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Derek Legal Blog

When You Separate How Do You Protect Your Financial Position?

All too commonly when parties separate one party endeavours to get advantage by ‘cleaning out all of the accounts’. Most parties have debts which they are jointly and severally liable. They often have joint accounts and credit cards in which one of the parties is a supplementary holder.

The first thing to do is for any joint account to have the bank change the signature requirement to two signatures and to stop online access.

If you have joint credit cards as opposed to one in which one of the parties is simply a supplementary card holder, you must cancel the joint credit card. If it is a card with a supplementary card holder you must cancel the supplementary card holder’s card.

It is important that you organise your bank credit card supplier and any other financial institution that statements in relation to your accounts are forwarded to you. This is so the other party cannot deprive you of financial information in the shorter term.

The disclosure obligations will mean that you will get the information eventually, but that information may not be in time.

Two things that are often overlooked at this time is your will and power of attorney. It’s important to change your will where the other party is a beneficiary and cancel any power of attorney that the other party may have. This is because unless you do, that party will be able to operate on any account in your name under the power of attorney and ultimately sell a house in your name using the power of attorney.

Other matters that need to be looked at are to check who is the beneficiary under any insurance policies or superannuation policies. These often have a nominated beneficiary and if your ex-partner is a nominated beneficiary the ex-partner will remain so unless that is changed.

Contact Rita Derek of this firm for further advice.

Posted in: Derek Legal Blog at 08 August 18

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