From the onset of your case, you might want to consider contacting the individual companies with whom your retirement or investment accounts are held.  This small step can easily be overlooked, but can impact the overall equitable distribution of your case.

Equitable Distribution is one aspect of your divorce case.  Essentially, equitable distribution is a term that refers to which party will receive an asset or a liability post dissolution.  In order to effectively prepare an equitable distribution worksheet, each party should indicate on their own financial affidavits whether or not any asset or a portion thereof is non-marital.  This should be considered for any and all retirement accounts and investment accounts.  Once an account or a portion thereof is determined to be non-marital, then that account (or that portion) is removed from the total amount of marital assets and liabilities to be distributed.  This ensures that you receive 100% of your non-marital asset without your spouse receiving a credit for same.

To determine the non-marital portion of any account, obtain a copy of your account balance as of the date of marriage and as of the date of filing for the dissolution of marriage.  These two documents for each account will assist your attorney, mediator, or Judge in equitably distributing each of your assets and liabilities appropriately.

Alisha Cyrus contributed to this article.