Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to my live stream, Ask the Attorney Anything.
I see lots of you already here, getting ready to ask me lots of questions so I'm super excited
and always thrilled to meet with you and be able to connect with you on a live basis,
on a personal basis, and answer your questions here on these live streams.
I see I already have lots and lots of questions, which is pretty awesome.
What I would love to know is where you are all tuning in from.
It's super incredible to me that narcissists know no bounds.
They are everywhere, and our community of subscribers here on my channel and in my Facebook
group are … We are literally from all over the world, from all over the world.
There's some countries that I've even had to look up to see where everyone is from.
So if you haven't subscribed to my channel, take the time to do that right now and hit
that notification bell and also come and join us in the free private Facebook group called
Narcissists Negotiators with Rebecca Zung so that you can be connected, get information,
get knowledge, and everything that you need to help empower you in this situation that
you're dealing with, with that narcissist in your life.
So I see … Hello to Lucy from Arizona, and Amanda from New York City, and Elizabeth from
Washington.
I see all about nutrition, is from England, Stratford Upon Avon.
I've actually been there long ago.
That's where William Shakespeare's house is.
I see people from Louisiana and Georgia.
So I'm really, really happy to be here with you and answer your questions.
I'm going to start by answering a question from, let's see, from Lucy who says, "I have
a question.
I'm in my 60s.
I've become financially dependent on a covert husband.
He's still working with health insurance that covers medication I need.
It's not covered by Medicare.
What will happen if I pursue divorce?"
So, Lucy, the first thing I need to say while I'm on this call is that I am licensed as
an attorney in Florida, but when I do these calls, I can give you general advice.
This is not to be construed as legal advice because I don't probably practice in your
jurisdiction, and even if you were in Florida, it wouldn't constitute attorney-client privilege
and all that sort of thing.
So this is general advice that I give you.
I do encourage all of you, if you want specific legal advice or even specific psychological
advice, to seek out a psychologist or an attorney in your area.
Okay, so now that I've said that, let me answer your question.
So anything with regard to health insurance or uncovered medical insurance is really a
support issue.
So if you are eligible for support in your area, sometimes it's called alimony, sometimes
it's called spousal support, it will become part of your claim for support.
Normally, most insurance plans, health insurance plans, don't allow for people to remain covered
on that plan once they're no longer that person's spouse or significant other.
So you couldn't remain on that health insurance anyway.
The one thing I have seen some people do sometimes is, if they own their own company and they
do provide health insurance through that company, they leave people on the company plan by having
them be an employee in some way, or maybe they even pay support through the company
by saying that they're an employee.
Now, I don't know what the ramifications are of that as far as any tax problems or IRS
problems with that.
I've just seen people decide to do it that way.
I am not a tax lawyer.
I am not a CPA.
But, in general, the uncovered medicals including uncovered medications, things like that are
part of your support claim so if you have a support claim, it will likely become part
of the lifestyle analysis that is done as part of the support claim.
So you just add it as a line item in your lifestyle analysis, just the same way that
you would do for anything in a lifestyle analysis including your rent, or mortgage, or taxes,
or car insurance, or car payments, or dining out, or food, electricity, utilities, things
like that.
That's all part of a lifestyle.
So uncovered medical expenses and uncovered medications, or even a health insurance premium
would become part of that lifestyle claim.
So, Lucy, I hope that answers your question.
Let's see what other questions we have here.
Let's see … Just reading your questions.
Hello from West Michigan.
Hello, Victor from West Michigan.
So somebody is asking, "My husband cannot work, injury on the job.
I am starting my own business.
If I'm making money from my business, and divorce, can he get spousal support from me?"
That is definitely … This is from Xavia.
That is definitely a question to ask the attorney in your particular state.
Spousal support is something that is state by state run.
Some states do have guidelines around spousal support.
Remember, when you're dealing with spousal support, it's going to be amount and duration.
Those are the two things that will matter.
Some states call like a shorter term, a bridge the gap.
