Sarasota Family Law Blog

A divorce for Florida parents can mean they need to create a schedule for custody and visitation. If the child is an infant, the visitation schedule may involve short visits a few times as week. Overnight visits can be beneficial in building a bond between the child and the noncustodial parent, but some courts prefer to wait until the child is older. Frequency of visits is more important, and the child will still bond with the other parent whether or not there are overnights.

A custodial parent may experience some anxiety over visitation. As the child's main caregiver, the custodial parent understands the child's cues, cries and needs and may be concerned the other parent will not. However, that parent can learn, and the schedule can take the child's needs for sleep and food into account.

Generally speaking, couples in Florida and throughout the country get divorced because they're no longer happy in their relationships. However, some couples have begun to contemplate divorcing for strictly financial reasons. Couples who file their taxes jointly could be subject to the "marriage penalty" if they are in the 37% tax bracket. Ultimately, couples who had more than $612,350 in taxable income in 2019 may be better off if they were single.

Of course, there are many financial benefits that married couples enjoy that single individuals don't. Financial professionals also say that getting a divorce to reduce a tax bill could have a variety of unintended consequences. For instance, a spouse may be the primary beneficiary of a 401(k) plan. However, if a couple divorces, that individual may no longer have rights to money in that account if the owner dies.

There are many ways that couples in Florida realize it is time to go their separate ways. Whether they are experiencing infidelity or addiction or have grown apart over time, the end of a marriage may be the best way for people to move forward from an unhappy relationship. Of course, divorce is not only a major emotional milestone; it is also a serious financial and legal issue. People do not decide to divorce lightly; they base their decision on serious thoughts for the future. There are several common issues that many couples experience before they decide that divorce is the right decision for them.

For example, when couples stop spending time together, this can reflect an underlying problem in the marriage. Some experts note that couples who no longer eat dinner together are more likely to divorce. On the surface, this might reflect something as simple as changing work schedules. However, in practice, it can highlight a more fundamental disconnect in the marriage. Similarly, couples who stop dating each other or abandon fun shared hobbies may find themselves with little in common. Instead, they may only connect around mundane issues and live a roommate-like lifestyle. Unhappy couples may find themselves staying late at work and otherwise avoiding returning home to spend time with a spouse.

If you are like most people in Florida and around the United States who are approaching a divorce, you may well be a bit fearful about how you will be able to provide for yourself once your marriage has ended. This is a reasonable concern given that most spouses end up having to share some or all of their assets with their former partner. At the same time, people have to establish single residences which can cost more than sharing a home with another person.

According to Bloomberg, these two factors are just some of the things that may contribute to serious monetary issues for divorced people, especially if they get divorced after they have turned 50 years of age. One of the reasons that a divorce after 50 can be so financially worrisome is that a person quite simply does not have as many years left to work and recoup the money they lost in their divorce.