Massachusetts Husband and Wife have two biological daughters and a biological son. Now they want to take a foster child into their home as well.

Husband and Wife are born-again Christians. They believe that the bible encourages parental discipline in child rearing. As such, they sometimes spank their biological children.

And because Husband and Wife embrace corporal punishment, Husband and Wife are rejected as foster parents by Massachusetts’ Department of Children and Families. Even when though they promise not to use corporal punishment on foster children.

The Department of Children and Families (DCF) maintains that corporal punishment would be damaging to children of abuse.

Husband and Wife appeal DCF’s decision through Massachusetts’ court system. And both the trial court and Massachusetts’ highest court side with DCF over Husband and Wife.

Husband and Wife do not plan to appeal to the US Supreme Court, although they believe a freedom of religion constitutional argument applies.

Read more in this Worcester Telegram article: Fitchburg couple defend use of spanking after losing appeal to become foster parents .

Brother 1 and 80 year old Brother 2 share an apartment in New York.

Brother 1 buys a pedigreed dog and, shortly afterward, passes away.

At the time of Brother 1’s funeral, Cousin discovers Brother 1’s Dog in an allegedly grossly neglected state.

Cousin and his wife take Dog and nurse it back to health – at significant expense to them.

Brother 2 becomes personal representative of Brother 1’s estate. Brother 2 is also Brother 1’s sole heir.

Brother 2 wants the Dog back and applies to the Probate (called Surrogates in New York) Court accordingly. Months later, apparently.

Cousin argues by way of defense that Brother 2 relinquished Dog and should be deemed to have gifted Dog to Cousin and his wife. Cousin further contends that Brother 2 is unable to care for Dog and that therefore it is in Dog’s best interest that Dog remain in Cousin’s and his wife’s care.

This would be a leap, however, beyond New York’s (and all or nearly every state’s) current law, be it child custody and family law, or probate and intestacy law. By the strict letter of the law, pets are still considered mere property, no more and no less.

The court will not consider the pet’s best interest, as if it were a child. (There is some wiggle room in a legitimate case of full-blown animal abuse, but the court did not find that that here.)

On the contrary, the court did receive an evaluation by an independent animal rescue representative, which assured the court that Brother 2 could and would care for Dog properly.

Accordingly, the court ordered that Cousin restore the Dog to Brother 2’s custody, uh, possession.

Read more in this New York Law Journal article: LI Man Wins Custody of Deceased Brother’s Dog .

Dutch Husband and Wife are married for 30 years.

Husband leaves the marital home to cohabit with his girlfriend, and Husband and Wife disentangle their finances.

A year or two later, Husband files for divorce, in October of 2014. Divorce goes to final judgment in June of 2015.

On New Year’s Day of 2015, Wife wins the lottery … a US $2.3 million pot.

Lo and behold, Husband seeks a cut.

Unfortunately for Husband, the Dutch family court denies his claim. The couple’s finances were long since separated when Wife paid for her lottery ticket with her own separate funds from her own separate account.

The ultimate ruling here would be exactly the same under Florida law. If the spouses don’t own it by the date of filing, it will be separate nonmarital property.

Read more in this Reuters – Amsterdam article: Woman who won lottery during divorce can keep it all – Dutch court .

This is a good time for the annual refresher of the typical tax issues and impacts of divorce.

Filing status – If the divorce is finalized by December 31^st of the year, then the filer’s status is considered single for that entire year.

Alimony – Typically includible in the income of the receiving spouse (yes, really) and deductible to the paying spouse.

Child Support – Not includible and not deductible. Note: The government can divert tax refunds and apply them to child support arrears (yes, really).

Dependency Exemption – By default, the parent who has the child most often receives the dependency exemption. The spouses or the court can deviate from the default. The parents and child collectively get the most bang from the exemption by assigning it to the higher earning spouse.

Marital Home – Transfer of one spouse’s interest to the other spouse in a divorce is not a taxable event

Legal Fees – Not deductible (except for enforcement of alimony obligations).

Retirement benefits – With a special type of court order called a QDRO, the other spouse can receive a share of the working spouse’s retirement benefits without triggering any taxable event or tax penalty.

Read more in this New York Law Journal article: Tax Considerations and Issues Relating to Divorce .

Imagine a computer that could eavesdrop on you and your spouse and get a read on whether your marriage would get better or worse or just more of the same.

Actually, you don’t have to imagine it. It’s already here.

Under study of whether the computer can read couples and predict marital outcomes as well as a human therapist.

The verdict is that it can. Slightly better than a human, actually.

All based on the sounds of the couples’ voices rather than the words they express.

The stated goal of the University of Southern California and University of Utah study was to improve talk therapy provided by a human therapist.

An early warning system – in real time, no less – might be the first step.

But down the road, might your marriage counselor be an app? Or a robot?

Precisely when you and your spouse need it.

Only time will tell.

Read more in this Wall Street Journal article: A Computer That Can Hear a Marriage in Trouble .

The ups and downs of birth rates are influenced by the economy, but that’s only one factor. It’s complicated.

So what about a subset of all birth rates? Specifically, births made possible by in vitro fertilization?

