This post is from Scott Clarke, a Certified Financial Planner and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst currently in private practice in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, who has been in the financial advising business since the early 1990s and has specialized in the divorce financial aspects for the past 6 years, and from from Curtis Harrison, a collaboratively trained family law attorney working for the law firm of Albin | Harrison | Roach in Plano, