divorce attorney

Name: Law Office of Joanne Kleiner
Address: 261 Old York Rd., Ste. 402, Jenkintown, PA, 19046, US
Telephone: 215-886-1266

Apr 13

Divorce and Retirement Assets—Protecting Your Rights

Are you considering filing for divorce or already a party to a divorce proceeding, where the marital estate includes a substantial amount of retirement savings? For many persons involved in divorce proceedings, particularly later in life, retirement assets are one of the largest components of the marital estate, often exceeding the value of the marital home. Frequently, too, they have been accumulated by only one of the parties. So what happens to those assets in a divorce?

As a general rule, all retirement assets accrued, contributions made or values accumulated during a marriage are part of the marital estate and divided according to law. In Pennsylvania, which applies equitable distribution principles to property settlements in divorce cases, the value of retirement funds must be divided equitably, or fairly (but not necessarily equally), between the parties. When determining what is fair, the court may consider a wide range of factors, including:

How long the parties were married
Whether either party was married before
The age and health of the parties
The standard of living to which the parties were accustomed

When dividing retirement assets, though, there can be some challenges related to the potential tax consequences. Because retirement contributions are often made in pre-tax dollars, you must be careful, when taking a distribution from an ex-spouse’s 401k or IRA, that you take the right steps to prevent that distribution from becoming taxable income until you want it to be such. Typically, the way that you do that is through a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO). A QDRO will allow you to rollover the distribution into your own qualified plan without tax penalty.

Contact the Law Office of Joanne E. Kleiner & Associates

For an appointment, contact our office online or call us at 215-886-1266. Let us use our experience, skill, knowledge and resources to help you make informed and effective decisions.

Apr 07

Pennsylvania Law Changed to Reduce Waiting Time for No-Fault Divorce

Last October, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed legislation to reduce the waiting period in certain divorce proceedings from two years to one year. The bill applies to unilateral no-fault divorce proceedings, essentially “uncontested” divorce actions. The statute became effective in December, 2016.

Proponents say the new law will provide many benefits for individuals and families in divorce. First, because parties know that their marriage will be dissolved sooner, they can initiate the process of equitably dividing debts and assets much sooner. In addition, children of divorce will spend less time in limbo, as a parent need only wait 12 months before filing an affidavit stating that the marriage is irreconcilable.

Opponents of the bill had argued that the two year restriction allowed a “cooling off” period where spouses might engage in meaningful attempts to reconcile. Proponents successfully asserted, though, that there was no evidence that the longer separation period contributed to any increase in reconciliation. In fact, some proponents felt that the prior law actually had the opposite effect, allowing some to coerce a spouse into dropping a divorce complaint because of the lengthy wait. They also said that the two year waiting period increased the legal costs of the process, as lawyers would bill more hours.

Opponents also contended that shortening the time period would give parties less time to make the necessary transitions to life after divorce, including access to health insurance. Supporters of the bill challenged that concern, saying that one year is plenty of time to make any necessary adjustments.

Contact Us

At the office of Joanne E. Kleiner & Associates, we have more than 25 years of family law experience. We’ll help you stay focused on what matters. To schedule an appointment with an experienced Pennsylvania divorce attorney, contact our office online or call us at 215-886-1266.

Oct 20

The Divorce Residency Requirements in Pennsylvania

There’s a common misperception that you must file for divorce in the state in which your marriage took place. Though that’s not accurate, there are some limitations on where you can file. Before you can seek to have a marriage terminated through a divorce proceeding in Pennsylvania, you must first meet a number of procedural requirements, including verification that the courts in Pennsylvania will have jurisdiction over the proceedings. The first step is to meet the residency requirements. If you file a complaint, but don’t meet the residency requirements, your legal action will simply be dismissed.

In order to file a complaint for divorce in Pennsylvania, at least one of the parties must have been a resident of the state for a minimum of six months. There is no requirement that both parties meet the residency requirement. A Pennsylvania resident can sue a non-resident for divorce in a Pennsylvania court, or a Pennsylvania resident may be sued in Pennsylvania by a non-resident plaintiff.

