Question

When to create couple organizations - under scenarios of divorces and MFS


Userlevel 1
Badge +1

Has anyone come up with a standard way to dictate when John & Jane Doe organizations are created?  We have a few clients that are divorced (but where we’d still want to keep that information and former spouse ready and available) and others that alternate between MFJ and MFS yearly depending on tax savings.  Any tips?


4 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +13

We create three contacts for a couple.  Each as an individual contact and a joint contact as an organization. All work is created under the organization's contact.  If they get divorced, we mark the organization contact as (Divorced) after the organization name and transfer all work to the individual contact.  For MFS, the work would go under the individual contact.

Userlevel 1
Badge +1

Thanks Diane - my gut thoughts agreed with you.  Is the reassigning built into your process for MFS cases?  We sometimes do not know until the end which is better for the client, but our onboarding process at the start of the contract asks whether they file MFJ or MFS, but that can later change based on tax savings.  As I write it out though I think we can just add something to our workflow to catch that at the end of the WI. 

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +13

Work, after it has been started, can be transferred to another contact very easily.  If it starts out MFJ and changes because of tax savings, we can transfer the work from the individual contact instead of the organization.

Userlevel 1
Badge +1

Agreed, but I think it’s important (at least for us) to add a task in our workflow so it’s not forgotten.  But thanks Diane! :) 

Reply