Some states call a longer term, even permanent alimony.
Some also have durational alimony.
But it really comes down to amount and duration no matter who you're talking about, and they
look at many different things when they're looking at alimony.
They can look at … Some states will look at the disparity in incomes, whether one spouse
has a need and the other spouse has more of an ability to pay.
Some states don't do it so much like that.
They look more at guidelines.
This is how much each spouse makes, this is how long they've been married, so this is
the spousal, this is the claim, this is the amount.
Some states have those guidelines as a starting point and then they look more again at lifestyle
and things like that.
So it really kind of depends on how your state takes a look at alimony.
I can just say, in general, if there's a great disparity in incomes and one spouse has been
supporting the other for a long period of time, many years, then that generally increases
the claim for spousal support wherever you are.
So let's see, I have time for a couple more questions.
Let's see where I can go.
Let me take a look at a question.
"Can I leave my retirement in a QDRO?"
So let me just answer this question from Candy, because a QDRO, or sometimes it's pronounced
Q-DRO, it actually stands for qualified domestic relations order.
What that is, is actually a mechanism that was developed by the Internal Revenue Service
under the Internal Revenue Code to allow people to divide a spousal or community property
or marital property, retirement account that is under the management of a third-party,
so it's usually a 401(k) or something like that, not necessarily an IRA because you don't
need a QDRO for an IRA.
It allows that person to roll out their share after the divorce of something that they received
in the divorce settlement without having it become a taxable event.
Because normally when you roll out funds from a retirement account, it immediately either
is taxed and, depending on how old you are, there's also penalties involved.
So it allows you to take money out and put it immediately into a rollover IRA without
having it become a taxable event.
So that's what a QDRO is, and that's what you use it for in order to divide like a 401(k)
or something like that.
So I'm not … The way your asking that question doesn't really 100% makes sense because you
would leave it in that rollover IRA and, yeah, you would still get your Social Security benefits.
I mean, that wouldn't affect that, but, certainly, talk to the Social Security Office if you
have any questions about that.
But it shouldn't affect that at all.
They're two totally separate things.
So Pam Tyson says, "Hello from Sacramento."
I was actually born in Sacramento, but I only spent like two weeks there and then ended
up growing up in Northern Virginia, myself, outside of DC.
So, anyway, I am so grateful for all of you and grateful to be able to come here every
week and answer your questions.
Set your alarms because at noon, Pacific Time, every Tuesday, right here I am answering your
questions.
And on noon on Thursdays, I've been doing a Narcissism 101 series, but both of these
are live streamed and I come to you, me, live, real in person, and I answer your questions
and have an opportunity to get to see all of you and you get to see me.
So I am extremely grateful to be able to help all of you and help you get out of these relationships
because I've dealt with a couple of covert narcissists myself, and I know that they're
hell and I know that you're in hell.
The one thing I can tell you, as somebody who's on the other side of these situations,
is that you can get out.
It is better on the other side.
It does get worse before it gets better when you're dealing with this and that's where
I come in.
That's what I'm here to do is help give you strategies around negotiating with these high
conflict personalities, so that you can understand them, develop a strategy around them, develop
leverage, and figure out a way to actually exit these relationships and keep yourself
and your dignity and your soul intact.
So if you haven't subscribed, make sure you subscribe to my channel.
I am so glad that you were here.
If you haven't downloaded my free Crush My Negotiation Prep Worksheet, you can do that
now.
Just go to winmynegotiation.com and it will be all yours.
Also, come and join us in my free private Facebook group.
It's called Narcissists Negotiators with Rebecca Zung.
It's a huge community of amazing people who are there supporting each other every single
day.
So if you haven't subscribed, do that now.
Give us a like.
Give it a share.
Drop me a comment.
I love to read the comments.
So thank you so much for joining me today.
I'm Rebecca Zung, I'll see you in the next video.
Remember, today's a great day to start negotiating your best life.
Thanks so much.