Mandatory Self-Disclosure - Divorce Encyclopedia

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Term Definition Mandatory Self-Disclosure - a court rule requiring that the parties in suit make financial disclosures to one another within a certain period after the suit has begun.

Application in Divorce Mandatory self-disclosure is done automatically and apart from discovery.

In contested divorce actions, mandatory self-disclosure requires litigating spouses to automatically disclose a long list of financial information.

In most cases, mandatory self disclosure includes recent pay information; tax information (returns if a couple filed separately); recent bank and brokerage statements; current statements about assets.

This information is conveyed in standardized forms, and is governed by the time standards of the court.

Nothing about mandatory self-disclosure prevents a third parties -- additional disclosures may be needed.

As a rule of thumb, mandatory self-disclosure includes all the financial information a couple would need if they were going to a financial planner to do estate planning for retirement.

See Discovery.