Most of the common things you will find in divorce arguments and settlements are alimony, child custody, splitting assets, and visitations. While these are important things to agree on, divorce lawyers report that many divorcing couples often overlook certain things that can have lifelong impacts on their lives.

Here are 5 things often overlooked in divorce agreements you should be aware of:

Removing your ex-spouse as a beneficially

When you were on good terms, chances are you listed your spouse as a beneficially on a life insurance policy, will, or 401K. After you have reached a divorce agreement, you might think that your spouse will be automatically removed as a beneficiary, but this isn’t the case.

It’s up to you to take the initiative to visit the relevant entities and make the changes.

Who will pay for extensive dental work?

When ex-spouses with healthy, active toddlers divorce, the last thing on their mind is their child requiring extensive dental work such as wisdom teeth extractions, braces, and others. Unfortunately, these are often needed, and not all insurance policies pay for them, especially if they are for cosmetic reasons.

To be on the safe side and get rid of complications down the line, agree on who and how you will pay for the dental work should it be needed.

College and tuition fees

This is common with younger divorcing couples. Since the kids are still too young, the last thing on the parent’s mind is how the kids will go to college, so they often don’t bother agreeing on who will pay for the fees, which often leads to them taking each other to a civil court.

While college expenses can be addressed through financial aid and private loans, there are still some out-of-pocket expenses that a parent will have to settle.

To avoid dragging each other to court, agree on how the college fees and pocket money will be paid.

Freezing the credit card used by your spouse

The same way it’s common for couples to have each other as beneficiaries is the same way they use each other credit cards. One partner will take a credit card in their name then give it to their partner. After all, they are one entity, right?

When divorce looms, most couples forget about the credit card, and they are shocked to find they have a considerable credit card debt that they don’t even know of.

Credit card companies don’t care about divorce settlements, and all they care about is whose name is on the credit card. This means that even if you aren’t using the card, the company can sue you for failing to clear your debt.

As you draft the divorce agreement, get your credit card report and see the number of cards you have and how much debt you are in.

To protect yourself, freeze all the cards you aren’t using.

Child visitation details

While most couples will agree on who will have child custody and how they will contribute to the child upkeep, most fail to detail how the non-custodial parent will visit the child.

The custodial parent will say that the non-custodial parent only needs to call and organize how they will visit the child, but this isn’t enough.

To avoid future confrontations, agree on how each parent will see their child. Go into details on how the visits will be during summer vacations, birthdays, holidays, and other special events.

Thankfully these are easy things to agree on, but ask your family lawyers Fairfax VA to help out if you can’t reach an agreement.