Let’s say that you are finalizing a divorce, and as part of finishing your divorce, you sign a marital settlement agreement (MSA). That MSA requires your spouse to pay you certain amounts and perhaps provide you with certain physical assets for a specified period of...

In almost every real estate closing, at some point, someone’s funds are held in escrow. What is escrow, and what purpose does holding money in escrow serve in a real estate closing? Why Escrow Money is Used Escrow is money that is being held for some other future...

When people think of property that will have to be divided or shared between spouses, they think of homes, cars, furniture, bank accounts, or other similar types of property. But what about your business? Many people do not think of a business as being property that...

When you buy property, the property you buy may not be just for you. You may be buying it with someone else, as co-owners, or you may be buying it with an eye to your family and what they will inherit when you are gone. Both of these concerns call into play the...

Going into a divorce with children, you may initially be wondering how much you will have to pay or how much you can expect to receive from the other spouse once the divorce is over. You probably just lump all the money together in your head, not stopping to...

New Jersey is a no-fault divorce state. That means that it suffices to assert irreconcilable differences for a divorce to happen; a spouse need not show or prove why the marriage failed or who was at fault for the marriage failing. The Waiting Period But there is one...

Real estate contracts are carefully orchestrated dances. There are multiple things that have to happen, third parties that have to get involved in performing certain tasks related to the closing, and even possibilities or problems, called contingencies, that may not...

When it comes to children, their needs are dynamic, and what they need financially today may not represent what they need tomorrow. Kids grow, take on new hobbies and interests, and that necessarily means more expenses — expenses that you may not have planned for or...

When spouses get divorced, they often wonder about their parental rights. It is easy to get confused between custody, timesharing, visitation, and parental rights, but they are really different terms, with different meanings. You Keep Your Parental Rights Unless you...

There are a lot of risks involved with buying a property that has been foreclosed. Certainly, buying a foreclosed property can be profitable, and some good deals can be had. But often, pitfalls happen that a buyer may not foresee. One of those pitfalls is buying...