Financial Disclosures
Preparing and exchanging preliminary financial disclosures is a required step in the divorce process. Without the completion of this step, a judge will not grant a divorce. Negligent and willful omissions of assets and debts when preparing the preliminary financial disclosures can lead to devastating results for the parties.
Community Property
California is a community property state. That means that, with few exceptions, everything acquired during marriage is community property. Community property includes asset, liabilities and pensions. Whenever a person wants to get divorced in California, the court requires that all issues that were created during the marital period also be resolved at time of divorce. For instance, dividing the assets and the debts, resolving custody and support issues.
Disclosures Required
California law states that before the court will grant a divorce, each party who appears in the case, must fill out preliminary financial disclosures. The preliminary financial disclosures include the Income & Expense Declaration (FL-150) and the Schedule of Assets and Debts (FL-142). The sum of these two documents identifies all separate property and community property income, assets and debts.
Importance of Filing Financial Disclosures
The reason it is so important to fill out the preliminary financial disclosures is because it helps the parties and, if necessary, the court to identify the entire community estate. While it may, at first glance, appear easy to identify the entire community estate, the problem is that many people who fill out these forms on their own do not understand the definition of community property. By not knowing the definition of community property many times, if not most times, the forms are filled out incorrectly.
Completing Financial Disclosure Forms
Feeling out the forms incorrectly can have serious consequences. One consequence of not disclosing all assets debts and liabilities is that a court may punish the guilty party.
Financial Disclosures form Used in California Courts
File Download (PDF File): fl140 – financial disclosure
Counties Where Financial Disclosures form are Used
Los Angeles County CA
Orange County CA
San Diego County CA
Riverside County CA
San Bernardino County CA
Santa Clara County CA
Alameda County CA
Sacramento County CA
Contra Costa County CA
Fresno County CA
Ventura County CA
San Francisco County CA
Kern County CA
San Mateo County CA
San Joaquin County CA
Stanislaus County CA
Sonoma County CA
Tulare County CA
Solano County CA
Monterey County CA
Santa Barbara County CA
Placer County CA
San Luis Obispo County CA
Santa Cruz County CA
Merced County CA
Marin County CA
Butte County CA
Yolo County CA
El Dorado County CA
Shasta County CA
Imperial County CA
Kings County CA
Madera County CA
Napa County CA
Humboldt County CA
Nevada County CA
Sutter County CA
Mendocino County CA
Yuba County CA
Lake County CA
Tehama County CA
Tuolumne County CA
San Benito County CA
Calaveras County CA
Siskiyou County CA
Amador County CA
Lassen County CA
Del Norte County CA
Glenn County CA
Plumas County CA
Colusa County CA
Mariposa County CA
Inyo County CA
Trinity County CA
Mono County CA
Modoc County CA
Sierra County CA
Alpine County CA