Texas Divorce Financial Checklist for 2025
Preparing for a Texas Divorce: Assets
Going through a Divorce is painful no matter the circumstances. Before you get into the Texas Divorce Process, you can reduce expense, stress, and conflict by making sure you are financially prepared. Advanced planning helps you in making sound decisions, start preparing for post-divorce life, and avoid many post-divorce pitfalls. Below is a list of items you need to gather before counseling with an attorney. Financial Documents are a must to show what your true assets and liabilities are in the marriage. This is a very general checklist. Disregard what is not pertinent to your situation.
Documents:
- Taxes (at least three years)
- Federal Tax Return
- State Tax Return
- W2
- Tax Liens
- All other IRS related documents
- Wills and Trusts with all attachments reflecting corpus and trust holdings
- Listing of all liabilities (including mortgages, credit card debt, personal loans, automobile loans, student loans, etc.):
- Name of entity, address, and telephone number
- Account number
- Amount owed
- Monthly payment
- Property securing payment (if any)
- Most current statements and account status of lenders (from last 3 years)
- A Listing of the address and location of all Real Property, (includes time-shares, vacation properties, commercial property, and lots):
- Deeds of Trust
- Notes including equity loans and second liens
- Legal Descriptions
- Mortgage Companies and Loan Servicers (Name, Address, Telephone Number, Account Number, Balance of Note, Monthly Payments) for all Primary and Secondary Mortgages
- Evidence of purchase gift or inheritance documents
- Current fair market value.
- Appraisals
- Motor Vehicles (including mobile homes, boats, trailers, motorcycles, recreational vehicles; exclude company owned):
- Year, Make, Model of all Motor Vehicles
- Value
- Name on title
- VIN Number
- Fair Market Value
- Name of creditor (if any), address and telephone
- Persons listed on debt
- Account number
- Balance of any loan and monthly payment
- Net Equity in vehicle
- Current statements from last 3 years
- Cash and accounts with financial institutions (checking, savings, commercial bank accounts, credit union funds, IRA’s, CD’s, 401K’s, pension plans and any other form of retirement accounts):
- Name of institution, address, and telephone number
- Amount in institution on date of marriage
- Amount in institution currently
- Names on Account and Account Number
- Social Security Documents
- Pension Documents
- Company loans and documents related to benefits
- At least 3 years statements on all pertinent accounts
- A listing of separate property (property owned prior to marriage, family heir looms, property gifted, inherited property):
- Records that trace your separate property. These assets will remain yours if properly documented
- Retirement Benefits:
- Exact name of plan
- Address of plan administrator
- Employer
- Employee
- Starting date of contributions
- Amount currently in account
- Balance of any loan against plan
- Documents (Date of start of plan is especially important for divorce settlement)
- Publicly traded stock, bonds, and other securities (include securities not in a brokerage, mutual fund, or retirement account):
- Number of shares
- Type of securities
- Certificate numbers
- In possession of
- Name of exchange which listed
- Pledged as collateral?
- Date acquired
- Tax basis
- Current market value
- If stock (date option granted, number of shares and value per share)
- Stock options plans and related documents
- Insurance and Annuities Policies and Inventory:
- Name of insurance company
- Policy Number
- Insured
- Type of insurance (whole/term/universal)
- Amount of monthly premiums
- Date of Issue
- Face amount
- Cash surrender value
- Current surrender value
- Designated beneficiary
- Other policies and amendments
- Closely held business interests:
- Name of business
- Address
- Type of business
- % Of ownership
- Number of shares owned if applicable
- Value of shares
- Balance of accounts receivables
- Cash flow reports
- Balance of liabilities
- List of company assets
- Hobbies or side businesses that generate income
- Mineral Interests (include any property in which you own the mineral estate, separate and apart from the surface estate, such as oil and gas leases; also include royalty interests, work interests, and producing and non-producing oil and gas wells:
- Name of mineral interest
- Type of interest
- County of location
- Legal description
- Name of producer/operator
- Current market value
- needs leases or production documents related to the asset
- Money owed by spouse (including any expected federal or state income tax refund but not including receivables connected with any business)
- Household furniture, furnishings, and Fixtures
- photos
- purchase documents
- Electronics and computers including software and hard drives
- Antiques, artwork, and collectibles (including works of art, paintings, tapestry, rugs, crystal, furniture, quilts) All major collections always need to be appraised! (Cars, Guns, Jewelry, Coins & Stamps, Action Figures, and Books)
- Miscellaneous sporting goods and firearms
- Jewelry including appraisals
- Animals and livestock
- Farming equipment
- Club Memberships
- Safe deposit box items
- Burial plots including documents of ownership
- Items in any storage facility
- Travel Awards Benefits (including frequent flyer miles)
You may decide to divorce or not, but it is very important to have all financial information before you enter into a Divorce! This is a very general Divorce Financial Asset checklist. Disregard what is not pertinent to your situation.
