Jul 7, 2025

Your Ultimate Divorce Checklist (2025 Edition)

A divorce checklist on a clipboard with a pen, set on a tidy desk with soft lighting and personal touches.
A divorce checklist on a clipboard with a pen, set on a tidy desk with soft lighting and personal touches.

Why This Checklist Matters

Divorce is overwhelming. Between legal decisions, financial paperwork, and parenting shifts, it's easy to miss something crucial. This step-by-step divorce checklist gives you clarity at every phase — and with the AI Family Law/Divorce Advisor, you'll get personalized guidance based on your situation. Download it, share it, and breathe easier knowing you're prepared.


Pre-Divorce Preparation

Before anything is filed, get your ducks in a row.

  • Inventory all financial accounts
    List every bank, credit, investment, and retirement account — joint and individual.

  • Gather key financial documents
    Tax returns (past 3 years), pay stubs, mortgage statements, credit reports, loan documents.

  • Start a budget for your post-divorce life
    Estimate future income, living costs, and potential child/spousal support needs.

  • Secure copies of marriage-related legal documents
    Prenups, postnups, wills, trusts, insurance policies.

  • Identify all property and assets
    Real estate, vehicles, valuables, digital assets, and business interests.

  • Assess your credit score and build individual credit
    Important for future financial independence.

  • Decide on your preferred legal route
    Mediation, collaborative divorce, traditional attorney, or use of the AI tool.


During Divorce: What to Review & Decide

Once proceedings begin, stay focused with these key action items.

  • File or respond to divorce petition
    Make sure deadlines are met and paperwork is accurate.

  • Outline custody and parenting priorities
    Think through schedules, holidays, communication, decision-making rights.

  • Draft a proposed parenting plan
    This helps during mediation or court proceedings.

  • Split assets and debts clearly
    Decide what's joint versus separate and how to divide them fairly.

  • Update estate documents
    Change beneficiaries, rewrite your will, and adjust powers of attorney.

  • Create a temporary support and custody arrangement
    For smoother day-to-day life during the process.

  • Use the AI Family Law/Divorce Advisor to track decisions
    Log your preferences, get document prompts, and prep for next steps.


Post-Divorce Follow-Ups

Once the divorce is finalized, don’t drop the ball.

  • Implement the divorce decree
    Transfer assets, follow custody plans, initiate support payments.

  • Notify employers, banks, and schools
    Update records with your new legal status.

  • Retitle property and close joint accounts
    Avoid future liability or confusion.

  • Review health insurance and benefits
    Get your plan or revise existing ones.

  • Consider therapy or coaching
    Transitioning emotionally is just as crucial as legally.

  • Revisit your long-term financial goals
    Retirement, savings, and education plans might need new direction.


Bonus: Download or Try It Instantly

Want this in a printable, fillable format? [Download the Divorce Checklist PDF here]. Or better yet, let the AI Family Law/Divorce Advisor walk you through each step — it adapts the checklist to your situation and keeps you organized, calm, and in control.

👉 Try it now — no overwhelm, just clarity.