Divorce is rarely a life event that one plans for, but while many couples live happily ever after, some undoubtedly will go their separate ways. A divorce can be emotionally devastating, but it doesn’t have to derail your long-term financial security. If you’re facing a divorce, consider these steps to protect and claim what’s yours:
•Understand your assets. A divorce can be expensive, especially if you fail to spend the appropriate amount of time reviewing and discussing your finances as you go through the process. Educate yourself by examining investment and bank statements, qualified plan and pension information, tax returns, mortgage information and insurance policies.
Before you can begin to split the assets you’ve accumulated as a couple, you should know your total net worth so that you’ll be able to assess how the divorce will impact your financial goals.
•Consider the big picture. When deciding how to split the nest egg, it helps to look into the future and think about how your lives will look postdivorce. Will you have short-term needs — like buying a home and furniture, new or continued child care costs or paying an attorney — that require immediate funding? Will you be able to replenish your retirement assets if you must use them to pay for these unexpected expenses?
Develop a detailed written financial plan as a soon-to-be single so that you can act in your best interest when deciding which assets will best fit your needs.
•Think about tax consequences. Most retirement plans are made up of pre-tax dollars, meaning your contributions won’t be taxed until you withdraw them. This can be beneficial if you believe your income and tax rate will be lower in retirement — but it also means the amount of cash you’ll be able to use to meet your day-to-day expenses will be less than what you actually withdraw.
Be sure you’re aware of how taxes can affect your retirement income as you divide assets with your former spouse. Trusted financial, tax and legal advisers are especially valuable as you make such important decisions.
•Follow the rules. If you decide that it makes sense to divide funds from you and your former spouse’s 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts, it’s important to carefully follow state and local guidelines. This process is complicated, so be sure that your divorce settlement states specifically how assets are to be divided and transferred.
Dividing a pension or 401(k) plan might require a qualified domestic relations order, which allows funds to be withdrawn without penalty and deposited into a separate retirement account. Make sure that you discuss preparation of such an instrument with your attorney.
•Update your financial accounts. Once your divorce is final, revise the beneficiaries on your checking and savings accounts, investments, retirement plans and life insurance. Also re-evaluate your insurance policies and confirm that you still have adequate coverage for you and any dependents. Nothing can undermine your financial security faster than an uninsured accident or illness. Once the dust has settled on your divorce, create a new will or update the existing document to reflect your new marital status. Continued...
Source: www.thenewsherald.com
Divorce hotel offers weekend splits - Financial Post
Jim Halfens, a Netherlands entrepreneur, has developed a Divorce Hotel concept that allows couples to have divorce papers in hand after only a weekend at a hotel.
According to the New York Times, couples check in to designated five-star hotels on Friday and stay in separate rooms for the weekend. Mediators and independent lawyers attempt to help the couples settle their differences in a hotel suite used for the negotiations.
The Divorce Hotel is operational in the Netherlands, where 16 of 17 couples who have bought into the process at a cost of US$3500-$10,000 have checked out with all the documentation necessary to obtain court approval.
Halfens is currently negotiating with hotels in other countries including the UK, Italy, Germany and the US. He’s also interested in developing a reality show.
Gives new meaning to weekend getaway, doesn’t it?
Source: business.financialpost.com
London 2012: Organisers to release more tickets for opening ceremony - The Sport Review
London 2012 organisers are releasing a further batch of tickets for the previously sold-out Olympic opening and closing ceremonies – but the cheapest available seat will be £995.
In addition, they are making further contingency seats available in athletics, swimming, football at Wembley, volleyball, table tennis and boxing, priced between £20 and £720.
Tickets will go on sale on a first come, first served basis on the London 2012 ticketing website from 11am this Friday.
Organisers Locog have also confirmed that eight million tickets have now been sold for both the Olympics and Paralympics – under two thirds of the total available.
Just over half a million non-football Olympic tickets are still available, while under 50 percent of the 2.5 million available inventory of Paralympic tickets remains unsold.
But the biggest concern for organisers will be the seemingly sluggish sale of football tickets.
After the recent draw at Wembley, 1.4 million seats went on general sale but only 150,000 have been shifted in the last month – leaving 1.25 million still available.
Last month organisers admitted that only 10,000 tickets had been shifted for the opening event of the Games, when, two days before the opening ceremony, Team GB’s women footballers take on New Zealand at the 74,500 capacity Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
“With 50 days to go there are still plenty of ways to join in and be part of London 2012. We are at advanced stages of venue planning and these represent the final release of Ceremonies and other sport tickets,” said Locog commercial director Chris Townsend.
“Over the next few weeks we will release further tickets for other Olympic sports and keep people informed when tickets are available.
“We are delighted with ticket sales to date, and have sold another one million tickets in the last four weeks, prioritising people who were unsuccessful last time around.” 
