same category as any other of your assets. In the event that you have trouble with debts, it is a good idea to get help from your local citizens’ advice bureau.
While both of these are very self-explanatory, it is among the places where most people tend to express a lot of dishonesty. It is not clear whether this is intentional or they take the part too light they don’t have the full information but it is just as sensitive as any other. Your bank’s customer care should be able to assist you with this and offer you any details pertaining the state and nature of your account. Keep in mind that you will be required to enclose the statements and their matching account numbers with the form. In the event that you have a financial adviser, they should be able to assist with this.
Regardless of the nature of your pension scheme, you should know that these are included as assets even though this is on the short term. It is also worth mentioning that that you can ask for a CETV from your employer or a statement of benefits. The CETV is a valuation of what the pension would have been worth in the event you decided to take the pension out and transfer it to another scheme.
In some instances you may have a personal pension scheme which works more or less like a savings account where you deposit a certain amount of money. To get the details of this arrangement, you will need to get in contact with the company that you’re using for your scheme and they should be more than happy to furnish you with the details. Keep in mind that the pension is considered as an asset since it is a debt that is owed to you and as such it makes it very important to be included in the Form E application.
The disclosure form goes to a substantial extent in telling you the number of sources that can be considered as income. With that said, this is considered as the anything that is earned or one that you receive from a variety of sources or from as many sources as you work with. There are a variety of reasons that may affect this one of them being fluctuating seasons so it is important that you have this in consideration. You should also try and cover as much ground as possible in terms of your payments so it is vital that you go as far back as possible.
Should you be running a business, it is agreeable that it may be quite tricky for you to be able gauge your income in this case. However, you can offer information about the accounts of the business or you can ask the accountant to put together a resume of the company’s accounts over the last year. These are able to offer more or less the same insights as with regards to your income.
With the filling of Form E, there are a variety of things that will change and it is better for you to address them to ensure that everything is right in the eyes of the law as well as your own. If you’re under any benefits, you should let the Benefit Office be in the know of any of the changes in the family or the situation. Keep in mind that this should be the case whether you’re legible to claim or more or less in terms of your benefit.
In the event that you’re going to be taking care of the children and you’re on income support, the Child Support Agency will take care of the children support under the provisions of the law. Before you can also go ahead and re-mortgage or change your mortgage plan you should also make it a point to ask about the payment plan especially if you’re under benefits.
This is important in letting the court know of the status of the family. However, you have to make sure that you go through this in a very careful and calculated manner because there are chances that if you’re not careful, you might have some of the expenditures being repeated. This usually happens when dealing with credit cards. Form E covers this.
You will also be required to estimate your future expenditure. This allows the judge and the court to understand how your life is going to be like. Should this be hard for you, you can try as hard as possible to estimate this. The idea is to pass across the point of how much it is going to cost you to start living alone and also to identify any differences between what you have available and what you will be needing to spend. This can be currently or in the future.
These are the main terms that you will find in Form E. however, this is not all there is to it since you have to consider the fact that this is a legal document and you may find it cumbersome to fill on your own. As such you may need some help with regards to it which is why it is important for you to know where to get any assistance and help and who is legible to assist you and any other information that is related to the form.
THE FINANCIAL SUMMARY
This is a document that is handed either to you or to your solicitor by the mediator. It is a result of critical analysis of the information that you have provided in the disclosure you just filled. Your solicitors can then have a look at the same and they can advise you accordingly.
To make the process painless both for you and any other person that is involved in the case, you should make sure that you follow the guidelines that are provided for in the disclosure form and desist from making any markings in areas that you’re not meant to fill.
This makes the process easier or those that will evaluate your disclosure forms and will take a shorter time since everything is clear. You should also make sure that all your markings and writings are within the boxes provided to offer and easy to read to document that is neat and easily comprehensible. The last thing that you should have in mind is that you should not provide alternative email addresses or stick stamps or stickers on the disclosure form.
If you follow this guideline, what seems very hard might turn out to be a walk in the park after all.