Attorney Julia Rueschemeyer Divorce Mediation

Free MBTA pension benefit calculator
I have just created a free Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority pension calculator that allows MBTA employees to calculate their future pension benefits instantly. It works for both Plan A and Plan B participants and for employees who joined both before and after December 6, 2012. You simply enter your age, years of service, projected retirement date, and your high three-year average salary. It is the only publicly available MBTA calculator. You can access it here: : https://www.amherstdivorce.com/mbta-pension-benefit-calculator
It also includes an inflation calculator that shows how the purchasing power of your annual pension payments will decline over time. You can choose the inflation rate, and you can download a .pdf report showing annual income by age, adjusted for inflation.

Free Sample Massachusetts Separation Agreement.pdf

In September 2024, the Massachusetts State Probate Court finally released a Massachusetts Separation Agreement Form Sample as a free .pdf template. You can download the sample from this blog post: https://www.amherstdivorce.com/blog/massachusetts-separation-agreement-sample-template.html This is significant because the Separation Agreement is the most important divorce divorce form in Massachusetts–it is the divorce agreement. The state does not require that couples use this particular form, but they can. Most importantly, it finally lets people see all the basic issues that are addressed in an uncomplicated divorce, so that they can better understand and plan for the process.

New calculator to show income after child support and taxes

Child support—whether you pay it or receive it--has no effect on taxes. The child support payor pays taxes on full income, and child support is calculated on full income. The child support recipient does not pay taxes on the child support received—the payor has already paid taxes on that income.

Many couples want to know how much income they will have after child support is paid or received and after taxes have been paid. A new feature of my Massachusetts Child Support Calculator at https://www.amherstdivorce.com/ma-child-support-calculator-html allows you to figure this out with the click of a button.

You simply enter your income, number of children, and whether you care for your child 1/3 of the time, ½ the time, or 2/3 of the time. The calculator then calculates the standard child support amount. To see approximate after tax income, simply click the green button “Calculate Approximate After-Tax Income After Child Support.”

In the example given, one spouse takes care of the children 2/3 of the time and earns $900/week. That spouse is called 2/3CareGiver in the chart. The higher earner earns $2500/week and takes care of the children 1/3 of the time, so is called 1/3CareGiver. The guideline child support amount for this couple is $645/week. With the click of a button, you can see that the higher earner (named 1/3CareGiver, in this case) will pay about $37,501 in MA and Federal taxes, while the lower earner (2/3CareGiver) will pay only $8,506 in taxes. After child support and taxes, 1/3CareGiver has about $58,959, while 2/3CareGiver has about $71,834 per year. This is a significant reversal in their incomes as 1/3CareGiver starts from an annual gross income of $130,000 while 2/3CareGiver starts from an annual gross income of $46,800.

The calculator has a second feature, which allows you to see the results of a non-guideline child support (that the spouses might agree on). In this case the user has entered $500 as the weekly child support amount. This results in after-tax, after-child support incomes of $66,499 for 1/3CareGiver and $64,294 for 2/3CareGiver.

When will my divorce be final?

In Massachusetts, a “contested” (1B) divorce becomes final 90 days after the divorce hearing. An “uncontested” (1A) divorce becomes final 120 days after the divorce hearing. You are therefore no longer married on the 91st or 121st day after your hearing.

I have created a calculator on my website at https://www.amherstdivorce.com/how-long-does-it-take-for-a-divorce-to-be-final-in-ma that allows you to calculate this date based on your divorce type and your hearing date. Remember that you are still married until this waiting period has passed!

NO MORE PARENT EDUCATION CLASSES OR CERTIFICATE REQUIRED
On June 25, 2021, the MA State Probate and Family Court suspended the Standing Order 2-16 requirement for parenting education classes for divorce cases filed on July 12, 2021 or later.
Couples with children under 18 who filed for divorce July 11, 2021 or earlier must still complete the class and submit their parent education certificate by August 31, 2021.
Couples who file after July 11, 2021 have no parenting class requirement. The court suggests that they might reinstate a parenting class requirement in the future, in an online format, for CONTESTED (1B) cases only. There is no suggestion that parenting education classes will be required for UNCONTESTED (1A) cases in the future.