Financial Professionals and Collaborative Divorce

One of the benefits of a collaborative divorce is that the use of neutral experts like financial professionals not only educates both spouses on the rights and issues involved for the present and future of the each spouse, but the neutral professional can also help make decisions that best for everyone.

Property Division

Property must be divided by all spouses when they divorce. Property includes all furniture, electronics and real estate. Property also includes all savings accounts, checking accounts, retirement plans, and investments. A neutral financial professional in a collaborative divorce can provide both spouses with a clear picture of the total value of the property in the marriage and can suggest ways to divide the property so both spouses get as much as possible based on tax implications and other considerations. A financial professional advocating for only one spouse cannot give the same advice as one advocating for the best end result for both spouses.

It is common in a typical non-collaborative divorce for spouses to argue about the value of every asset. They argue about the valuation date (investments in particular can vary greatly in value depending on the valuation date used) and they argue about what assets will increase in value over time. Using a neutral financial professional gives both spouses an objective, un-biased opinion on the value of all the property which allows couples to divide the property equally. Using a financial professional as part of the collaborative divorce process is also far less expensive because both spouses are sharing the cost for one financial professional rather than each spouse hiring his/her own financial professional who then are paid to refute the other spouse’s financial expert.

Income Assessment

Another key issue in every divorce is income. Income for each spouse becomes the basis for establishing child support and spousal maintenance. If a spouse has a steady work history and/or a current decent income with which to base support, a financial professional may not need to do much. More often than not though, a spouse may have been out of the work force raising children and may not have an income.

Given the state of the economy in recent years, one or both spouses may have been out of work or may have been working below his/her income capacity in recent years. In a non-collaborative divorce, spouses can spend time and money arguing over vocational assessments and potential income possibilities to use for setting spousal maintenance and child support. A neutral financial professional in a collaborative divorce can give spouses a realistic, objective opinion on potential income for both spouses for establishing support as well for setting guidelines for the future.

Getting Legal Help

Financial professionals are used in almost every divorce. Even spouses who don’t have a lot of property or a lot of income benefit from the insight a financial professional can bring in determining the best way to divide property in a divorce. Consulting an experienced collaborative attorney is the first step in the process. A collaborative attorney will help the spouses find the appropriate financial professional for their specific needs and will ultimately save the couple time, money and energy because the couple will go through the process with as little acrimony as possible.

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