Certified Divorce Financial Analysts and why they are a good investment

I had lunch this week with one of the Certified Divorce Financial Analysts that we work with in our divorce cases that involve maintenance.  Her name is Deb Johnson and the work she has done in some of our cases has made a critical difference in being able to reach a good settlement for our client.  You can reach Deb at the Divorce Resource Centre of Colorado, LLC at 303-468-5626

I have spoken in other blog entries about Maintenance awards in Colorado, the process and the standard the Court uses to determine if there is a need for maintenance as well as the need for expert testimony and advice on what is a fair settlement in a long term marriage where the incomes of the two parties are vastly different.  (see the category Divorce, Maintenance (Alimony)).  In this blog entry I want to focus on the possible roles that a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst can play in a divorce.

Option 1:  Advocate for your position
A Certified Financial Analyst can take all of the financial information in your divorce proceeding and come up with options and scenarios to equalize the two parties financially.  This could include an unequal distribution of the marital assets and debts as well as the use of maintenance to assure that the lesser earning spouse receives the full benefit of their partnership for the entire length of the marriage.  This is often very powerful evidence that can be used to settle the case or as testimony at trial to influence the Judge's decision on asset distribution and maintenance.  As I have said before, using a good Certified Divorce Financial Analyst is a smart investment in your long term future if you are the lesser earning spouse.

Option 2:  Bringing Clarity to Chaos
The second way you can use a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst is to go alone or with your spouse to just get a clear picture of the financial situation and what the effect of a divorce will have on each of you.  Deb Johnson reviewed a couple items with me that I thought would be so useful for a divorcing couple.  First she can take all the financial information and come up with a future budget and cash flow analysis for both parties.  So you can see what it would really look like financially after the divorce.  She can answer questions about the house and if you can afford to keep it or what the tax return issues will look like following the divorce.  This process can assist with the concerns of both spouses.  The spouse that is worried that maintenance will break them can see that in fact it may be possible to make it all work with the ensuing tax breaks and the spouse that has little to no earning capacity can see that they will be able to make it financially.  This clarity is invaluable because people get stuck in their emotional reaction about money rather than figure out the reality of the situation.  A CDFA can make the difference in bringing everyone onto the same reality based financial picture.

Option 3:  Financial Mediation
One of the things that Deb Johnson let me know at our lunch is that she is now doing financial mediation in divorce cases.  You can find a good mediator in Denver.  In fact, we do family law mediation at our firm, Matthews & Matthews PC.  However, few mediators have the financial background to do the kind of scenario planning that a good CDFA can do.  Deb now offers mediation to resolve the financial issues between divorcing spouses or between non married couples or long term gay or lesbian partners.  You could also do a full mediation with both financial and parenting issues addressed and have Deb take on the role of financial mediator in partership with another mediator.  I can imagine that this partnership could be very powerful for a complex financial divorce mediation.  The tools that Deb or others with the skills of a CDFA can bring to the tale in a mediation for outweigh what is possible with an attorney or therapist mediator when it comes to well thought our financial scenarios.  I believe that using Deb or another CDFA is worth the extra cost of having a true financial expert in the mediation mix.

I am certainly glad that I had lunch with Deb this week and learned about all the ways we can use her talents to support our clients in their divorce or those that ask for legal advice but want to do their case without attorneys.  These folks could also benefit greatly by spending some time and investing some money in getting a clear picture of the financial realities of their divorce situation.  Too many people go through a divorce on their own and then call us later upset that they did not understand the financial ramifications of their divorce decisions.  Often they want to re-open their case to correct a mistake they made and most of the time I have to tell them that it is too late.  Once the divorce is final, in most cases, you cannot do anything about financial mistakes you made.  Even if you do not want to use attorneys, you can at least get the financial reality of your decisions by going to a CDFA.  I highly recommend it.