London 2012 ticketing breakdown
London 2012 Olympics: 7 million sold, 1.8m still available (including 1.25m football)
London 2012 Paralympics: 1.25 million sold, 1.2m still available
Source: www.thesportreview.com
London hotels 'pricing themselves out of market' - The Guardian
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
London 2012 Olympics: David Millar faces battle to earn place with Team GB - Daily Telegraph
Millar, presently competing at the Critérium du Dauphiné, has endured an injury-disrupted season after breaking his collarbone and a bone in his hand racing in Belgium at the end of March.
Although his track record with GB is excellent and Cavendish has always insisted he wanted Millar in the team regardless of any BOA selection issues, the Scot badly needs to offer compelling evidence of fitness and form before being given the nod because GB have several viable options. With time running out, that effectively leaves Millar with a four-day race in Holland from June 9-17 and the first week of the Tour de France during which to impress.
Much the same goes for Steve Cummings - a powerhouse domestique and a key man at the World Championships last year - who is also returning from injury and Ben Swift, whose switch from the track programme to the road six weeks ago has been hampered by a shoulder injury after he crashed in training with Team Sky ahead of the Giro d’Italia.
Swift is embarking on a busy road programme with Sky and, although he might not feature in their Tour de France plans, the world scratch-race champion could force his way into the squad. If anything happened to Cavendish during the road race at the Games - a crash, mechanical or problems on the Box Hill climbs - he represents a potential Plan B with his climbing ability and sharp turn of speed The GB long list of eight will include obvious starting selections such as Cavendish and Wiggins as well as Chris Froome, back to health, and Ian Stannard, a stalwart worker for Cavendish at the recent Giro and in the form of his life. When naming the final five, Brailsford and the GB road coach Rod Ellingworth have strong candidates to fill the Millar role should he not regain his best form.
The veteran Jeremy Hunt, a lead-out specialist that Cavendish rates highly, could come into the equation, although the feeling is that if the Olympic race finishes in a sprint it will be contested by a relatively small bunch. The need for a pure lead-out man might not be paramount.
Just getting Cavendish to the final one-kilometre is the priority. He has proved many times, not least this season, that he can take it on from there alone if necessary.
Meanwhile, the competition for places in the women’s team is so strong that again British Cycling and the BOA will announce a squad of six squad rather than the four-rider team they must confirm on July 6. Lizzie Armitstead has been the stand-out rider all season, while reigning Olympic champion Nicole Cooke and Emma Pooley, a silver medal winner in the time-trial at Beijing, have been less consistent although Pooley did claim a fine win, her first of the season, at the Emakumeen Saria race in Spain on Tuesday. Sharon Laws, Katie Colclough and Lucy Martin are also well in contention.
As with the men, the time-trial entrant - probably Pooley - has to come from the final four. The National Championship later this month could be the most important race in the selection process.
On an Olympic course that could suit both the sprinters and breakaways, the decision on whether Armitstead or Cook is the protected rider could be delayed until the day of the race. Armitstead’s form puts her in a strong position.
On the track, the only real issue likely to occupy the selection panel is whether the sole place in the individual sprint should go to reigning champion Sir Chris Hoy or to Jason Kenny, who has placed higher than Hoy at the past two World Championships, taking gold and silver. The selectors might again tarry - their only requirement before the Games is to name the men’s team sprint squad - though the memory of Hoy decimating the world’s best sprinters at the World Cup meeting at the London Velodrome could well hold sway.
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
London 2012: Aaron Cook again overlooked for taekwondo spot - BBC News
Taekwondo star Aaron Cook is considering legal action after he was again overlooked for an Olympic spot.
Selectors have chosen Lutalo Muhammad over Cook for a third time.
The British Olympic Association's Qualification Standards Panel will meet on Thursday to consider the decision.
"If the British world number one and reigning European Champion does not compete, it will be a national disgrace," said Cook's agent Jamie Cunningham.
"This is an embarrassment not only for the sport of taekwondo internationally, but also for Great Britain's international reputation in hosting the London 2012 Games."
Andy Hunt BOA chief executive“We will convene our own panel to decide whether we are willing to decide whether to ratify the nomination or not”
Cook, 21, has been left out of the squad at the expense of Muhammad who is currently ranked 59 in the world.
The BOA, which refused to ratify the decision last week, has already said it is "not afraid" to overturn Muhammad's nomination.
The GB Taekwondo selectors were asked to meet again on Wednesday in the presence of an independent observer and for the third time put forward Muhammad ahead of Cook.
"It has been clearly demonstrated that the processes adopted by Sport Taekwondo UK (STUK) in the two other selection meetings were flawed," added Cunningham.
"Nothing changed today, particularly given that the same selectors were involved and took little consideration of objective facts and STUK's own selection criteria events.
