The end of your marriage can bring about many questions about your future life. One of the most unsettling for many is how secure their financial situation will be. For many spouses who may not have held employment while they were married due to a variety of circumstances, being divorced will leave them without a sufficient income. While Texas has relatively strict criteria to meet to receive alimony, also known as spousal support or spousal maintenance, there are a limited number of ways to qualify which will help you meet your financial needs.

Qualifying for Spousal Support in Texas

In Texas, there are three ways that you may receive spousal support after your marriage:

• Support was agreed to by your spouse in a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement.

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During a divorce with children, much of the negotiations and mediations are focused on the visitation or physical custody of the children as well as the power to make important decisions about the children. In Texas law, these are known as possessory conservatorship and managing conservatorship, respectively. In many cases, the parents can work together to create a parenting plan that meets the children’s needs and addresses possessory conservatorship and managing conservatorship. However, in some cases, parents cannot come to an agreement, and the decisions may be made by court order. It is essential to hire a child custody lawyer experienced in contested custody cases and who knows the factors the court will consider when making its decision.

Factors in a Contested Child Custody Case

Through negotiations or mediation, parents can often create a parenting plan which addresses issues such as the children’s primary residence, a visitation schedule with each parent, how the parents will share decision-making responsibilities, and how the order will be enforced and modified if necessary in the future. The court will approve this agreement if it meets the best interests of the children.

In this contested child custody case, a judge will weigh several factors in determining how managing conservatorship and possessory conservatorship will be divided. Throughout the process, the children’s best interests will be paramount. These factors can include:

Becoming a father should be a life-changing moment in any man’s life. However, there should be no clouds of uncertainty hanging over you or the child. If you are uncertain of your paternity or if your paternity is being disputed by the child’s mother, there are steps you can take to legally determine if you are the father of the child. No matter what led to the disputed paternity case, the legal establishment of paternity can benefit the child, the father, and the mother.

Options for Establishing Paternity in Texas

If a man and woman are married, or if the child is born within 300 days of the couple’s divorce, the man is legally presumed to be the father of the child. For couples who are not married but agree on who the father of the child is, paternity can be established by both parents signing an Acknowledgment of Paternity (AOP) form. This form is only legally valid if both parents sign.

If there is any dispute or uncertainty over who the father of the child is, then the simplest way to establish paternity is through a DNA test. After a paternity suit is filed, then the mother, father, and child will have their DNA tested through a simple cheek swab. The accuracy rate of the tests is nearly perfect.

If you are married, it is common to find yourself worrying or wondering about your joint finances. You may not want to burden your spouse with any new debt you have taken on. You may even be considering a divorce and want to secure what you consider your separate property or assets. Like the better-known prenuptial agreement, a postnuptial agreement, also known as a marital property agreement, can be used to clarify what portion of a couple’s property is shared and which is considered separate.

Benefits of Creating a Postnuptial Agreement

Under Texas law, a postnuptial agreement can be used by spouses to divide shared marital property into separate, individual property and merge previously separate property into marital property.

A common use of the agreement is to insulate each other from risk when taking on new debt or if one spouse entered the marriage with substantial debt. If one spouse is starting or investing in a new business opportunity, they could separate out that portion of their assets from the couple’s community property. They also have the option to transfer assets, such as the marital house, to the other spouse so that it wouldn’t be at risk if the business failed and creditors were looking for assets to repay the debts.

When two spouses both put their heart and soul into making a business succeed, it can be a personal and professional accomplishment. However, if the couple decides to divorce, the co-ownership of a business can make matters more complicated. A trusted divorce attorney can help you through the complex process of handling your business during a divorce.

Steps for Business Owners During a Divorce

Before any decisions are made, it is necessary to have a financial expert determine the value of the business. There are different methods for finding the value. It can depend on which type of business you own to find the best way. Each spouse may bring in their own experts who may need to reconcile if they come to different values. Other complicating factors include if one spouse had started the business themselves, with the other later joining in, including if the business was started by one spouse before your marriage. In this case, some share of the business may be considered separate property and not subject to division.

Once the value is determined, you and your spouse have three basic options for approaching the handling of the business during your divorce. These include: