Well, that answer is going to depend on which person you are in the divorce. If you are the non-monied spouse, the one that hasn’t been in control of the finances for the most part the number one thing you need to do is educate yourself about your estate. Get the tax returns, look for bank statements, look for retirement statements, look on the computer see what you can find. It’s much easier to find those documents before the divorce is on file than trying to pull them like teeth after the divorce is on file. So the more documents you can bring to your divorce attorney the more I can help you determine what assets are there. And so education it reduces anxiety to know okay, here’s what I have, here’s what I need, figure out what it’s gonna cost for you to live. How much does it cost to run your household?

Many client I get they don’t know what their mortgage payment is, they don’t know what it cost to run their household, they don’t know how much money they need. So that’s my number one goal. If I’m representing someone that may be working outside the home that hasn’t has as much access to the children I ask them take a look at your travel schedule are you gone all the time? What are your custody goals? Because if you have some custody goals it may not be the right time for you to file you may need to do a little preparation in advance to get yourself in a better situation. So there’s a lot of thought that needs to go into that.