After reviewing this list, you may also decide to go and review the Family Information Form. This form is basic information about you and your spouse. By the time you are looking at this, you will realize that you may not really know your spouse’s information. You will need to know the correct information before filing for divorce in Texas.
These two informational lists will prepare you with the basic financial information that any attorney will need to get your divorce started.
You can click on these links to download and print our Texas Divorce Financial Checklist and Family Information Form for a Texas Divorce.
Nacol Law Firm P.C.
Dallas Divorce Attorneys
Call (972) 690-3333
Business Contracts : A Perspective for an Employer
The best employment law defense counsel takes every aspect of a case into account, but most importantly the impact a lawsuit may have on the reputation and finances of the Company. Employers must be aware of state and federal laws that govern employee hiring, compensation and treatment. Federal and State employment laws concerning wages and overtime are complex and impose significant responsibility on the employer.
Other things an employer should consider are:
- Anti-discrimination laws
- sexual discrimination
- age discrimination
- disability discrimination
- race discrimination
- Hiring practices (contracts)
- Compensation (wages, bonuses, paid leave, vacation pay, benefits, severance packages)
- Family and Medical Leave
- Termination
- Immigration matters
- Sexual harassment
- Intellectual property rights
Employers should also be cognizant of employees that are allowed access to intellectual property information created or developed for the Company by employees in the course of their employment.
There are a number of questions to be addressed by the Employer both at the time of hiring personnel and at regular intervals throughout the course of their employment, such as:
·The scope of the employees duties, and how those are to be documented;
·Their level of seniority;
·Whether their duties involve a requirement that they invent (or contribute to inventions);
·The employee’s propensity to invent;
·The access which the employee has to the employer’s resources (both during and after hours) for their own purposes.
·Proprietary Information Agreements
·Non-competition Agreements, where indicated
On the basis of recent decisions of the Federal Court, only very brave employers are likely to decide that they do not require employment agreements with their senior employees or with those employees privy to confidential or proprietary information.
If you are an employer facing legal issues in any aspect of employment or intellectual property rights, consult Mark A. Nacol of The Nacol Law Firm for guidance.
The Nacol Law Firm PC Law office of Attorney Mark Nacol
Serving clients in the Dallas – Fort Worth Metroplex area for over 30 years
Tel: 972-690-3333
Verbal Contracts and Texas Law
Verbal Contracts do exist and are legally enforceable in Texas, as a matter of law, if they meet necessary legal requirements and specificity. Adequate consideration must be given between the two parties of a verbal contract to make it binding. Adequate consideration is defined in two ways: (1) having a mutual reciprocal exchange [bargained for exchange] or (2) having legal value [an individual must do something that he is not legally obligated to do]. If adequate consideration is given between both parties and all other legal requirements are met, then a verbal contract may be held valid in a court of law.
Verbal contracts are also limited by the Statute of Frauds. The Statute of Frauds requires certain types of contracts to only be in writing purportedly to avoid defrauding citizens.
The following must be in writing:
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(1) Making a will or Trust
(2) A contract to answer for the duty of another (Guarantee/Suretyship)
(3) Marriage (exception common law marriage)
(4) Sale and contracts affecting Land
(5) A contract that lasts longer than 1 year from the time it is made and which cannot be performed in one year
(6) Any sale of goods for a price of $500 or more
(7) Sales of securities
Verbal contracts in Texas have limitations. Let’s say that a contractor wanted to paint the outside of your house. You decide to pay the contractor seven thousand to paint the outside of the house and the job will take approximately 3-8 weeks. If you have a verbal contract with the painter and pay him this could be legally enforceable in a court of law. The verbal contract with the painter is not invalidated by any provision set above in the Statute of fraud. It is a contract for service, under one year, and adequate consideration has been given with the payment of seven thousand dollars.
Here is another example of a verbal contract that will not be upheld in a court of law. An individual buys fifty acres from his neighbor for fifty thousand dollars under a verbal contract. Before the fifty thousand dollars is exchanged, the neighbor decides to pull out of the deal. This verbal contract would not be enforceable in court and the buyer cannot enforce the contract because it deals with real estate (land). This is one of the specific types of contracts that must be in writing because of the Statute of Frauds. The individual may get his money back but the point is he cannot enforce the contract since it is not in writing.
The best course of action in the litigious world we live in is to cover your tracks by securing a written contract in almost all circumstances. Do not rely on the limited options that allow a verbal contract to be enforced because in court you will have to deal with the “He said, she said” testimony and incur significant cost of litigation unnecessarily.
What is a DTPA claim?
