You will build a checklist you could use, or share with a friend, if a separation happens.
Nobody plans a separation, and the first weeks of one are often a blur. People lose days hunting for statements, cannot remember which loans were joint, and walk into a lawyer's office without knowing what to ask. The checklist in this exercise is meant to be made on a calm day, long before you might need it, so that if the worst happens to you or to a friend, the first steps are already written down.
You can build it alone. It takes about twenty minutes, and you will keep it with the estate checklist from lesson 7.4, because the two cover the same documents from different angles.
Start with the documents a lawyer will ask for, grouped so you can find them quickly. For each one, write where it is now: a drawer, an app, an email folder, or "need to request".
Statements: bank statements for every account, joint and sole, for at least the last twelve months, and statements for every credit card and loan.
CPF: your CPF statement, including the amount used for housing, which you can download from the CPF website.
Property: the purchase documents for your home, the loan documents and the latest loan statement. For an HDB flat, include the HDB documents showing the owners and their shares.
Insurance: each policy document and its current nomination, from lesson 7.2.
Income: your recent payslips and your latest tax notice of assessment from IRAS.
Write down every product that links you to your partner, using the list from lesson 8.3: joint accounts, credit cards and supplementary cards, joint loans and guarantees. For each, note who is liable, the current balance and what you would need to do with it, such as keep paying, ask the bank about changing the signing instruction, or apply for a product in your own name.
Add your nominations and will to the same list: CPF nomination, insurance nominations and will, each with who is named now. Beside each, write "change after legal advice on timing", as lesson 8.3 explained.
A first consultation goes further if you arrive with questions. Write down the ones that matter for you. Some that apply to most people:
What counts as a matrimonial asset in our case, and is anything likely to be left out? How would the court look at my financial and non-financial contributions? Can I keep the home, and what do HDB's rules mean for us? How would CPF be dealt with, and how do CPF refunds on a sale affect the cash left? How is child maintenance worked out, and what can I do if payments stop? When should I change my nominations and will, and what should I avoid doing with money until then?
Add any that are specific to you, such as a business, assets held before the marriage, or property overseas.
Separation is not only a legal process. Write down where to find help: the Family Justice Courts' website for guides on the process, mediation and counselling; your nearest family service centre, which offers counselling and practical support; and, for Muslim marriages, the Syariah Court's guidance. If you know a family lawyer or a friend who has used one, add their name. If you might ever be in danger, add the police emergency number and a person you could stay with.
Joanne's checklist, from lessons 8.1 to 8.3, fits on two pages. The figures are examples.
Documents: statements for her savings account and their joint account, with the joint account's last three months still to download. Her CPF statement, showing the CPF she used for the Sengkang flat. The HDB documents are in the cabinet at home. Her policy documents are in her email. Payslips and her notice of assessment are in her email.
Joint products: the joint savings account, either to sign, balance S$12,000, lower by S$8,000 than last month. The joint home loan, both liable, payment due on the 5th. Kelvin's credit card, supplementary card already cancelled; she has applied for her own card. Her CPF nomination names Kelvin, to be changed after legal advice.
Questions: the six above, plus whether her part-time years affect the division, and whether she could keep the flat with her son.
Support: the Family Justice Courts' guides, the family service centre near her home, and a lawyer a colleague recommended.
That is what done looks like: documents with where each one is, joint products with who is liable and what to do, your questions for a lawyer, and the support you would contact, all kept with your estate checklist.
Make yours now, while it is only a precaution, and store it with your estate documents.
Complete the separation money checklist and store it with your estate documents.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).