The nauseous, heart-attack-inducing awareness that you will lose half of your net worth sets in as soon as you start thinking about divorcing, and you start to question if it is really worthwhile to consider leaving if you would only wind up broke and starving.

There are steps you can take to ensure that your financial future is not doomed. First and foremost, make sure you have a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® on your team so that you are fully informed of all the creative settlement options available to you. 

Here’s an example. A couple who had been married for 24 years were referred to a CDFA® for help with their divorce. They had both gone to see an attorney and were completely amicable. The attorney stated unequivocally that he could only prepare their documents because he was ethically bound to represent only one party. That was fine, but they wanted to know how they would divide their property. “This is a community property state, so we’ll just divide each asset and each debt exactly 50/50,” he replied. The couple simply did not believe it was a wise decision. To investigate their options, they were referred to the CDFA®, Certified Divorce Financial Analyst®. 

The CDFA® prepared two reports for the clients after gathering all of their financial documents and completing the analysis. The first was an exact 50/50 split, as suggested by the attorney. The second was a creative settlement solution that resulted in a net 50/50 split but also took tax planning and consequences, as well as the needs of each party as they planned for the next phase of their lives, into account. 

This couple’s total net worth was less than $800,000, and the creative settlement solution resulted in an extra $20,000 EACH to their bottom line simply because some financial intelligence was used to determine their settlement. That’s real money! Needless to say, the couple was overjoyed to learn that they had saved $40,000!

Avoid entering this blind. You may do a lot to make sure that each of you keeps more of your own money. Bring the best specialists to your team. We would welcome hearing from you. Call us today.