Money is funny. Two people can share finances for years and still have completely different ideas about where it goes.
One person says, We don’t really spend that much.
The other person is already making a face.
And there we are.
By the time we’re looking beyond the Financial Affidavit itself, though, the more interesting question isn’t what numbers are on the page?
It’s what do those numbers mean to each of you?
Two people can look at the same finances very differently.
This happens all the time.
One person thinks of a particular payment as a household expense. The other thinks it’s personal.
One person is thinking about what an account is worth today. The other is thinking about where the money came from.
Someone says, We don’t really have much debt.
The other person is already making a face.
And there we are.
The Financial Affidavit can give us information. It doesn’t guarantee that two people will look at that information and see the same financial picture.
That’s where the conversation becomes useful.
Sometimes the question isn’t the number.
A number can be completely accurate and still leave us with something to talk about.
A mortgage balance tells us what’s owed on the mortgage. It doesn’t tell us what either of you wants to happen with the house.
An account balance tells us what’s sitting in an account. It doesn’t tell us what that account means to either of you.
A monthly expense tells us money is going somewhere. It doesn’t necessarily tell us what’s going to happen to that expense once one household becomes two.
The numbers give us information. They don’t make the decisions.
You do.
And sometimes we don’t have the number yet.
That’s okay too.
There are moments in mediation when somebody realizes there’s information they don’t have.
I don’t know what that account is worth.
I need to check that.
I thought that was paid off.
I have no idea what we’re paying for that.
We don’t have to turn a guess into a fact just because we’re sitting in mediation.
Sometimes the useful thing is simply figuring out what we don’t know yet.
We can come back to the conversation when you have the information you need.
My interest isn’t in auditing you.
I’m not your accountant, financial advisor, or attorney, and I’m not reviewing your Financial Affidavit to give it the Anna Sciotti Seal of Approval.
My concern is whether you have the information you need for the conversation you’re trying to have.
If you’re making decisions involving finances, having actual financial information in the room gives us considerably more to work with than “I think it’s around…”
From there, we can talk.
Okay, back to Florida.
The Family Law Financial Affidavit (Long Form), Form 12.902(c), is one of Florida’s financial disclosure forms. Florida’s current Long Form is designated for individual gross annual income of $50,000 or more.
Which Financial Affidavit applies to you, when you’re required to file it, how it should be completed, and what belongs in any particular section are Sunshine State territory.
And this is definitely one where I’m going to let Florida explain its own paperwork.
You can find the current form and instructions directly through Florida Courts.
Florida gets the affidavit. We get the conversation the numbers create.
