Financial Expert's Guide to Completing FL-142 and FL-150 for a California Divorce

Preparing the financial disclosures (FL-142 Schedule of Assets and Debts and FL-150 Income and Expense Declaration) for your California divorce case is a daunting task. You have to disclose, list, and value all marital and separate assets and debts. You also have to identify, organize, and present all income sources along with a budget representing your actual or estimated expenses or proposed needs.

Everyone Hates Filling Out These Forms

The forms look relatively simple but once you sit down to complete them you realize the staggering amount of information you need to collect. Think gathering information every year to file your taxes is a royal pain? Get ready for FL-142 and FL-150!

These two forms must be completed, and must be completed accurately. They form the basis for how you and your spouse will divide marital property. They also provide critical inputs for calculating child support and negotiating spousal support.

Sure, you can find instructions on the Internet. Your lawyer or mediator may have also provided written instructions. But unless you have a very simple case, these instructions will not cover everything you need to know in order to draft these completely or accurately.

For example, generic instructions won't help you with listing what is community property and what is separate property with regard to real estate, employer-provided equity compensation, or retirement accounts. They won't explain how to find the current value of a pension plan. And they certainly won't explain how to properly list your income if you are self-employed and run your business as an S-Corporation.

This course does not provide legal advice. It helps you present and understand everything regarding your financial life -- your assets, debts, income and expenses. Without understanding what you and your spouse are disclosing, how can you possibly negotiate a fair settlement?

Without Help These Forms Are Time-Consuming, Tedious and Nerve-Wracking

Early in my career as a certified divorce financial analyst, I worked at a mediation firm providing "financial intakes" for couples starting the mediation process. As part of their fee, they received two hours of my time siting down with them and walking them through each item in FL-142 and FL-150. It was very important that all assets and debts were disclosed on these forms with the appropriate values as that set the foundation for the first mediation session.

Save Time, Money and Frustration

This online course is my way to reach more people and at a fraction of what it would cost to sit down with me in person or via Zoom. And, if you have questions along the way, you can contact me for a 30-min phone session at a discounted rate. When done right the fist time, you won't worry about your lawyer or mediator spending their time or your money to fix them.

How long does it take to complete the course? If you watch every single video the entire way through, it should take you less than two hours. In most cases, plan to spend between 60 and 90 minutes on the course because there likely will be many videos that do not apply to your situation and you can skip ahead. Below is a summary of each video lesson and the viewing time.