Florida Family-Law Financial Affidavit Checklist

For supervised law-firm staff, the reliable workflow is to obtain the lawyer-selected current form and snapshot date, inventory the approved source records, map every proposed entry to its source and formula, reconcile all totals independently, obtain party/client confirmation and lawyer approval, and preserve the exact executed, filed, and served versions.

Staff may gather facts and perform transparent arithmetic from approved inputs. The responsible lawyer decides whether an affidavit is required, which form applies, the legal treatment of income and deductions, disputed classifications, exemptions, filing strategy, and any response to conflicting evidence. The party/client—not staff—adopts the facts and signs under penalty of perjury.

Form 12.902(b) is labeled for individual gross annual income under $50,000, while Form 12.902(c) is labeled for $50,000 or more. Rule 12.285 also permits the long form to be requested through Standard Family Law Interrogatories or ordered by the court when income is under $50,000. Those labels do not authorize staff to select the form, apply an exemption, or interpret a request or order. Obtain the responsible lawyer’s direction and retrieve the current official form immediately before use.

Record the form title, revision date, official URL, retrieval date, page count, and other firm-approved version evidence. Quarantine superseded templates so an old form does not silently re-enter the workflow.

Create a restricted source register and a separate line map for the selected form. For every field, record the proposed entry, source document and page, source period, formula, party/client confirmation status, lawyer-decision status, and follow-up note.

Inventory pay records, tax materials, benefit statements, account and debt statements, insurance, property records, business or rental schedules, court orders, and approved client inputs by owner, date, period, and page count. Preserve originals unchanged and keep possible privilege, safety, and confidential-address material in a hold lane.

The official form instructions require monthly income and expense amounts. They show weekly amounts multiplied by 52 and divided by 12, biweekly amounts multiplied by 26 and divided by 12, and semimonthly amounts multiplied by 2. Preserve the original value, frequency, calculation, precision, and rounding.

For other approved pay periods, preserve the reproducible path: annual amounts divided by 12; hourly rates multiplied by approved hours per week, then by 52 and divided by 12; or daily rates multiplied by approved days per week, then by 52 and divided by 12. Separate recurring income sources and flag irregular, self-employment, rental, in-kind, cash, anticipated-change, and disputed items for lawyer direction. Transparent arithmetic does not authorize staff to decide what legally counts as income or which deduction is allowable.

Record actual monthly expenses or identify an amount specifically as an estimate for party/client review. Avoid duplicate categories, annual-as-monthly errors, blended households, and amounts belonging to another person without direction.

For either selected form, inventory assets, liabilities, and contingent items with the owner or title holder, institution or creditor, account ending, valuation or balance date, source, and proposed value. The long form adds more granular categories, marital and nonmarital columns, net-worth calculations, and specifically instructed attachments or supporting sheets, including virtual-currency units and value when applicable. Follow the exact selected-form instructions rather than assuming every supporting sheet is a formally named schedule. The responsible lawyer controls marital or nonmarital classification, responsibility, valuation disputes, requested distribution, and contingent treatment.

A second checker should recompute monthly conversions, additions, deductions, gross-to-net income, expense totals, surplus or deficit, asset and liability totals, net worth, and schedule-to-form transfers from the source-linked map. Record the checker, date, result, and any variance.

If a total differs, hold the package and trace the source, period, formula, sign, column, precision, rounding, and duplicate entry. Keep the resolution visible and repeat the affected checks after every correction.

Give the party/client the exact review copy and source-linked issue list so facts and estimates can be confirmed or corrected. Staff may not sign, swear, declare, or certify for the party. Verify that the party signed the selected form’s exact declaration under penalties of perjury. If an order or firm instruction separately requires notarization, use the approved notary process. Have the responsible lawyer decide whether and how the nonlawyer-helper statement, preparer identification, and Form 12.900(a) apply; staff must not silently omit or self-determine those requirements.

The default workflow is to file the fully executed financial affidavit with the court and serve it on the other party. Route any Rule 12.285(c) exemption or joint verified waiver to the responsible lawyer; a permitted waiver of filing does not waive exchange of fully executed and sworn affidavits or the parties’ retention duty. Underlying mandatory-disclosure records generally remain outside the court file unless current authority and lawyer direction permit filing. Preserve the as-filed and as-served copies—or lawyer-approved waiver and exchange proof—plus portal receipt, clerk status, docket placement, recipients, timestamp, delivery evidence, and any rejection as distinct records.