Rhode Island Divorce: The Confusing DR-6 Financial Form

If you are in divorce proceedings in Rhode Island, you will be presented with a form known as DR-6. This form requires you to provide a variety of financial information. You must appear in any new divorce proceedings in the Rhode Island Family Courts and most people consider it to be one of the most annoying tasks in their divorce.

The DR-6 form that you MUST submit when you file your Rhode Island Divorce Claim is your Statement of Financial Assets and Obligations. This is usually a single front and back page that needs to be completed. The front of the form contains your assets and income, and the back of the form contains your expenses and your debt. It is generally understood that you only enter your specific information on this form.

For example, on the face of the form, for income, you would put your income if you are employed or any income you receive personally. You would not list your combined income with your spouse. In a Rhode Island divorce, it is important for the family court judge to have an idea of ​​what your income is from the marriage and what assets you have or are claiming interest in now that your marriage has broken up. This helps the court by providing information that the judge may find relevant to making an equitable distribution of the marital estate between you and your spouse.

The top of the first side of the DR-6 Financial Form / Assets and Liabilities Statement is usually covered by simply transferring the information from a weekly, biweekly, or monthly paycheck to the various matching boxes between the form and your paycheck.

The remainder of the front of the financial form DR-6 looks for information on life and health insurance, bank accounts and assets, such as the value of your home or other real estate, tangible property, retirement accounts (i.e. 401k, 403b, IRA ). , Pensions) and motor vehicles.

Aside from the income portion of the front of the DR-6, the rest of the form looks for information that can be overlapped. For example, if you have a joint bank account with your spouse, you would leave this account and how much is in the account because you both “own” that bank account as an asset. However, it would be wise to state on the form that it is a “joint” bank account. If you are approximating the value of anything, you can put the notation “approx.” next to the number or “better approx.” for your best approximation of what you think the value might be.

The reverse side of this required form on your Rhode Island divorce form is the expense and expense information. This provides the information of your current financial situation. In other words, specifically what you are currently paying for.

The back of Form DR-6 is frequently misinterpreted for good reason. Many people complete multiple columns as there are weekly, biweekly, and monthly columns on the form. This happens even though the form indicates that you should select only one column. A column must be selected and everything calculated based on that single column. Therefore, you must calculate everything on a monthly, weekly or biweekly basis. . . what works best for you.

The bottom of the form offers a final calculation chart that indicates the minimum amount of money you need to meet your obligations. This is what often confuses clients because it seems to tell them that they should put everything they can be responsible for, OR everything that has their name as an obligation, OR even a part of everything they claim to be interested in. that has a payment. The fear is that the judge will order the client to pay for additional things that they have not included in their DR-6 form and will leave the client without money to pay them.

Divorces in Rhode Island are difficult enough without you having to worry about a confusing way. This form is intended to be updated during the divorce process as often as necessary to keep the court up to date regarding the changing financial circumstances of each of the parties. It has been used by the Rhode Island family court judges to help make suggestions about the equitable distribution of assets, as well as a reasonable contribution of the debt between the parties. It is also used to determine income for child support purposes. The form can also be very helpful in determining whether the income and debt obligations between the parties support a possible court determination that there should be a deferred sale of the marital home if there are minor children of the parties and the income and assets of the parties. parts is enough to maintain the home with the parts residing separately.

Form DR-6 can, and often is, confusing. It’s not something clients really need to stress over. Simply take the time to state your current financial picture, provide your best estimates when exact figures are not possible and / or information is not available, and be sure to notify your attorney and update the form if your financial picture changes.

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