Financial Affidavits: How to Complete Them

If you are involved in court proceedings regarding child support or maintenance, you will know about Financial Affidavits. Financial Affidavits are required in almost all courts in Illinois to provide a summary or snapshot of your financial position. Here are a few things to know about how to complete them properly.

• Complete them promptly. Delaying the submission of your Financial Affidavit can delay your case. In some counties, you cannot proceed with other discovery methods until this is done. In almost all cases, if your Financial Affidavit is not up to date, you will not be able to have the judge order any financial relief, such as temporary support.
  
• Plan to update it monthly. In most cases, the expenses are averaged over the course of a year so that average will change each month. For example, if you have a car repair bill in October and you are updating your Affidavit the next September, including that car repair bill may result in your numbers not being accurate.
  
• Determining monthly expenses with annual or quarterly bills? We recommend that you take a look at a 12-month average, but you should consult with your attorney about this. Also, if there was an extraordinary expense that is not recurring, it can be added as a footnote so that expense is accounted for. Add up all of your payments for each biller for 12 months — such as NICOR, COMED, AT&T, etc. — and then divide that by 12 for each account.
  
• Be thorough and honest. We see consistent misinformation about a few things, particularly gross income, year-to-date income in this year, disclosure of another adult living in your home and contributing to expenses, and transfers of money or assets to other people.
  

More details about this are coming next month.

For more information, please contact:

Wakeman Law Group, PC

741 S. McHenry Ave., Suite A

Crystal Lake, IL 60014

Ph: 815-893-6800

wakemanlaw.net