DTPA stands for Texas Deceptive Trade Practice Act (the “Act”), which was codified in Chapter 17 of the Texas Business and Commerce Code. This act was codified in order to “protect consumers against false, misleading, and deceptive business practices, unconscionable actions, and breach of warranty, and to provide efficient and economical procedures to secure that protection.” The Texas DTPA statute allows a consumer to file suit against “any person whose false, misleading, or deceptive acts, or other practices cause the consumer’s harm. As a prerequisite to filing, a consumer must give written notice to the person against whom the consumer is claiming deceptive acts at least 60 days prior to filing suit advising the person in reasonable detail of the specific complaint and amount of damages, including attorneys fees reasonably incurred.
What is a consumer?
Under the DTPA, a plaintiff must qualify as a consumer to bring a claim. “A consumer is an individual, partnership, corporation, the state of Texas, or a subdivision or agency of the state of Texas, who seeks or acquires by purchase or lease any goods or services.” In order for a consumer to establish themselves as such, they must show (1) that they sought or acquired goods or services by purchase or lease, and (2) that the goods or services form the basis of the DTPA complaint.
The Laundry List
Texas Business and Commerce Code lays out a “laundry list” of examples that constitute “false, misleading, or deceptive acts or practices” that are violations of the Act. Thirty-four items are included in this non-exclusive laundry list. For reference as examples, the first five items on that list are:
(1) passing off goods or services as those of another;
(2) causing confusion or misunderstanding as to the source, sponsorship, approval, or certification of goods or services;
(3) causing confusion or misunderstanding as to affiliation, connection, or association with, or certification by, another;
(4) using deceptive representations or designations of geographic origin in connection with goods or services;
(5) representing that goods or services have sponsorship, approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits, or quantities which they do not have or that a person has a sponsorship, approval, status, affiliation, or connection which the person does not;
DTPA Claims Under Other Statutes
According to Dorsaneo, Texas Litigation Guide, “the number of statutes that provide that their violation, or a violation of some of their provisions, constitutes a deceptive trade practice is constantly growing.” One need not only bring a DTPA claim under the DTPA statute. Violations of other statutes may give rise to claims under the DTPA statute, however a plaintiff may not recover actual damages and penalties under the DTPA as well as damages under another statute for the same acts. This makes sense, as plaintiffs should not be allowed to “double-dip” their claims.
If you believe you may have a claim under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, please contact us to schedule a consultation with an attorney.
Nacol Law Firm P.C.
Dallas Litigation Attorneys
Call (972) 690 -3333
Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is in no way intended to constitute legal advice. The information provided is merely an overview of the relevant law. Do not act on this information. Always consult an attorney for legal advice.
The Usefulness of a Revocable Trust
A trust can be a useful tool in disbursing your estate during and after death. It is hard to consider one’s mortality but when you do finally accept that death is inevitable, it is prudent to have a dispositional scheme set up that will benefit your family. A Revocable Trust is a less complicated and more expeditious way for your heirs to divide and distribute your estate according to your own specific plan once you have passed.
A Revocable Trust is a legal entity created by an individual that is used to disburse an individual’s estate avoiding significant probate court involvement. The Settler is the individual who sets up the trust and places limitations on what the trust can or cannot do with trust assets. The Trustee is the person in charge of the trust and who has a fiduciary duty to the Settlers and Beneficiaries to distribute the estate in accordance with the limitations set forth by the Settler. The Settler, in some instances, may be the Trustee as well. A Settler may not be the beneficiary of a Trust.
A Settler may also be the Trustee and is given the power to change the trust in many ways. Under Texas Property Code 122.033 a Settler that is also the Trustee reserves such powers as:
- Making a beneficial life interest for himself;
- The power to revoke, modify, or terminate the trust in whole or in part;
- The power to designate the person to whom or on whose behalf the income or principal is to be paid or applied;
- The power to control the administration of the trust in whole or in part;
- The right to exercise a power or option over property in the trust or over interests made payable to the trust under an employee benefit plan, life insurance policy , or otherwise; or
- The power to add property or cause additional employee benefits, life insurance, or other interests to be made payable to the trust at any time.
The important point is that Texas allows an individual to both make a trust and control the Trust.
A Revocable Trust can used to bypass the court system thus producing a quick and effective means for an estate to be disbursed. Instead of probating a will and having the court get involved which is timely, an individual may create a trust with limitations which can bypass the court process altogether.
The creation of a Trust can be a complex process depending on the size of the estate. An experienced estate lawyer should be consulted to ensure the Settler’s limitations set upon the Trust are valid and precise. By utilizing a Trust rather than a Will or Intestate Succession, an individual can avoid undue delay in probating the estate and the Trust itself allows the Settler the ability to specify the exact conditions and limitations that will be involved as the estate is disbursed.
NACOL LAW FIRM P.C.
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Dallas, Texas 75231
972-690-3333
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Attorney Mark A. Nacol is board certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization
