Before you call anyone
Do you need a divorce financial consultant?
A divorce financial consultant works out what your assets are really worth, what each settlement option would mean for the rest of your life, and what you are being asked to sign. Your attorney handles the law. If one person managed the money in your marriage, or the finances are complicated, most people need both.
The work itself
What does a divorce financial consultant do?
- 01
Finding and valuing everything, including the assets that are easy to overlook: stock compensation, deferred pay, business interests, and pensions
- 02
Separating what is marital property from what is not, so the conversation starts from the right number
- 03
Modeling what each settlement option looks like in five, ten and twenty years, not just on the day it is signed
- 04
Working out what your life actually costs, before anyone asks you to agree to a figure
- 05
Explaining every document in front of you, in plain language, until it makes sense
Two different jobs
How does this fit with my attorney?
Your attorney is responsible for the law: your rights, the filings, the negotiation, and the agreement itself. That is their work, and I respect it.
My work is the arithmetic underneath it. What things are worth, what each choice costs you over time, and whether the settlement in front of you holds up.
Most clients find the two jobs work better with the arithmetic done first. Walking into a legal meeting already knowing your own numbers changes what you spend the hour on, and legal hours are the expensive ones.
If any of this is true
When is it worth a conversation?
One of you handled the finances for most of the marriage, and it was not you
There is a business, a professional practice, or compensation that is not a salary
Most of what you own is in retirement accounts, property, or equity rather than cash
You would like to understand your options before you are asked to decide
You want a clear picture of what life will cost next year, and in the years after
You have not filed, and the finances are the reason you have not decided
Fees
What does a divorce financial consultant cost?
The first conversation is complimentary and confidential. You can ask about fees in it, before you commit to anything at all.
Consulting is fee-only. The fee is the only compensation I receive: no commissions, and nothing tied to how your divorce turns out.
Guides that go further on the questions this page raises:
If some of that sounded like your situation, start here.
The first conversation is complimentary and confidential, and nothing about it commits you to anything at all.
Consultations are complimentary and confidential.