Build a checklist you could use yourself, or pass to a friend, if a separation happens.
Write your separation checklist now, on a calm day, while nobody needs it. It takes about twenty minutes and you can build it alone. If a separation ever happens to you or a friend, the first steps are already written down.
Nobody plans a separation, and the early weeks are often a blur. People lose days searching for statements, forget which loans were joint, and arrive at a lawyer with no questions prepared. A checklist written in advance prevents all three. Keep it with the estate checklist from lesson 7.4, because both cover the same documents from different angles.
Joanne, whose story runs through lessons 8.1 to 8.3, has a checklist that fits on two pages (her figures are example figures). Her entries appear under each part below.
Group the documents so you can find them quickly. Beside each one, write where it is right now: a drawer, an app, an email folder, or "need to request".
Start with statements. You need bank statements for every account, joint and sole, covering at least the last twelve months, plus statements for every credit card and every loan. Next is your CPF statement, including the amount used for housing, which you can download from the CPF website. For property, list the home purchase documents, the loan documents and the latest loan statement. For an HDB flat, add the HDB documents showing the owners and their shares. For insurance, list each policy document and its current nomination, as covered in lesson 7.2. For income, list recent payslips and your latest tax notice of assessment from IRAS.
Joanne has statements for her savings account and the joint account, but she still needs to download the last three months of the joint account. Her CPF statement shows the CPF she used for the Sengkang flat. The HDB documents are in a cabinet at home. Her policy documents, payslips and notice of assessment are all in her email.
Next, list every product that links you to your partner: joint accounts, credit cards and supplementary cards, joint loans and guarantees. This is the same list as in lesson 8.3. For each one, note who is liable, the current balance and the action needed. Typical actions are to keep paying, to ask the bank about changing the signing instruction, or to apply for a product in your own name.
Put your nominations and will on the same list: your CPF nomination, your insurance nominations and your will, each with the person currently named. Beside each one, write "change after legal advice on timing", for the reasons explained in lesson 8.3.
Either party can sign on Joanne's joint savings account. The balance is S$12,000, down S$8,000 on last month. She and Kelvin are both liable for the joint home loan, and the payment is due on the 5th. She had a supplementary card on Kelvin's credit card. It is already cancelled, and she has applied for a card of her own. Her CPF nomination names Kelvin, and she has marked it to change after legal advice.
A first consultation goes better when you bring questions. These six apply to most people:
What counts as a matrimonial asset in my case, and is anything likely to be excluded? How would the court view financial and non-financial contributions? Can I keep the home, and what do HDB rules mean for us? How would CPF be handled, and how do CPF refunds on a sale affect the cash left over? How is child maintenance calculated, and what can be done if payments stop? When should I change my nominations and will, and what should I avoid doing with money until then?
Then add questions about your own situation, such as a business, assets you held before the marriage, or property overseas. Joanne asked the six standard questions and added two of her own: whether her years of part-time work affect the division, and whether she could keep the flat with her son.
Separation is a legal process, but you will also need support, so list where you could get it. The Family Justice Courts website has guides on the process, mediation and counselling. Your nearest family service centre offers counselling and practical support. For a Muslim marriage, add the Syariah Court's guidance. Write down the name of a family lawyer you know, or of a friend who has used one. If there is any possibility of danger, add the police emergency number and the name of a person you could stay with.
Joanne listed the Family Justice Courts' guides, the family service centre near her home, and a lawyer a colleague recommended.
A finished checklist has four parts: your documents and where each one is kept, your joint products with who is liable and the action needed, your questions for a lawyer, and your support contacts. It is stored with your estate checklist.
Make yours now, while it is only a precaution, and store it with your estate documents.
Fill in the separation money checklist and put it with your estate documents.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).