In addition to the state residency requirement, there’s also a residency requirement to determine which county court is the proper venue for the divorce filing. If the defendant lives in Pennsylvania, the divorce complaint must be filed in the county in which the defendant resides. If the defendant lives in another state, the plaintiff may bring the action in the county where he or she claims residence. If the defendant lives in the state, the filing party may bring the lawsuit in the “county of matrimonial domicile,” i.e., where the parties lived during marriage, but only if the plaintiff has continued to live there.

Contact the Law Office of Joanne E. Kleiner & Associates

For an appointment, contact our office online or call us at 215-886-1266. Let us use our experience, skill, knowledge and resources to help you make informed and effective decisions.

Jun 28

What Grounds May Be Asserted for Divorce in Pennsylvania?

In Pennsylvania, as in other states, the concept of “no-fault” divorce is available to couples who want to terminate a marriage. The term can be a little confusing, as it suggests that you don’t have to state any reason for seeking a divorce. You must still state ground for your divorce, but there’s no requirement that you allocate blame to one party or the other.

No-Fault Divorce

In a no-fault divorce proceeding, the parties agree that neither spouse caused the divorce. As a general rule, the grounds stated in a no-fault divorce proceeding are that there has been an “irretrievable breakdown” of the marriage, and that it cannot be saved.

No-fault divorce proceedings can take a couple different courses:

The divorce may be by mutual consent—Here, both parties agree that the marriage is irretrievably broken, that 90 days have passed since the complaint was filed, and that they consent to the divorce
Unilateral no-fault divorce—In this situation, one party files the petition and also submits and affidavit attesting that the parties have not lived together for at least two years and that the marriage cannot be fixed. If the other party does not object to the allegations, the divorce may be granted, even though there’s technically no consent to the divorce.

At-Fault Divorce

Though you don’t have to assign blame in a divorce proceeding, there can be benefit in the division of property or in other aspects of the divorce if you can show the other party to have contributed to the divorce. The specific grounds established for divorce in Pennsylvania include:

Adultery or bigamy
Humiliation of an innocent spouse, such that marriage is no longer tenable
Domestic violence or cruelty, including mental cruelty
Abandonment of the relationship for at least one year
Imprisonment for two or more years after conviction of a crime

Contact Attorney Joanne E. Kleiner

Let us help you protect your rights. contact our office online or call us at 215-886-1266 to schedule a confidential consultation. We will help you stay focused on the issues that matter.

Jan 06

The Financial Realities of “Gray Divorce”

It’s a trend that researchers have seen for nearly 25 years—the number of people over the age of 50 who have been a party to divorce has steadily risen. Statistics show that, since 1990, divorces among the over-fifty demographic have doubled and among the over-65 group have tripled. Individuals in these age groups face challenges not found in younger adults in divorce.

The biggest challenge, for many, is ensuring that both parties will be able to meet financial needs after a divorce. Far too often, couples get divorced shortly after their children have left home. Many of those couples did little saving in the years before divorce, as much of their discretionary income went to meet the needs of their children. So they now find themselves without much of a nest egg at all, and little to nothing to divide in a divorce, other than the marital home.

One of the first things you need to consider, if you’re in your later years and headed for or involved in a divorce proceeding, is whether you’ll have the income and access to other financial resources to meet your day-to-day needs. You need to look at both the short-term and the long-term. You may be eligible for Social Security, but it could be a few years away. So here are some key considerations if you are involved in a divorce after age 50:

What kind of retirement plan do you have? Are all the funds held in the name of one spouse only? If so, you’ll need to divide the retirement plan as part of the divorce.
What do you have in savings or investments?
What’s the potential for both parties to be gainfully employed, and what level of income is realistic?
Do either of you need the marital home? Would it be in your best interests to sell the home and move into something smaller, so that you can have access to the equity in the home?