Getting Your Share

Book excerpt: Each year more than one million marriages end in divorce. Yet, despite the passage of the no-fault divorce laws over the past two decades, divorce has become more complex and expensive, and can be financially disastrous for wives of every age and economic condition. Today, divorce can mean a 73 percent drop in the woman’s standard of living while the husband’s rises 42 percent. In Getting Your Share, Lois Brenner, an expert matrimonial lawyer, shows women how to get financial security for themselves and their children under the current divorce laws. From choosing the right attorney to the final divorce decree and settlement, this book takes you step by step through the legal, tactical, emotional, and financial conflicts of divorce. You will learn about the opening legal moves, how to stop thinking of your husband as your partner, how to get an accurate picture of family assets, how to protect your children financially and psychologically, when to negotiate a settlement rather than go to trial, and much more. Whether you have been married two months or twenty years, have had a full-time career, have devoted yourself to raising children, or have done both, Getting Your Share provides information and understanding to guide you through this complicated crisis.