The financial advice for every family is different because every family is different. The legal advice that I may receive if I separate, will definitely be different to the next person and the next person and the next person. None of us are going to receive the same advice.
What we are going to receive is the same advice about what the court needs to do, the process that needs to be followed, and how we document an agreement.
So, some of the general advice about how the court looks at a matter and decides whether or not they should change the ownership or adjust the interests in property, that will be the same. For couples that have separated, they follow basically a four-step process.
Four Step Process
Now it sounds simple, but it’s complex, and I’ll try and make it as simple as I can, but please just know that there’s lots of pages of family law action rules that surround these four steps, and a whole heap of case law behind it.
- Property Pool: So the first step is the court needs to find out, or know what is in the property pool. Now that’s funny way of saying it, but they want to know what your current assets and liabilities are. What are your assets? What are your liabilities? And that goes into what’s called a balance sheet, and this is going to be put together by each of you providing the other one with what’s called ‘financial disclosure’. And that is a process where you’re giving each other copies of bank statements, share statements, lists, you know, lists and evidence of ownership of lots of different assets, like cars, real estate, boats, caravans, trailers, all sorts of stuff, businesses, family trusts, all sorts of things.
- Contributions: Then the next thing the court will look at is the evidence that talks about the contributions, and that is, how did the assets that are in that property pool? How did they get there? Did were the parties both working when they started their relationship? What did they have? I can hear you asking already, what is a non financial contribution? That is the boring stuff, the life stuff. It is taking care of the family, the cooking, the cleaning, the washing, the caring for children, caring for pets, shopping, well, you know, all of the life admin that goes along with having a family.
- Future Needs: The next step is for the court to look at what we call future needs, and this is where the court looks at what each party needs. Moving forward, do you do you have anything special that you know the court needs to take into account? Court will look at your health, your earning capacity, your age, your you know if you have a disability or you need to retrain, or if you’ve got care of a child, and if that may or may not affect your work hours.
- Adjustments: The fourth thing that the court looks at is whether or not if they’ve made any adjustments for either contributions or future needs. You know, if someone’s put in more money or has higher needs, and the court said, okay, they need a little bit more. Is it just an equitable now? So, when the court stands back and looks at it, and it’s looking at everything, it looks at the proposed division of that property between the parties and whatever decision they’re making, will it result in a just and equitable distribution of that property between the parties?
Additional Consideration – Family Violence
The other thing to remember is family violence is also one of the considerations that the court will take into account when looking at contributions and future needs of parties. It’s one of those things that family violence can really impact a person’s ability to contribute to a family. Some people are allowed to work. Some people are not allowed to work. Some people experience family violence, where they’re not allowed to accept a promotion, not allowed to work more than so many hours, or they have to do things in a certain way, or they’re called names, or all sorts of things, right? So, as I said, family violence, I’ve got a whole other video on that, but it’s taken into account by the court because. Is it can really impact how a person functions and contributes to the family, so the courts do take that into account.
Now it’s actually been put into the legislation as of 10 June 2025, so it’s a really big step forward for Australian family law.
The other thing is that we have, which is, I think I’m the most excited about, is the court has now got the power to make an order transferring ownership of a pet to another party. Because sometimes, even if the pets in, you know my name, you might be the one who’s actually caring for it, or it’s really your cat or your dog, your whatever animal companion animal.
To Conclude
So that is really a very short summary of how and why advice about financial matters is different for each family and for each individual.
If you would like assistance with your property after separation, give us a ring ion 1300 444 LAW or book an appointment via our website.