How to Fill Out and File the Wisconsin Financial Disclosure Statement (FA-4139V)

Wisconsin’s Financial Disclosure Statement, Form FA-4139V, is the sworn financial snapshot both parties must file in nearly every family court case in the state. You complete it using your current income, assets, debts, and monthly expenses, attach a year-to-date income statement and your most recent W-2, and file it with the Clerk of Court within 90 days after the summons and petition are served (or after a joint petition is filed). The form is a free download from the Wisconsin Court System’s circuit court forms page.¹

When You Have to File It

Wisconsin Statute § 767.127 requires every party in an “action affecting the family” to provide full financial disclosure on the court-approved form. That covers contested and uncontested divorces, legal separations, annulments, and paternity cases where support or property is at stake. The only family action exempt is a proceeding solely to affirm a marriage.²

Agreement between the parties does not excuse the filing. Even in a fully settled case, the court needs verified financial data before it will approve orders for property division, child support, or maintenance. If you skip the form, the court can accept the other party’s numbers as accurate and base its decisions on those figures alone.³

Documents to Gather Before You Start

The form itself is straightforward, but filling it in accurately takes preparation. Have these ready:

A pay stub or employer statement showing year-to-date earnings for the current year. This is a required attachment.
Your most recent W-2, also a required attachment. If you are self-employed and do not receive a W-2, pull your most recent tax return and any 1099 forms.
Recent statements for every checking, savings, brokerage, and retirement account.
Credit card statements, loan balances, and other debt records showing creditor names and current amounts owed.
A recent tax assessment or appraisal for any real estate, plus current mortgage balances.
Life, health, auto, homeowner’s, and disability insurance policies with premium amounts.
If minor children are involved, copies of any health insurance policy or employer plan naming a child as a beneficiary. Section 767.127 specifically requires this.²

The court can also order you, on its own or at the other party’s request, to produce state and federal income tax returns from the past two years, and possibly earlier years. Keep those accessible.

Filling Out the Form Section by Section

You cannot modify the form, but you can add supplemental sheets where you need more space.³

Sections 1 Through 3: Attachments and Basic Information

Section 1 is where you attach your year-to-date income statement and most recent W-2. Section 2 asks for your name, address, phone numbers, Social Security number, occupation, and employer details including the payroll office address and fax number. Section 3 covers other people living in your household, their relationship to you, and whether they contribute to household expenses.

Section 4: Monthly Income and Deductions

The first half of Section 4 lists 12 income lines: gross wages and salary (including commissions, allowances, and overtime), pensions, Social Security, disability and unemployment insurance, public assistance, interest and dividends, support received from a prior relationship, rental income, bonuses, and other sources. Total everything on line 13.

The second half covers monthly payroll and support deductions: federal and state withholding, Social Security, Medicare, medical insurance, other insurance, union dues, retirement contributions, savings plan deductions, credit union payments, support paid to others, and any other deductions. Subtract total deductions from gross income to get monthly net income. Enter zero on any line that does not apply rather than leaving it blank.

Section 5: Anticipated Monthly Expenses

Section 5 asks you to project your monthly living costs across roughly 20 categories, including rent or mortgage, property taxes, food and household supplies, utilities, phone and internet, clothing, out-of-pocket medical costs, insurance premiums not already deducted from pay, childcare, school expenses, transportation, entertainment, personal incidentals, charitable contributions, and a catch-all “other” line. Keep the numbers realistic. Inflated expenses stand out when compared against your net income, and lowballed figures work against you if you are the one seeking support.

Section 6: Assets

List every asset you own individually or jointly, with an estimated current market value: real estate, vehicles, bank accounts, investments, retirement accounts, life insurance cash value, business interests, and personal property of significant value. If you own nothing in a category, write “none” under the heading and enter zero in the value column. A blank field looks like an oversight; “none” confirms you considered the category.³

Business owners and self-employed filers should note that the statute requires disclosure of interests in partnerships, LLCs, and corporations.² If your business has not been formally valued, a fair-market estimate is a starting point, but the other party or the court may request a professional appraisal. Attach supplemental schedules to explain complex ownership.

