During this episode of The Confident Wealth Podcast with Bill Bush and Pete Bush, they interview Sean McAllister, Associate at Loeb Law Firm. Sean McAllister discusses how married couples can protect themselves from potential divorce issues, prenuptial agreements and post-prenuptial agreements, budgeting, and domestic cohabitation contracts.

Episode Highlights:

• 00:28 – Bill Bush and Pete Bush introduce Sean McAllister and recap the previously discussed points from Family Law & Finances- Pt. 1.
• 01:01 – How does Sean McAllister recommend that married couples protect themselves from potential divorce issues?
• 02:02 – Prenuptial agreements and post-prenuptial agreements aren’t really that common. 
• 04:12 – What are examples of when it would be a good time to consider a post-prenuptial agreement?
• 04:50 – How does a domestic cohabitation contract protect marriage partners?
• 07:20 – What is Sean’s advice for someone to create a budget to work their way through these divorce protections?  
• 09:43 – Family homes aren’t always paid off at the point of a divorce split.
• 12:05 – Divorces can be a long drawn out process. Set money aside for court costs and living expenses.  
• 13:39 – What happens when you fail to inform yourself about your spouse's assets on the side?
• 17:20 – Don’t forget to change your insurance and retirement benefit beneficiaries when you get divorced.
• 19:58 – Make sure your divorce attorney is a good fit with you and your needs.
• 22:17 – What are some of the resources that people getting divorced should use?

3 Key Points:

1. The nuclear family is diminishing in favor of other alternative living arrangements, such as brothers and sisters living together or parents with their kids.
2. Create a budget that includes the cost of living without your partner, emergency funds, and expenses you wouldn’t normally incur back when you were married.
3. Money doesn’t care about your pride.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Louisiana calls for matrimonial agreements, which basically say you can contract anything that isn’t against public policy, public policy being stuff like you can’t contract out of paying child support.” – Sean McAllister
• “I encourage prenups in situations where somebody has a child from outside of the marriage and brings it into the marriage and there are certain protections you can take to protect that child’s interest or inheritance.” – Sean McAllister
• “Contracts in Louisiana, if you are a couple and you are not married, you can still make contracts and protect yourself. But Louisiana is a civil law state. It is not common law. So, there is no common law marriage or anything.” – Sean McAllister

Resources Mentioned:

• Horizon Financial Group
• The Confident Wealth Podcast
• bbush@horizonfg.com
• pbush@horizonfg.com
• Linkedin: Sean McAllister
• Sean McAllister’s Email: smcallister@loeb-law.com
• Sean McAllister’s Phone Number: (985) 612-1946
• Loeb Law Firm: loeb-law.com
• Louisiana Revised Statute 9:315: justia.com/codes/louisiana/2011/rs/title9/rs9-315/

During this episode of The Confident Wealth Podcast with Bill Bush and Pete Bush, they interview Sean McAllister, Associate at Loeb Law Firm. Sean McAllister talks about Louisiana Revised Statute 9:315, understanding divorce and finance, and what to expect when children, pensions, property, and tax returns are involved.

Episode Highlights:

• 00:29 – Bill Bush and Pete Bush introduce the subject of divorce.
• 01:18 – Sean McAllister introduces himself and his work experience.
• 02:00 – What was it that pulled Sean towards working in family law?
• 03:15 – What makes divorce law different in Louisiana?
• 05:30 – Are divorce stats in Louisiana the same as other areas of the United States?
• 07:32 – What kind of expenses occur with divorce?
• 09:06 – One way to prepare for financial downside of divorce is trying to agree on as many costly areas as possible. 

• 10:01 – How should a couple seeking a divorce go about dividing property?
• 11:11 – In which ways does having kids complicate a divorce situation?
• 14:38 – Sean McAllister discusses Louisiana Revised Statute 9:315.
• 14:15 – Seek out financial advice.
• 17:04 – How are tax returns affected by divorce proceedings?
• 19:26 – What are some of the issues that come up with pensions and retirement
• funds during divorces? 
• 21:15 – Seek out financial advice.
• 23:04 – How are tax returns affected by divorce proceedings?

3 Key Points:

1. If you have kids and you are getting a divorce, the ex-couple has to live separate and apart for a year. If you don’t have kids, you have to live separate and apart for six months.
2. The percentage of married couples that get divorced in Louisiana is about 22-25%.
3. Financial stress is one of the leading causes of divorce.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “We’re kind of a jack-of-all-trades firm, very multidimensional, work all across the entire state, do a lot of insurance defense, plaintive personal injury, family law. You name it, we will basically do it.” – Sean McAllister
• “What made me want to be an attorney is that I’ve always been attracted to the idea of representing somebody, and family law is so individual and so personal that, going through a divorce is one of the hardest times in anybody’s life.” – Sean McAllister
• “The trend across the country is that when the economy is going good, divorces are lower too and when the economy is going bad, divorces kind of go up. Divorces, the rates have been falling over the last couple of decades.” – Sean McAllister

Resources Mentioned:

• Horizon Financial Group
• The Confident Wealth Podcast
• bbush@horizonfg.com
• pbush@horizonfg.com
• Linkedin: Sean McAllister
• Sean McAllister’s Email: smcallister@loeb-law.com
• Sean McAllister’s Phone Number: (985) 612-1946
• Loeb Law Firm: loeb-law.com
• Louisiana Revised Statute 9:315: justia.com/codes/louisiana/2011/rs/title9/rs9-315/

In this episode of The Confident Wealth Podcast, Pete and Bill Bush of Horizon Financial Group discuss the market downturn due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, and the declared global pandemic. Pete and Bill talk about strategies you can use to stay positive in scary times when your account value is declining. How can you build, gain, or maintain confidence during trying times?