1. Make copies of any and all bank statements you can find around the house.  While you and your spouse may not be adversarial at this point, it sometimes turns that way as the case progresses.  It is critical to the financial aspects of your case that you know where accounts are located, what the account numbers are, and how much each account is worth.

2. Locate and copy the Housing and Urban Developement (HUD) documents you received when you purchased and/or refinanced your home.  Locate and copy any mortgage statements you can find, home appraisals you have had done, any home equity lines of credit that exist and the like.

3. If your spouse has a business–sole proprietorship, s-corp, c-corp, partnership, whatever, try to learn as much as you can about who the other owners are, what is your spouse’s interest, what kind of bank accounts the company has.  Obviously, if you ask point blank, out of the blue, they’ll get suspicious–so be subtle…just act interested.

4. Locate and copy the last 3 year of federal and state income tax returns.  The income tax returns have a great deal more information than simply how much employment income you & your spouse earned.  Sometimes, past income tax returns are the only way to locate “missing” bank accounts or property.

5. Locate and copy any retirement plan information you can.  Statements are sufficient, but if you can find a copy of the actual plan (ie. pension description) that is extremely helpful to your attorney.

Remember, the more information you can obtain, the less your work your attorney has to do.  Also, the more you can find ahead of time, the less that’s likely to be “missing” later.  I’m always amazed at how documents for bank accounts end up “missing” or a spouse “forgets” they had X account at Y bank.

The phone call and e-mail are free and confidential.