"We have appealed directly to the BOA not to ratify this flawed decision again. In the meantime, we are considering Aaron's position including all his legal options."
A four-strong BOA panel, including BOA chief executive Andy Hunt and performance director Sir Clive Woodward, want to check whether GB Taekwondo has correctly followed procedures.
Hunt said: "Once we have those and the report back from the independent member from the BOA, who was one of our lawyers who attended the whole selection panel which included the voting process, we will convene our own panel to decide whether we are willing to ratify the nomination or not."
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Essex Amends Credit Facility - Zacks.com
Essex Property Trust Inc. (ESS - Snapshot Report), a real estate investment trust (REIT), has recently amended its existing unsecured revolving credit facility worth $425 million to increase the borrowing capacity to $500 million.
The amended credit facility bears an interest rate of LIBOR plus 120 basis points and a facility fee of 20 basis points. Scheduled to mature in December 2015, the amended credit facility has two one-year extension options and an accordion feature that enables Essex Property to further increase the borrowing capacity to $600 million.
Essex Property reported first quarter 2012 FFO (funds from operations) of $59.3 million or $1.63 per share, compared with $48.5 million or $1.44 per share in the year-earlier quarter. Funds from operations, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs, are obtained after adding depreciation and amortization and other non-cash expenses to net income.
During the first quarter of 2012, the company entered into an agreement to obtain private placement unsecured notes worth $200 million for a term of 9 years at a rate of 4.3%. The net proceeds from the note offering were intended to repay secured mortgage debt due in late 2012 and 2013.
Based in Palo Alto, California, Essex Property acquires, develops, redevelops, and manages apartment communities primarily in highly desirable, supply-constrained markets. Essex Property currently owns 158 multifamily properties with an additional 5 properties in various stages of development.
Essex Property currently retains a Zacks #3 Rank, which translates into a short-term Hold rating. We presently have a long-term Neutral recommendation on the stock. One of its competitors, BRE Properties Inc. (BRE - Analyst Report) has a Zacks #4 Rank, which translates into a short-term Sell rating.
Source: www.zacks.com
Atlanta Motherhood: How to handle divorce with children - Examiner
Divorce for most families is a hard and very emotional time. The parents usually have differences that they are unable to resolve or hurt feelings towards one another regarding previous situations in their marriage. Children during this time feel like it is their fault or in some way want to change the status of the relationship of the two people in their lives that they hold dear.
While divorce is a hard process for the family, the couple should keep in mind that they are also parents. As a mother, the children should come first above any personal relationship with the father. The children are innocent and should be protected from experiencing adverse emotions, statements, and overall experiences.
A divorce finalizes the union between two people, however, does not deny the responsibility of being a good parent. When parents argue and say derogatory things about one another in front of the children this produces shame and low self-esteem in them, although most of the time children will suffer in silence.
We have seen far too many ugly divorces and nasty custody battles. We have seen it time and time again, parents fighting over their children, degrading each other in public to win the battle.
In Atlanta, Usher and his ex-wife Tameka Foster are currently in the spotlight with a tough custody battle. According to ex-wife Foster, Usher did not uphold his end of the bargain in their joint custody agreement. In addition to that, there appears to be a spiteful discourse between the two that has been showing up in the media recently.
Foster reported that Usher cut off her Saks Fifth Avenue credit card and denied custody for two weeks to their boys, that was previously arranged for her to receive. Usher reported that Foster spat and fought him in a rage of fury while returning their boys to her home with his girlfriend in the vehicle. According to Usher, Foster's actions took place in the presence of their children.
Being a responsible mother involves considering how something will effect the children. Remaining civil during a time of hardship shows discipline, intelligence, and honor. The children learn the most from watching the ways of the parents and how the parents handle their separation will directly influence their children's views on the male and female relationship and how they see themselves.
It can be very hard to let go of combative emotions. However, we can make the choice to rid ourselves of them, even if we need to ask for help. Counseling and peer groups are two ways to get assistance in dissolving these emotions to move forward in life. Odyssey Family Counseling Center offers family counseling services to the Atlanta area and is experienced in assisting families in surviving a divorce.
There are also meet-up groups for newly divorced and healed divorced individuals to offer guidance and support during such a rough phase in life. Opening your heart and mind will allow for the hurt emotions to heal, giving your children better parents. However, this process must start with you.
The children are our future and what they learn in their time of innocence will directly effect their actions as an adult. Caring mothers would not put their children at risk to be hurt by others. Yet, mothers must also consider themselves in this equation by their actions and words because the parent's dealings are what effect their children the most.