Section 7: Liabilities

List each creditor by name with the current balance owed: mortgages, car loans, student loans, credit card balances, medical debt, personal loans, and any other financial obligations. The numbers should match your most recent statements. Discrepancies invite scrutiny.

Section 12: Declaration

The final section is a declaration signed under penalty of perjury confirming that the form and its attachments are complete, true, and correct. The form states that the signature does not need to be notarized.³

Protecting Social Security and Account Numbers

The FA-4139V asks for your Social Security number and can require you to list financial account numbers. Wisconsin Statute § 801.19 puts the burden of protecting that information on you as the filer. The clerk’s office will not review your papers to catch sensitive data you forgot to redact.⁴

Omit or redact protected information (Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, passwords, and PINs) from any document that will sit in the public case file. When the court actually needs that information, submit it on Form GF-241, the Confidential Disclosure of Protected Information. For family and paternity cases, Social Security numbers go on Form GF-179, the Confidential Petition Addendum, rather than on the FA-4139V itself.⁵

If redacting a supporting document is impractical, such as a bank statement with account numbers printed on every page, attach the unredacted document to Form GF-241 instead of filing it in the public record.⁶

Where and How to File, and the 90-Day Deadline

File the FA-4139V with the Clerk of Court in the county where your case is pending. The deadline is 90 days after the summons and petition are served on the respondent, or 90 days after a joint petition is filed. The court can set an earlier deadline.³

Attorneys are required to use Wisconsin’s electronic filing system for most circuit court case types. Self-represented filers may use the eFiling portal at efiling.wicourts.gov, but it stays voluntary for them.⁷ If you file on paper, take your documents to the clerk’s office and ask for a stamped copy or receipt showing the case number and date. That receipt is your proof if a question about the deadline ever comes up.

Updating Your Numbers Before the Hearing

Filing once is not the end of the obligation. Section 767.127 requires that the information on your disclosure be updated on the record to the date of the hearing. If your case takes months to reach a final hearing and something has changed (a job loss, a raise, new debt, an inheritance) file updated figures before you appear.²

When a divorce or legal separation is granted on a written affidavit rather than a hearing, the disclosure must be current as of the date you sign the affidavit. Either way, the court wants a picture that matches reality at the moment it decides.

Penalties for Missing, Incomplete, or Dishonest Disclosure

The consequences scale with the severity of the problem.

If you miss the deadline, the court can accept the other party’s financial statement as accurate and base all support and property decisions on those numbers. The other side effectively gets to define your finances.³
If you omit an asset worth $500 or more, the other party can petition the court at any time, even years after the divorce is final, to impose a constructive trust over the undisclosed asset. The court must grant the petition once it finds a failure to disclose.²
If you provide intentionally incomplete disclosure, the form warns in bold print that you are committing perjury. On top of criminal exposure, a court can hold a dishonest filer in contempt. Remedial contempt sanctions include a forfeiture of up to $2,000 per day the contempt continues. Punitive contempt sanctions, imposed after a formal hearing, can reach a $5,000 fine, up to one year in jail, or both for each separate act of contempt.⁸

The constructive trust rule is the one that catches people off guard. It has no built-in statute of limitations. If your ex discovers years later that you hid a brokerage account or underreported a business interest, the court can reopen the property question for that specific asset.

Who Can See Your Disclosure

Information on the FA-4139V is not treated like an ordinary public court filing. Wisconsin law makes financial disclosure data confidential and limits its use to the adjudication, appeal, modification, or enforcement of the family court judgment between the disclosing parties. The clerk cannot hand your financial details to anyone requesting them for an unrelated purpose.² Combined with the redaction rules for Social Security and account numbers, your financial data gets meaningfully more protection than most other documents in the file.

1
Wisconsin Court System. Circuit Court Forms
2
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 767.127 – Financial Disclosure
3
Wisconsin Court System. FA-4139V – Financial Disclosure Statement
4
Wisconsin Court System. Redaction
5
Wisconsin Court System. Confidential Disclosure of Protected Information
6
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 801.19 – Protected Information in Circuit Court Records
7
Wisconsin Court System. Wisconsin Circuit Court eFiling
8
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 785.04 – Sanctions Authorized