During a divorce, or other case in the Massachusetts Probate & Family Court that involves your finances, such as a child support case, you will likely be required to file a court form Financial Statement. In Massachusetts there are two versions of this form: a “short form” if your income is under $75,000 and a “long form” if your income is $75,000 or more. Many people find these forms confusing and we’ve compiled a list of helpful information for filling them out.
First, to access the forms, the court has provided pdf or online versions here:
Massachusetts Rule 401 Short Form Financial Statement (pdf)
Massachusetts Rule 401 Long Form Financial Statement (pdf)
There are also some basic instructions provided by the court explaining the sections of the forms and providing access to a Schedule A (for self-employed people) and Schedule B (for rental income):
Massachusetts Rule 401 Short Form Financial Statement Basic Instructions
Massachusetts Rule 401 Long Form Financial Statement Basic Instructions
The court does not provide excel or other versions of the forms other than the ones linked above, but some private groups have created their own versions. It’s important to use forms that match the court forms, so if you are using a 3rd party form make sure it prints and looks like the court form. One example of a form that matches the court form and provided additional schedules to make it easier to file a complete financial statement is Gray Jay Endeavors LLC’s financial statement forms in Excel spreadsheet format:
Massachusetts Rule 401 Short Form Financial Statement (Excel)
Massachusetts Rule 401 Long Form Financial Statement (Excel)
Both of these are available for practitioners to use in multiple cases with a forms subscription at Gray Jay Endeavors, LLC.
Once you’ve decided which format you are using you will want to follow these instructions for filling out the Massachusetts Financial Statement forms:
Don’t use full Social Security or Account #s: When completing a Financial Statement, redact all but the last four digits of your Social Security number and account numbers to ensure privacy, but provide enough information for identification.
Fill out the form completely: The Financial Statement is one of the most important papers that you will file with the Court. You are required to file a Financial Statement each time you appear in Court when there is an issue relating to finances, and you must sign your Financial Statement under the pains and penalties of perjury that the information contained in the Financial Statement is complete, true, and accurate.
Fill in every line. If you have nothing to put on a line, write in the word “NONE” or $0. If you need more space for the information in sections you may attach additional sheets of paper. The Gray Jay version of the Financial Statement form includes additional schedules for common areas where additional information is often necessary (for example in the Additional Weekly Expenses schedule there is a list of common additional expenses that aren’t in the basis weekly expenses list). Just because something isn’t in the basic list doesn’t mean you shouldn’t include it.
Here is a sample list of expenses that many of our clients have, but which is not in the regular list in the court’s version of the form:
- Cell Phone
- Internet
- Trash Removal & Recycling
- Streaming Services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime etc.)
- Dining Out
- Disability Insurance
- College Savings Contributions
- School Tuition, Books, & Fees
- School Transportation
- Extracurricular Activity Expenses
- Babysitters
- Before / After School Programs
- Camps
- Haircuts
- Gifts
- Pet Expenses (Pet care, food, vet, medicine)
- Landscaping
- Snow Removal
- Cleaning Services
- Regular Contribution to Savings
Err on the side of more disclosure and when something doesn’t seem to fit don’t be afraid to include an additional schedule or a footnote or endnote with an explanation.
Income and Expenses are WEEKLY: When completing the income and expenses section, one of the most common mistakes is to include a monthly amount for a bill. For example, clients will often write their monthly mortgage or rent amount because that is how often it is paid. However, the form calls for weekly expenses and using a monthly amount will significantly overinflate your total expenses.
Divide monthly amounts by 4.3 to get weekly amounts (or to be completely accurate multiple by 12 and divided by 52). If using the Excel version of the form you can do this right on the form. Do NOT list expenses that you have listed as deductions from your pay in the weekly expenses as well. Do include the weekly payments for any liabilities listed in Section 11 so that this is added to your total. The excel version of the form does this automatically.
If someone else in your household pays some of the expenses, you should only write down the amount that you actually pay or include a footnote to explain jointly shared expenses.
Estimating or dating values: When you put a value on a property or an account, it can be helpful in future discussions to know where that amount came from. If you are estimating the fair market value versus having an appraisal those numbers might appear different to an attorney or judge reviewing your statement. You can use endnotes to clarify the source of information. Similarly for account values, some values only come out monthly or quarterly and others are available daily. It can be helpful to identify in an endnote the date that values were looked up, especially in large accounts that can fluctuate over time.
Be Accurate and Complete and mark Drafts clearly: Remember, you are signing your Financial Statement under the pains and penalties of perjury that its contents are complete, true, and accurate. If there are any inaccuracies or untruths, you may be asked about it in Court, which could hurt your credibility. If you are using this statement in a negotiation, it can hurt the negotiation if someone feels that you are not being completely forthcoming. Sometimes negotiations move forward before you have all the information you need to provide a complete statement. If that’s the case mark clearly that you are providing a draft and include a note indicating which information you are still gathering, so there isn’t any confusion.
In mediation we often work with drafts so we can keep a conversation moving forward and discuss what additional information both people need to move forward.
Gray Jay Endeavors, LLC provides Separation Agreement Templates and Massachusetts divorce forms as a resource for professionals and divorcing couples. If you are a professional who wants to learn more about our forms subscriptions visit GrayJayEndeavors.com.