85 Broad Street, New York, NY 10004

917-558-2468
laura@coastalwlthmgmt.com

Divorce Financial Advisor

Complimentary First Step

Complimentary First Step

Under the best of circumstances, divorce is foundation shifting.  Someone or both people need to leave the home, at minimum this increases expenses.  Financial questions are often why people stay in unhealthy and unhappy marriages.  Lets meet for a complimentary consultation and we can discuss the finances and help put you in a good position prior to filing for divorce.  

Divorce Financial Professional

There are two main ways a divorce financial professional can be conducive to the divorce process.

  1. Collaborative Divorce:  Both spouces retain their own attorneys and a neutral third-party financial professional to help them articulate each parties financial interest, determine the joint financial assets, and an equitable division of the assets.
  2. Standard Divorce:  One party retains a financial professional to work along-side the attorney to advocate for her/him.  The finance professional determines joint financial assets, financial interests, cash flow and future financial needs.

Finance Divorce Specialist

For many people, this is the first time they have gone through a divorce.  It is often a surprising experience.  Many people have not considered the impact of saving for college or retirement.  This along with the realization that there may be future lifestyle changes is difficult hurdle for many people to overcome.  The reality is that the same income level must now support two separate households.  A financial neutral professional can lead these conversations in a non-confrontational manner and suggest ways to improve future cash flow.

To begin the budget process, a detailed review of historical expenditures is required.  Usually one spouse maintained the family's basic finances.  The financial professional can provide significant guidance and education.  The exercise of reconstructing historical expenses can be time consuming, while beneficial and eye-opening, specially for the partner who didn't have a good understanding of how their money was utilized in the past.

Personal balance sheets are created for the family as it existed as well as one for each party in the divorce.  It is imperative that the family's balance sheet is agreed up by both parties prior to working on individual balance sheets.  The family's balance sheet can be tricky and often attorneys miss valuable assets and/or liabilities.  I know serveral cases where expensive jewelry, credit card debt and bank accounts were carelessly overlooked, costing one party hundreds of thousands of dollars.  It is an ardulous, time-consuming and legally expensive process to correct after a divorce is finalized.