Your Financial Mediation Pack

The pack is designed around the Form E which is the formal document used by the court. Our purpose in providing the form in this format is to simplify, and deliver in layman’s terms, a comprehensive form without legal and technical language most of which is unfamiliar to most people. Each section maps the Form E so you can be confident that at the end of mediation when you have arrived at an outcome, your proposals can safely be drafted into a financial consent order. The numbers in brackets show the corresponding section in Form E e.g. The Family Home (2.1); MONTHLY INCOME FROM EMPLOYMENT (Form E 2.15)

Introduction

Working out your financial futures requires a sound estimate of what you will need and detailed reckoning of what your income and assets are or could be.  With this information in front of you, you can then look together at possible options and choose the solutions that will best suit all the members of your family.

The mediator helps you to do this by using three forms, which enable you to gather the financial information needed for the mediation process.

A. Your income – worked out on a monthly basis

This section requests all details of your current income, in all respects, and from whatever source, as well as tax, pension, and National Insurance deductions, worked out on a monthly basis. Bear in mind that some benefits are paid weekly, or in combinations of weeks; we need to convert everything to calendar months.

B. Your estimated future expenditure – also averaged by month.

This is a checklist of the things families normally spend money on and is included to help you work out your future expenses; it is very detailed, and is a useful guide to calculating future needs. Your calculations may not turn out to be accurate, since they are only a forecast. This form is likely to be reviewed and updated during the mediation.  Even if you end up remaining in your current accommodation, costs may change significantly over the months.

C. Your assets and liabilities

This is the longest form and requests details of all your assets, of any sort, including items of value and pension assets.  It will also require you to insert details of any liabilities, including overdrawn accounts, taxes due, utility bill debts or unpaid credit card balances. If you are in the habit of paying your credit cards in full every month, they do not have to be disclosed as liabilities. Please note that you will also have to disclose assets held abroad, or jointly with other parties who are not your civil partner or spouse.

Your mediator will advise you, at your Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting, when and by what means you need to supply your forms, when filled in.

N.B. Details of your Income, Assets, Pensions and Liabilities are regarded as open information and may be used by each of you in court.

The mediator helps you find ways together of bridging the gap between what you think you will have and what you think you will need.  That is the essence of using mediation to settle finance and property issues.

How to complete the forms

  • You must each fill in a separate form in your own right.
  • As far as possible round up or down to the nearest pound
  • At the end of the pack is a list of the documents you will need to produce to support the statements you make about income, assets and liabilities. 
  • It is useful to exchange your financial documentation (i.e. completed financial forms and supporting documents) early in the mediation process so that numbers can be validated with you together. You are also both entitled to see the other person’s financial disclosure and discuss it with your solicitor, should you wish to do so.
  • If mediation is in person, you should bring the completed forms and the supporting documents, together with two extra copies of all the paperwork, with you to the first mediation session. One copy will be given to the other person and one copy to the Mediator.
  • If you are mediating remotely, your Mediator will discuss the arrangements for exchanging financial disclosure with you.
  • The supporting financial documents are attached to your Open Financial Statement (OFS), as your solicitors may want to review these documents.