Nobody is perfect in this world. Why can't we tolerate the faults of another and forgive? Isn't it better to focus on the positive aspect of your relationship. Hardships and difficult times are part of life and both husband and wife have to work on it continuously. In this materialistic world which is exacerbated by our exposure to advertising and movies, money seems to be most important thing in life. Money isn't everything. Love, kindness and patience is far more satisfying in the long run. I encourage couples not to go through the divorce avenue, to forgive and work things out.

But if divorce is what both parties want, then there are consequences to your SMSF. Ideally both parties have a financial agreement in place that set out the assets and liabilities and how to split them. Financial agreement is a cheaper option compared to the legal fees incurred if you decide to go through the Family Law Courts.

The Family Law courts will demand a list of assets and liabilities from the husband, because usually he is the primary income earner. There may be delays because the husband's accountant has to prepare this information. From there the judge decides what percentage of the assets goes to the wife. In most cases, at least 50% of the SMSF balance goes to the wife. The wife of course, will deposit the proceeds into her own superfund.

This can be a headache for the husband, especially when there is a commercial property in their SMSF. How do you split that property, if the wife wants cash, then the SMSF may need to borrow money to cough up the payment or the husband is forced to sell the property to get the cash to pay the wife. If the husband operates his business in that commercial property then this can severely affect his business cashflow. Either way, it can get messy, bogged down with paperwork and both parties lose out because the husband has no cash to pay for child support, etc.

Which is why it is important that couples should think carefully about divorce and avoid it if possible. Love, kindness and patience is what we need.