Schedule of Assets and Debts
Your Schedule of Assets and Debts is a full disclosure of everything you and your spouse own, owe, earn, and spend. Both you and your spouse are required to complete this form.
We suggest that you take the time to review all of your assets and debts which are required to complete your case. By doing so, you will save yourself a great deal of money which will be spend should our office have to complete this form in its entirety. You will receive a blank Schedule of Assets and Debts (FL-142) with this instruction sheet.
FL-142: Contact and Court Information
Notice the instructions at the top of this form – it is not be filed with the court. We complete the contact information.
Assets
FL-142: 1, 2, 3 – Assets
1: Real Estate
FL-142: 1 – Real Estate
In our example, John and Jane have the community house (purchased together or during marriage) and a house John purchased prior to the marriage. John would include the addresses of each home. If it’s separate property, you check the box, “separate property,” and you’d input, “P” for petitioner, “R” for respondent, “H” for husband, or “W” for wife. If you don’t remember exact dates for the “Date Acquired” section, it’s not a huge issue. You can input, “pre-marriage,” “during marriage,” or “post-separation.” You should be able to remember those timelines at a minimum, even if you don’t remember the year, month or day.
Current gross fair market value: for real estate, you have a few different ways of obtaining the current gross fair market value. We like to use Zillow, and remember that it’s only an estimate. You’re not required to order an appraisal. Other means of finding the estimated value is with a property tax assessment, a recent refinance, or if you had a recent appraisal done on the home.
Amount of money owed or encumbrance: you can obtain this from your mortgage statement.
FL-142: Real Estate Statements
Italicized items in parentheses: these are all documents that you’ll want to track down and attach to this form. In the real estate category, it’s asking for a copy of the deed and mortgage statement. You’re going to be making an estimate of the gross fair market value, so attach a print out of the zillow report or whatever you’re using to substantiate the current gross fair market value.
2: Furniture, Furnishings, & Appliances
FL-142: 2 – Furniture, Furnishings, & Appliances
3: Jewelry, Antiques, Art, etc.
FL-142: 3 – Jewelry, Antiques, Art, etc
If you feel that you’re going to fight over items in these categories, it’s recommended to list the big ticket high value items. Specific things such as TV’s, video game systems, or anything else you anticipate conflict over should be included here. On the other hand, if you have a fairly amicable divorce and you and your spouse are on good terms, you can input, “usual and customary.” Fair market value when it comes to these items can be thought of as what the item could sell for on Craigslist or Ebay.
FL-142: 4,5,6,7 – More Assets
4: Vehicles, Boats, Trailers
FL-142: 4 – Vehicles, Boats, Trailers
Next, we have vehicles. It’s recommended to be very specific when it comes to your vehicles, including year, make, and model. It’s asking for you to describe each and attach a copy of the title document (also known as the pink slip). If you don’t have a pink slip because you’ll still paying on a loan, you’ll need to attach a statement of the current loan balance from the lender. You’ll also want to figure out what the current gross fair market value is. We typically use Kelley Blue Book, kbb.com, to obtain the gross fair market value.
5-7: Bank Accounts
FL-142: 5, 6, 7 – Bank Accounts
Numbers 5-7 refer to bank accounts in general, and we have no idea why the form breaks it up into multiple categories. As far as attachments, you’ll want to attach all of your recent statements. We advise clients to submit date of separation statements because in dealing with community and separate property, we need to know what the values were at the date of separation. Let’s assume in John’s case, they separated January 2014, and they don’t get around to completing this form until October 2014. A lot of times, it’s very helpful to submit both a date of separation statement and a current statement. This way, you have an idea of what the community amount was at the time of separation, and what’s going on right now in the post-separation period.
8-10: Cash, Tax Refund, Life Insurance
FL-142: 8, 9, 10 – Cash, Tax Refund, Life Insurance
When it comes to cash, most input, “on hand,” “in pocket,” “in wallet,” etc, unless you have a large amount of cash stashed somewhere. Tax refund, if applicable, would include the year, and whether it’s federal or state. Some examples could include, “2019 federal,” “2019 state,” and you’d put the amounts. For the life insurance category, you can take a look at your policy to determine if it has cash surrender value. For most people, the life insurance policies they have through their employers do not have cash surrender value.
11-13: Investments & Retirement Assets
FL-142: 11, 12, 13 – Investments & Retirement Assets
The next page covers investments and retirement assets. Stocks, bonds, mutual funds typically are held with larger organizations you may have heard of, such as Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, or E-trade. If you think you might have accounts in this category, you’ll need to go through your filing cabinet and dig around.
The same process covers retirement and pensions, profit sharing, annuities, IRA’s, taking you through 13. For any accounts, remember that you’ll need to include statements. We mentioned that this form requires a lot of work and time. We recommend to start early while you’re in the initial divorce process, and if you are amicable with your spouse, tackle it together.
14-18: Business & Other Assets
FL-142: 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 – Business & Other Assets
If you own a business, you have to fill out this information. If you don’t, you can put, “N/A.” If something doesn’t apply to you, and you don’t have that asset, it’s recommended to input, “none,” or “doesn’t exist,” or “N/A.” This informs the reader that nothing was skipped over unintentionally. In general, if you have a hunch that there exists an account or multiple accounts, but can’t find specifics, put any information that you know. It could be something as simple as, “Wife’s IRA account.” This is important because it helps to keep track, and it also lets your spouse know that you’re aware of it as well.
The “Other Assets” section covers items that don’t fit anywhere else. Usually this is one of a kind, very expensive stuff such as a $10,000 road bicycle. Finally at the bottom for 18, add up your totals for the 2 columns associated with fair market value and amounts owed.
The final page deals with debts. Everything that you owe, whether it’s your name, your spouse’s name, or both of your names is needed here.
19-24: Student Loans, Taxes, Support, Credit Cards
FL-142: 19-24 – Student Loans, Taxes, Support, Credit Cards and other debts
On this page, the debts begin with student loans. You’d input Sallie Mae or the current lender along with the amount you owe, and the date the loans were originally disbursed to your school. Again, if you don’t know the exact date or year, it’s fine to input “before marriage,” “during marriage,’ or “post-separation.”
The next section deals with taxes. Include specifics in terms of what taxes you owe, including state and federal, along with amount and year.
Support arrearages deal with formal child or spousal support obligations that you owe and have not been paying. This turns that money into a debt.
Unsecured loans would be money borrowed without property as collateral. If you borrowed $10,000 from your mother and didn’t give her anything in exchange, it would fall under this category.
Credit cards are next, and you want to list all of them. A popular question is, “Well, I pay off the balances every month, do I have to fill it out?” The answer is, “Yes,” and again, for 2 reasons. First, it’s a way to start cleaning up your credit. A lot of spouses have joint credit cards or credit cards in general that they’ve forgotten about. So even if it has a zero balance and you haven’t used it in 2 years, you want to list it. If nothing else, for a mental reminder – “I need to go back and do this.”
Other debts category: if you have other specific debts that don’t fit anywhere else, you want to include it here. Remember to sign and date the bottom.
For your average household, you’re probably looking at anywhere from a half inch to a 1 inch thick stack of paperwork that makes up your Schedule of Assets and Debts. In the end, it shouldn’t be just the 4 pages that make up this form. It’s extremely important that you spend the time to do this form right, not because a judge is going to punish you, but because this is setting the tone for your future.
Please redact or white out your account numbers, especially any attachments with your social security number.
Schedule of Assets and Debts Form
File Download (PDF File): fl142 – schedule of assets & debts
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