Collaborative Date of Identification

Collaborative Date of Identification

In Florida, when a divorce is filed, that becomes the cutoff date at which assets and liabilities are identified as marital or non-marital.  Anything acquired after that date with post-filing earnings or any money saved from post-filing earnings would be considered non-marital.

In Collaborative Divorce we don’t have a filing date. So, when is the date of identification of assets and liabilities in a Collaborative matter? Should the date be the date the Participation Agreement is signed? That is sort of the equivalent to the “filing date.” Or should it be a decision of the parties? If so, when should that decision be made?

In too many cases, the decision is put off. Once clients learn what the date means, or their attorney chimes in, too often the decision is made to “see what the production tells us.” But is that the Collaborative thing to do? Or is that showing a level of distrust at the start of the case?

That happened in a case I am currently involved in and now we are coming down to final negotiations and one of the sticking points is what should be the date of identification. During the six months process the husband has continued to save money from his earnings. Should the wife benefit? Seems to me that by our inaction, we have just added another layer of discord.

What is your experience and opinion? Join us on Friday at 4:30pm EDT at our Happy Hour as we continue this discussion.

1 Response

  1. In NC we always go by date of separation. Our equitable distribution statute says marital property is that which is presently owned at date of separation. So that would be our “identification date.” Our ED statute also provides that passive increases in values of marital property from DOS to date of distribution is “divisible” property which is also subject to being divided in ED.

    I would think in FL collaborative cases you should use date of separation or perhaps early on agree to a date near that, such as the last day of the month or calendar quarter after DOS.