Such births have reportedly dropped off by a dramatic thirty percent since August of 2015 – for no readily apparent reason.

But the procedure reportedly costs between $10,000 and $15,000.

People who follow and study such things apparently noted the same phenomenon … declines going into the recession of 2008.

And now at least one expert, from the Center for Human Reproduction in Manhattan, believes that the next recession is on the way.

Read more in this New York Post piece: Declining IVF rates might signal the next recession .

Husband and Wife live about an hour and a half away from Atlanta.

On a Sunday evening, Husband is shot in the head.

Husband has been the mayor of a small town in Georgia for about ten years.

Husband is a local physician.

Husband was the Chief of Staff of a local hospital just a couple of years ago.

The state’s bureau of investigations has taken over the police investigation.

Following an autopsy, it appears that Husband shot himself.

During some sort of disagreement that had erupted between Husband and Wife.

Read more in

• this CBS WGCL TV 46 Atlanta article: Preliminary autopsy finding reveals Clarkesville mayor died from self-inflicted gun shot wound and
• and this Atlanta Journal Constitution article: GBI: Clarkesville mayor died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound .

Wealthy Husband and Wife have multiple homes in multiple countries: New York, Paris, London, Switzerland and, most recently, Monaco.

New York divorce law sits pretty well with Wife, so she files for divorce in New York.

But Monaco’s divorce laws sit tens of millions of dollars better with Husband, so he files for divorce in Monaco … and files to transfer Wife’s New York case to Monaco.

In his filing, Husband cites as supporting evidence of residenccy pictures of Wife’s eighty or so pairs of shoes, numerous purses and clothing in the Monaco home … which is reportedly still under construction.

Classification of Husband’s $25 million art collection as marital versus nonmarital will likely turn on the determination of jurisdiction.

New York gets first crack at deciding jurisdiction.

Read more in

• this New York Post news article: Socialite stunned by surprise divorce is thrown another curveball and
• this New York Daily News article: Woman claims husband took $25M worth of art before filing for divorce: lawsuit .

The question of how to prepare for divorce is bandied about all the time.

Where

In beauty salons.

In gyms.

In therapists’ offices.

In financial institutions.

In doctors’ waiting rooms.

In accountants’ offices.

Even in law offices.

Among many other places…

By Whom

By people who want a divorce.

By people who don’t want a divorce, but … fear their spouse does.

By divorce attorneys, of course.

By marriage counselors and therapists.

By accountants. By financial advisors. By physicians.

By clergymen. School teachers. Hair stylists. Personal trainers.

By parents. Siblings.

By neighbors. Best friends.

By casual acquaintances who just went through a divorce.

The list is practically endless.

The Longstanding Consensus

Surprising? Not really.

Divorce – and divorce war stories – are all but universal.

What is surprising is how consistent all of these types of different people, in all of these different types of settings, typically are in their opinions as to how to best prepare for divorce.

And what is their kneejerk concensus?

At a very high level, it almost always boils down to:

a) Gather copies of the financial records.

Tax returns. Statements from financial institutions and employers. Loan documents and applications. Pay stubs. Employment contracts. Safety deposit box information. If there is a small business involved, any and all business records.

b) And sock away some funds to cover living expenses and professionals’ fees for at least several months.

You May Want to Update That Old Game Plan Nowadays

In years gone by, simpler times, this may have belonged at the very top of the list, possibly constituted the entire list of how to prepare for divorce.

But I would submit that life is more complex these days and rapidly changing.

In a great many cases that I see, these formerly tried and true rules of thumb, frankly, just don’t cut it anymore, by themselves.

Read more on the ages-old view of how to prepare for divorce in

1. this Huffington Post article: 9 Critical Steps Women Should Take To Prepare For Divorce
2. this Prudential Insurance article: Divorce planning 101 – Eight steps to protect yourself financially and
3. this TIAA-CREF article: Preparing for divorce: Tips for protecting your financial health .

Michigan Mother and Partner were in a stable gay relationship for thirteen years. At the time, Michigan did not recognize gay marriage.

Still, Mother and Partner wore wedding rings, purchased properties together, and otherwise acted like a married couple.

Four years into their relationship, Mother gave birth to their first daughter and three years later, their second. Both daughters’ legal last names consisted of a hyphenation of both Mother’s and Partner’s last names.

Both women parented their daughters actively and equally. And the daughters address both women as “mom”.

Eventually, the romantic relationship between Mother and Partner came to an end though. But they continued to co-parent their daughters.

Until Mother’s new partner’s new job necessitated a move to a new city, and Mother wanted to relocate with their daughters.

Partner sought to enforce her parenting rights through the Michigan family court. Only, up until this point, Michigan law has not actually recognized any parental rights or adoption rights of a non-biological gay parent.

Partner is hoping that the US Supreme Court’s recent recognition of gay marriage rights will spill over to parental rights of a gay non-biological parent.

But, Mother and Partner never went the whole nine yards of legally marrying in other states – or Canada – where gay marriage was recognized either. Some believe this may sway the Michigan family court.

Read more in

• this Detroit MetroTimes article: Michigan case tackles unclear custody issues for same sex couples and
• this Mlive article: ACLU enters Michigan child custody case involving same-sex parents .