The paperwork checklist: what to gather before you file

A surprising amount of divorce misery comes from not having the documents. People show up to their first mediation or their first attorney consult unable to answer basic questions about their own finances. Then they spend three months chasing pay stubs from a former employer, account statements they could have downloaded in five minutes a year ago, or a marriage certificate that’s in a box at a parent’s house. None of this is hard. It’s just a lot, and doing it now saves the rest of the case.

Why this matters: the financial declaration

Every divorce, in every state, eventually requires both spouses to file a financial declaration. The exact name varies — "financial affidavit," "case information statement," "disclosure," "schedule of assets" — but the function is the same: a sworn summary of your income, your expenses, your assets, and your debts.

The declaration is what the court uses to evaluate support, property division, and any temporary orders. Filing it accurately requires having the underlying documents in hand. Filing it inaccurately, even by accident, gets you in trouble with the other side’s attorney and sometimes with the court.

Income documents

What to gather:

• The last three years of federal and state tax returns, including all schedules and any W-2 or 1099 forms attached.
• The last two months of pay stubs for any salaried or hourly employment.
• Self-employment records if applicable: profit-and-loss statements, business bank statements, recent invoices, any 1099-NEC or 1099-K forms received.
• Any other income sources — rental income statements, royalty statements, pension or Social Security statements, alimony or child support from a previous marriage, distributions from a trust.

If your income varies — commission, tips, seasonal work, bonuses — pull twelve months of pay stubs instead of two. Variability needs to be visible in the documents.

Asset documents

You’re documenting both what you own and what you owe. For assets:

• Bank account statements for the last six months, for every account (checking, savings, money market). Joint and individual.
• Investment account statements for the last six months, for every brokerage account.
• Retirement account statements for the last year, for every 401(k), 403(b), IRA, Roth, pension. Pensions are particularly important because they often have a separate plan summary you’ll need.
• Real estate documents — deeds, current mortgage statements, recent property tax assessments, and a rough estimate of market value.
• Vehicle documents — titles, current loan balances, current Kelley Blue Book values.
• Business interests — ownership documents, recent valuations if any, the last few years of business returns.
• Other assets that might be material — art, collectibles, cryptocurrency, jewelry above $5,000.

If you bought any of these before the marriage or received them as an inheritance or gift during the marriage, dig out the proof — old purchase receipts, the will, the gift letter. That documentation is the difference between an asset being treated as marital or separate property.

Debt documents

The debt side of the balance sheet matters as much as the asset side:

• Mortgages and home equity loans — current balance statements.
• Credit cards — last three months of statements for every card, including ones in your name only.
• Auto loans and leases — current balance, monthly payment, payoff amount.
• Student loans — current balance and monthly payment for each loan.
• Personal loans — anything you owe to a bank, a relative, or anyone else, with documentation if it exists.
• Tax debt — any IRS or state tax liabilities outstanding.

Don’t leave debts off because they’re embarrassing. A debt you didn’t disclose can come back as a much bigger problem later.

Kids’ documents

If you have minor children together, gather:

• Birth certificates for each child.
• Custody-relevant medical records — pediatrician contact info, any chronic conditions, current prescriptions.
• School records — current school, current grade, IEPs or 504 plans if applicable, recent report cards.
• Health insurance information — which parent’s insurance the kids are on, the policy number, the monthly premium.
• Childcare records — daycare provider, weekly cost, any after-school programs.

The court will eventually want these for the parenting plan. Having them organized early speeds up that conversation.

Marriage documents

A short list:

• Marriage certificate — the original or a certified copy. Most states require this for filing.
• Any prenuptial or postnuptial agreement in your name.
• Decree from any prior divorce of either spouse, if applicable.

If you can’t find your marriage certificate, you can usually order a certified copy from the state or county where the marriage was registered, typically for $10 to $30.

How to organize it

Once you have the documents, putting them somewhere you can find them matters more than the exact organization. A few workable approaches:

• A labeled folder per category (income, assets, debts, kids, marriage), physical or digital.
• A single secure cloud folder you can share with an attorney or mediator later.
• A purpose-built tool. This product does that, but a well-organized Google Drive folder works too.

What you don’t want is documents scattered across three drawers, two email accounts, and a relative’s house.

Originals vs. copies

For most documents, copies are fine — the court doesn’t need your original tax returns or original bank statements. A few documents, though, courts often want as originals or certified copies:

• The marriage certificate
• Birth certificates
• Death certificates (if a prior spouse is deceased)
• Any existing court orders from a prior case

Keep originals in a safe place; work from copies day to day.

Doing it before the case starts

The whole point of gathering documents before filing is to skip the discovery scramble later.

If you walk into your case with all the documents in hand, you skip most of what makes divorces drag. Your spouse, of course, has to do their own version. But your half of the discovery problem is solved before the case starts.