Managing Divorced Client Records

Overview

This article outlines the best practices for managing divorce within client records. The steps provided are based on whether the spouse exists as a record within your Practifi organization or not. This is not an exhaustive list of every scenario that may occur for your clients, and custom workflows may need to be established for specific cases. Additionally, your firm may have a specific workflow that differs from the workflow options outlined in this article. If you have any questions regarding your firm's best practices around managing divorced client records, please contact your CSM. 

• Spouse Exists in Practifi
• Spouse Does Not Exist in Practifi

Spouse Exists in Practifi

When the divorcing couple exists in your organization as a Household record with a Contact record for both the primary contact and spouse, the spouse must be separated from the Household record and created as an Individual. Service record management will depend on your firm's decisions around how these services should be allocated and managed based on the Client's divorce decisions. These instructions will only cover the management of the actual Client records and how to separate the spousal record into the new Individual record.  

1. On the Client record, select the Overview icon in the record side panel. 
   
   
   
   
2. Select the primary contact's name on the Household Members list.
   
   
   
   
3. Scroll to the Personal Information section and select the pencil edit icon next to the Marital Status field. 
   
   
   
   
4. Select Divorced or Separated from the drop-down menu to reflect the client's marital status. 
5. Press Save to finalize this change. 
6. Navigate to the Client record Overview and select the spouse's name under Household Members. 
   
   
   
   
7. Scroll to the Personal Information section and select the pencil edit icon next to the Marital Status field. 
8. Select Divorced or Separated from the drop-down menu to reflect the client's marital status. 
9. Press Save to finalize this change. 
10. On the spouse's contact record, select the caret button located on the page actions. 
    
    
    
    
11. Select Convert to Individual from the drop-down menu.
    
    
    
    
12. In the Convert to Individual pop-up, select Next to continue with the conversion. 
13. On the new Individual record, select the pencil edit icon next to Primary Entity. 
14. Select the X located in the Primary Entity field to remove this value.
15. Press Save to finalize this change.
    • Please note: The Individual record is created as a contact record. They can be promoted to a Prospect record by using the Actions button in the record side panel and selecting the Promote to Prospect option. Once promoted to a Prospect, select the Actions button and click Promote to Client. This change will depend on your firm's relationship with the ex-spouse and your continued business with them.
16. On the Household record, select the People & Relationships icon.
    
    
    
    
17. Locate the spouse on the Members list and select the caret icon in the furthest right column. 
18. Select Delete from the drop-down menu. This will delete this contact's relationship to the household but will not delete the contact's record. 
19. In the Delete Relationship pop-up, select Delete to finalize this deletion.
20. If desired, the relationship can be recaptured under the Relationships subtab with a custom relationship type of ex-wife, ex-husband or ex-spouse. For more information about creating a custom relationship type, please consult our Creating Relationship Types article.
21. If necessary, the original record's Entity Name can be modified to reflect the singular contact. To modify the Entity Name:
    1. Select the Overview icon in the record side panel.
    2. Navigate to the Basics subtab.
    3. Select the pencil edit icon next to the Entity Name field and make any necessary adjustments. 
    4. Press Save to finalize this change.
22. If desired, a custom field to capture the date of divorce a custom field can be created in your organization. To create this field, please consult our Creating and Editing Fields article.

Dependent management will depend on the divorce circumstances and whether the ex-spouse has been added as a Client or Prospect Household within your organization. Typically, the dependents will remain under the original household record. The best practice is to mark them as members of a singular household. If sharing custody, the connection can be captured on the ex-spouse's record as a relationship. 

Spouse Does Not Exist in Practifi

These steps handle the record management if the spouse has not been created in your organization as a member of the Client's household.

1. Navigate to the Individual's record and select the Overview icon on the record side panel.
   
    
   
   
2. Select the Basics subtab in the Overview section. 
   
   
   
   
3. Scroll to the Personal Information section and select the pencil edit icon next to the Marital Status field. 
   
   
   
   
4. Select Divorced or Separated from the drop-down menu to reflect the Client's marital status. 
5. Press Save to finalize this change. 
6. A custom field can be created in your organization to capture the date of divorce. To create this field, please consult our Creating and Editing Fields article.