Services

Divorce

We’re here to walk you through the uncertainty of divorce.

When it comes to the financial aspects of divorce, it’s common to feel overwhelmed and worried about not getting a fair deal and how decisions now could play out down the road. We know how daunting that feels and that making some choices can cause significant anxiety.

We’ve been through it. We know what we’re doing, and we can expertly walk you through it as well.

We are passionate about helping our clients make well-informed and confident decisions when facing divorce. As collaboratively trained Certified Divorce Financial Analysts®, our goal is to help decrease anxiety and uncertainty by helping to explain your current financial situation, what financial decisions in divorce mean, and how various plans and choices may look in the future. With our financial analysis, forecasting and planning, we help you and your attorney make decisions confidently so you can look forward to the future you want.

Phase 1: Consider Options

You might just be thinking about divorce but have not filed with the courts. There are many options on how to divorce, including:

• Type of divorce you’d like: Collaborative, Unbundled, Mediated or Litigated. All options operate with different dispute methodologies, and the Triangle Financial team has worked in each model.
• Choosing an attorney – some attorneys specialize in the types of divorce listed above.
• Choosing other professionals who may need to be involved, depending on your specific situation such as a financial neutral, mediator, etc. Many people don’t consider the value of having topic experts involved in the process. Keep in mind that while attorneys have experience in these areas, their focus is on the law.

Phase 2: Gather Documents

This is an important phase because it involves producing statements and documents that will help you make educated decisions. To get an accurate financial picture, we’ll need specific information which may include:

• Net-worth statements
• Property statement
  Budgets (current and/or post-divorce)
• Property division scenarios
• Income and expense scenarios
• General retirement projections
• Debt refinancing
• Additional resources/experts needed for property valuation or income assessments
• Any additional information needed to explore options (e.g., if both parties agree that one party will keep the house, can that person refinance the mortgage? With what terms? What would the pay-out be?)

We also help you work through “interests” and “positions.” It’s important to understand the difference and keep them balanced. Interests include things like “we want one of us to stay in the marital home for the sake of the children,” which works as a guiding principle and leaves room for different scenarios on the way it is achieved. A position is more of a hard and fast stance like “I want the marital home.” The importance of discussing the two is figuring out where we can reduce conflict as neutral professionals who may be able to help offer a variety of solutions.

You might just be thinking about divorce but have not filed with the courts. There are many options on how to divorce, including:

• Type of divorce you’d like: Collaborative, Unbundled, Mediated or Litigated. All options operate with different dispute methodologies, and the Triangle Financial team has worked in each model.
• Choosing an attorney – some attorneys specialize in the types of divorce listed above.
• Choosing other professionals who may need to be involved, depending on your specific situation such as a financial neutral, mediator, etc. Many people don’t consider the value of having topic experts involved in the process. Keep in mind that while attorneys have experience in these areas, their focus is on the law.

Phase 3: Make Decisions

After reviewing realistic options and better understanding their implications for the future, final negotiations and settlements can be determined. Often, we are also able to help create unique plans to help you work toward the financial future you envision.

We also discuss:

• Property division evaluations involve needs vs. wants analysis. By looking closely at a post-divorce budget, we can identify a range of income needed to maintain a property.
• For individual clients, we review Settlement proposals will need to be reviewed to understand whether they are a fair deal. We help navigate the intricacies of assets and liabilities (income and expenses.) There is interplay between cashflow and net worth. This is also where we can provide creative solutions.

At this point, we’ll also discuss how different “positions” may fulfill interests of both parties. There are situations where certain actions may have natural conflict where it is an advantage to one party and disadvantage to the other party. For example, a spouse keeping a home would want to see the house undervalued so they would have less pay out for splitting equity, whereas the spouse leaving would want the home overvalued for more equity payout they’d receive. Our role is to make sure these situations are addressed, considered and accounted for in the decision-making process.

As financial advisors, our goal is to reduce anxiety about choices in divorce that may affect your financial standings now and in the future. We produce statements for different scenarios and talk through the processes involved with each to bring more clarity and confident in the decision-making process.

Phase 4: After Divorce

Decisions and processes still need to happen even after the divorce is settled. We help clients:

• Understand legal language and exhibits for stipulations in Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (QDRO) and ERISA
• Execute need to be opened/closed and/or where to move certain accounts and transferring accounts into client name
• Structuring investments to payout support payments (in case of lump-sum payouts)
• Understanding timing of payouts as it relates to QDROs and retirement account transfers
• How to make beneficiary changes in wills, estate plans, etc.

What phase of the divorce process are you in?

Email us or call for a free consultation to discuss your divorce and how we may be able to help!