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While many crucial issues may come to your mind during a divorce, such as asset division, child custody and support, and spousal maintenance, there are some that you may not immediately consider. One of these is how college expenses will be taken care of for your children after your divorce. A college education can be quite expensive, and even married parents have disagreements and financial difficulties when trying to pay for their child’s tuition. Understandably, this may be a heated issue between divorcing or already divorced parents. When you hire a seasoned attorney from The Maine Divorce Group, you will receive the support and guidance that you need to determine how college expenses should be handled.
Each state has their own views and laws about how divorced parents should handle college expenses when that time comes. In Maine, the custodial parent collects child support from the other parent until the child is 18 or graduates from high school but not later than age 19.
The court does not have legal authority in this state to order either parent to pay college tuition. However, an agreement, referred to as an education clause, can be made between the divorcing spouses about how college expenses will be paid. If a judge signs off on the agreement, and it is in the divorce decree, the court can enforce what was agreed upon. If financial or other circumstances change between the issuance of the decree and when the child goes to college, a modification must be requested from the court.
Even though Maine family courts cannot legally mandate spouses to pay for their child’s post-secondary education, there are several ways of setting up the conditions of the divorce so that it leads to the child getting money for college. If it makes financial sense, sometimes the parent receiving child support will put some or all of their child support away to save for college expenses.
Structuring the divorce agreement so that the custodial parent receives more assets and less income in the settlement is another way to plan for college expenses, especially if you have children nearing college age. Doing so can increase the child’s eligibility for financial aid, learning credits, tax incentives, or student loan interest deduction. However, assets with high values can create a substantial tax liability, if liquidated for college costs. The parent who is responsible for future college costs may not want to be assigned assets that have the potential for a significant gain or loss, for example, stocks. Substantial tax liability at the same time as college costs accrue is not something most custodial parents want to get into.
Your Maine family law attorney can evaluate your specific circumstances and help you come up with the best plan for providing for your child’s college expenses within your divorce. Even if your children will not be headed to college for quite some time, divorce makes it necessary to consider how these expenses will be dealt with now. To learn more, schedule your divorce consultation by contacting us today.
Excellent law firm.
Thank you for providing the best lawyer services in Maine and achieving the results I wanted. Keep up the great work!
They were very professional and the services provided to me were beyond my expectations. I was able to leave the issues in the hands of Mr. Bly and not only did he provide excellent service, but went above and beyond on my case. The outcome was better than I could…
Honest and fair practice. Treated me right, from the first point of contact until completion.
This team is the best around! Very professional , caring and involved. I would highly recommend their services to anyone in need. Very prompt at answering questions and you’ll allows get a personal experience while calling them. Thank you guys for making our situation a lot easier.
Every person at this firm was exceptional. I would highly recommend them. They more than exceeded my expectations and made a very stressful situation much easier to handle. I cannot express my gratitude enough!
Contacted Attorney Bly for a consultation on a sensitive issue. His staff is wonderful and caring and extremely attentive with their contact. Attorney Bly was extremely helpful with his guidance and recommendation for my case. He listened to what I had to say and made excellent suggestions for a path…
Good communication and very knowledgeable.
Excellent Attorney! Highly recommended.
The attorneys at The Maine Divorce Group understand how emotional and complex the divorce process can be and we are here to help.
Call to speak with a member of our team today, who can discuss your case and set up a consultation with one of our attorneys.
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