Have you noticed that whatever your needs are these days – there is an app for that!? The world of divorce, custody and co-parenting is no different. These terrific divorce apps will help save you time, lessen your anxiety and possibly curtail your need to incur the expense of a family law lawyer. All in the palm of your hand! For those ready to embrace technology, check out my recommended apps below.
SupportPay
Hallelujah! An App to keep track of the dirty business of reimbursement requests and payments between you and your co-parent. Over the years, I have seen no end to the consternation (and sometimes litigation) over one parent chasing the other for half the cost of Little League uniforms, summer camp deposits, prescription allergy medication or birthday party gifts. SupportPay is an app that helps parents simplify child support and expense payment with easy tracking, recordkeeping, offsetting and even allows for secure payment for reimbursements within the app! SupportPay also stores a certified record which can be used for court and tax purposes. SupportPay will not take the place of a clear and detailed court order establishing the rights to reimbursement for certain designated expenses. However, SupportPay will implement the order and curtail on-going communication between co-parents and time consuming math. For $14.99 per month (shared), it can save you the frustration of sorting out a pooled bank account or the delay in waiting for reimbursement which may never come. Some of the app features are free. At this time, a 25% discount applies to new customers.
2Houses
2Houses. The name says it all! What a fabulous co-parenting app. 2Houses is a divorce app that helps facilitate communication between separated parents about custody schedules (“household calendar”) which can be helpful if you have a more flexible custody plan which is tinkered with each week or month based upon your or your children’s schedules. The app has an advanced management calendar to help coordinate and keep track of shifts so that everyone is on the same page. It also has a messaging tool so that you can keep your child-related communications with your Ex all in one spot. As an added bonus, 2Houses helps track expense sharing, and includes a journal feature which makes it easy for separated parents to communicate and share pictures and notes. I especially love the “Info Bank” section of the app which helps co-parents use one repository of information about their children such as teacher’s names, current shoe sizes, social security numbers, and the like. For $12.50 monthly (shared), and a 14-day trial membership available, if used to its full potential, this app could be a life-saver.
Divorceify
Divorceify is a divorce app that connects you with professional resources in your area. The service helps people locate professionals all “vetted” by the Divorceify platform such as financial advisers, mediators, support groups, and other services that will ease the divorce process. The app cleverly describes its services as a “divorce GPS” that builds a roadmap to hopefully help point you in the right direction.
Dtour.Life
If you are opting into Collaborative Divorce, this is the app for you. The service makes it simple for divorce attorneys and the people they represent to collaborate online. Dtour.Life creates an online platform for the collection of financial data about the marital estate (Income, Expenses. Assets and Debts), allowing you, your attorney and (most importantly) your forensic neutral involved in the divorce to download and share case data and documents. The app can also sync to bank and credit card accounts to create handy asset and expense reports. Great tool for a simple and amicable divorce.
Our Family Wizard
Our Family Wizard is the gold standard family law app. A pioneer in the industry, this was the first app in widespread use allowing high-conflict parents to communicate regarding child custody issues in a safe and respectful way that creates a permanent record and allows third parties (such as attorneys or even judges) viewing status to those communications. I have seen this app appear in domestic violence restraining orders for mandatory use between co-parents. For somewhat less contentious families, Our Family Wizard still makes shared custody less stressful. Like other similar apps, this one allows shared access to parenting schedules along with expense and payment logs. One unique feature of Our Family Wizard in the “ToneMeter” function. This function lets you identify and flag emotionally charged messages so you can keep communication civil and productive.
It is important to find ways to make the divorce process as cost-effective and stress-free as possible, and these divorce apps can definitely help you do just that. I look forward to feedback on these apps, as well as recommendations from all of the app purveyors about new divorce apps on the horizon.