Source: www.examiner.com
London 2012: torchbearers picked by sponsors keep flame of commerce alive - The Guardian
Throughout their descriptions of the 70-day Olympic torch relay, the London 2012 organisers talked of having tracked down "8,000 truly inspirational people from across the UK". But while most of the torchbearers were picked through this process, some people – including one of the world's richest men – managed to get on the torch relay by another means: working for, or being affiliated with, one of the London 2012 sponsors.
More than 1,200 spaces were allocated to the International Olympic Committee, the British Olympics Association, and to staff working for Games sponsors – whose picks included company directors, Russian newspaper editors, and even an official at the US's Food and Drug Administration.
Help Me Investigate the Olympics, a crowdsourced news coverage site dedicated to London 2012, looked into torchbearer slots handed out by one particular sponsor, Adidas.
While, generally, slots had been given to junior or mid-level employees, Adidas had also selected Christos Angelides, the £900,000-a-year senior director at Next, which has a retail partnership with Adidas covering the Olympics. Other Adidas slots went to people in the marketing team who had worked on the company's sponsorship.
The group's findings, posted by Paul Bradshaw, also noted descriptions of staff's work performance in their nominating stories, mentioning that one torchbearer had "made a fantastic contribution to the Adidas group business". Another "breathes Adidas … Her positive attitude and 'money in [the] till' approach is legendary" and a third mentioned "achieving my sales targets in every market I have worked in".
A spokesman for Adidas said the firm was restricted by Locog rules and could only offer its torchbearer slots to employees or those in its network. He added that owing to the low average age of the company's staff, not many of their children were old enough to carry the torch.
Other sponsors struck further afield for their choices: among Coca-Cola's selections were the Las Vegas resident Dr Debra Toney, who among other roles sits on a committee of the US's Food and Drug Administration.
Coca-Cola also selected Evgeny Faktorovich, the deputy editor-in-chief of a Russian paper that "supports all social initiative held by Coca-Cola" and Vonta Vontobel, the president of the Brazilian Bottlers Association of Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola, as an official torchbearer partner, was able to allocate places to members of the public – it was responsible for allocating 1,350 slots.
"Over 90% of our allocation has gone to members of the public through our Future Flames campaign, which celebrates inspirational people by giving them the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to carry the Olympic flame," said a spokesman. "A small number of our allocation has been given to some of our employees through a nomination campaign, and to our campaign ambassadors who have helped to find our Future Flames. Our remaining places have been given to our partner organisations and their affiliates."
ArcelorMittal, another organisation supporting the Olympics, was given six torchbearer slots. Two of these went to the company's founder, Lakshmi Mittal, the world's 21st richest man according to Forbes magazine, and his son Aditya, the group's chief financial officer. Among the others, however, were the US technician Angel Alvarez, who donated his kidney to a fellow worker, and Polish employee Filip Kuzniak, who cycled 600km to raise money for a colleague's daughter.
Among 50 torchbearers selected by BP were Gillian James, a member of the company's North Sea leadership team, and Carl Halksworth, the creative director of Landor, BP's design agency partner for the Olympics. As BP sponsored a particular section of the route, near Aberdeen, the remainder of its picks were made up predominantly of "onshore and offshore BP staff, young relatives of staff, business partners, and nominees from local schools, universities and charities".
The electricity giant EDF, meanwhile, included the group's former director of HR and communications among the 71 staff members chosen to carry the torch on the company's behalf.
A London 2012 spokesman said: "Staging the Olympic Games is a huge undertaking and we couldn't do it without the support from our commercial partners. The rights packages for some partners include a small number of torchbearer places that had to be filled through internal campaigns.
"The same torchbearer selection criteria applied across the whole relay – ie personal bests and/or contribution to the community."
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
London newspapers produce special Jubilee e-editions - Lancashire Evening Telegraph
A group of newspapers in South London has put together a series of online special editions enabling them to publish hundreds of pictures of Jubilee celebrations across the capital.
Newsquest titles including the News Shopper and Your Local Guardian series are bringing out the e-Xtra Jubilee specials alongside their usual e-editions today, tomorrow and Friday.
Other titles taking part in the initiative include the Surrey Comet and Richmond Twickenham Times.
The group’s web team worked over the Bank Holiday period to put them together, missing out on the chance to join in the celebrations themselves.
Web manager Paul Jones said: “When our readers started sending in details of their street parties and other jubilee events, we knew we’d struggle to do them justice in our papers due to space.
“So we decided to utilise our online newspapers, adding innovative and interactive content, allowing us to publish hundreds of pictures from across south London, as well as video and interactive maps from the weekend.
“It was a mammoth effort meaning myself and the News Shopper web manager, Jamie Ross, didn’t see much of the celebrations ourselves – but we hope our readers think it was worth it.”
Croydon Guardian assistant editor Matthew Knowles added in a Tweet: “Hats off to our snappers over weekend who between them went to more parties than the Queen could shake her sceptre at.”
Source: www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk
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