Jacksonville Divorce Law Blog

The case of a runaway mom who resurfaced years later, and the financial impact it is now having on her ex-husband, highlights possible loopholes in the insurance industry. According to ABC News, a Pennsylvania resident is fighting a legal battle to keep $100,000 in life insurance money he received after his wife disappeared 11 years ago and was declared dead. The couple was going through a divorce when she vanished in 2002 after taking their children to school. Several strangers found her in a distraught state and she hitchhiked with them to Florida, where she lived homeless for awhile.

The disappearance was tough on the family and the father was not legally able to declare his ex-wife dead for seven years. He finally went through the declaration process in the Lancaster County court system in June 2009. This April she was found, still in Florida.

While antiquated thinking in Florida corresponds with the idea that prenuptial agreements are only for the extremely wealthy and famous, this is simply not the case. Prenuptial agreements can provide a contingency plan in the event of divorce. Prenuptial agreements can provide many additional benefits.

Prenuptial agreements can let individuals make allowances for children from previous marriages or relationships. There are certain default rules in divorce proceedings, but prenuptial agreements can supersede these rules, such as arrangements regarding retirement accounts. Prenuptial agreements can also ensure that certain assets or income is left to children from previous relationships, rather than to the other spouse.

It used to be rare for a wife to earn more than her husband. That meant it was always the man who paid alimony after divorce. However, that is changing. Although the number of men who pay alimony is still larger than that of women, it is becoming more common for a husband to seek spousal support when the wife earns more. That is as true in Duval County, Florida as it is nationwide.

In fact, in at least 16 percent of dual-income families, the wife's income exceeds the husband's. Therefore, it makes sense for a woman to have someone protecting her interests in case of a divorce. People increasingly use a prenuptial agreement to designate what will be separate property instead of marital property. It is important for spouses to openly discuss money and for women to have some money or assets separate in their name. That especially pertains to a business, professional partnership or inheritance. Moreover, even people with high incomes can find themselves in an abusive relationship.

Florida is a no-fault divorce state. That means that a judge will dissolve a marriage if either of the spouses can testify that the marriage is broken and cannot be repaired. It is not necessary to establish abuse, abandonment, infidelity or any other misbehavior by either spouse. For spouses who are unwilling or unable to agree, the process may be exponentially more difficult.

One of the biggest issues that can make a divorce more divisive is alimony. As divorce gets more contentious, parties may be less reasonable in their demands. One man reported reducing his alimony offer from a rather generous amount to nothing as the case continued. He stated that he simply wanted to see her spend money fighting, as he has done for years. In response, the woman's attorney requested more than the initial offer.