Filling Out the Financial Statement With Ease

For any legal matter in which there is any financial aspect involved (i.e. divorces, custody proceedings, etc.), each party is required by the court to fill out a financial statement, to be exchanged with the other party and filed with the court.

There are two versions of the financial statement. The long form financial statement is for those whose annual income exceeds $75,000, while the short form is for those whose annual income is $75,000 or less. However, both forms have a section titled “Weekly expenses”, where you are expected to give your weekly expenses for things such as food, house supplies, laundry, insurance, gas, vacations, entertainment (including streaming subscriptions like Netflix), gym memberships, and more.

It can be overwhelming to try and guess where exactly your money is going each week, and lots of clients come to us confused on how to honestly answer these questions.

One of the best things you can do if you’re unsure about your weekly expenses is to grab a couple weeks worth of recent bank statements and use those statements to make your best estimate of your weekly expenses. Oftentimes, you will be required to exchange bank statements with the other party anyway, so you may already have these on hand.

At Egan Law Center, we are here to help you along every step of the way, and if you ever need someone to look through your bank statements and help you fill out your financial statement, we’ve got you.