Sometimes, a divorcing couple resolves property division issues and other financial issues related to their divorce through hammering out a financial settlement through negotiations. Financial settlement negotiations can touch on a wide range of different financial issues. Given how overwhelming dealing with lots of different financial issues can seem and the fact that a person may have stronger emotional feelings about some divorce financial issues than others, a person in a divorce may have a strong temptation to keep their focus locked on to just a few areas in such negotiations.
However, this sort of tunnel vision can actually pose some significant problems if a person allows it to take hold of them during divorce settlement negotiations. A divorce financial settlement often contains a great many interlocking and interconnected pieces, so just focusing on a few of these pieces could result in a person missing some important things and perhaps not ending up with as good of a settlement as they would have hoped.
Things tunnel vision could cause a person to lose sight of in divorce settlement negotiations include: some of the less obvious value implications (short and long term) of certain financial issues, the importance of some of the less emotionally-stirring issues and tax and costs implications certain proposed terms could have.
What terms a financial settlement in a divorce ultimately ends up containing can have effects for years and years to come. Thus, it is very important to not ignore any potentially impactful issues when negotiating such a settlement. Consequently, things like tunnel vision are best avoided in such negotiations.
Skilled family law attorneys can give guidance to divorcing individuals when it comes to financial settlement negotiations and can help such individuals with avoiding the various pitfalls, such as tunnel vision, that a person can fall victim to in such negotiations.
Source: USA Today, “5 biggest divorce mistakes financially,” Wendy Spencer, March 7, 2015