Divorce Planning:

Divorce is one of the most stressful and devastating financial and emotional storms that can happen to a family or individual.  It is a legal event, a financial threat, and an emotional upheaval.  It creates many unexpected changes.

Major issues that can make a divorce more difficult include:

• Children
• Length of time you were married
• Privately owned businesses
• Multiple retirement accounts and pensions
• Jointly owned real estate

Notice this list does not identify any emotional issues (which can be overwhelming). Remember, you MUST maintain a clear focus to move past this storm with the least damage.  Separate the legal and financial issues from the emotional ones as best you can.

There are several key steps to help insure that you ride this storm out as well as possible.

While often a major emotional trauma, try to think of your divorce as a business negotiation.  You are breaking up a single entity into two, and there are many financial issues to resolve as part of the settlement.  

• Make copies of all financial paperwork
• Keep records of all assets owned jointly and separately if possible

• Legal counselor
• Financial planner experienced with divorce issues and possibly business valuation analysis
• Tax professional for tax evaluation of alternatives
• Real estate experts
• Mediator to help resolve difficult issues
• Personal therapist
• Child custody professional (Friend of the Court, etc.)
• Pension professional if appropriate
• Clergy or other religious official if appropriate

• We meet and discuss your desired outcomes in our initial introduction meeting.
• Our clients then complete our divorce inventory documentation.
• We analyze the assets and prepare a complete current situation analysis.
• We work with you and your attorney to develop what-if scenarios for alimony, separation of assets, real estate, retirement accounts and child support.
• We develop financial and tax consequences of the chosen scenarios in chart and spreadsheet forms, so that you and your spouse can determine the most equitable approach with all the information on hand.
• Post-divorce planning issues should ideally be covered before the divorce is final.  We will address any estate planning, elder care, retirement and college issues as well.
• We then support you in negotiation with your spouse.  We also support you in court if necessary as an expert financial witness through our tax partners.
• Finally, we develop a "Me" financial life plan that may also include your children and business as well as post-divorce issues.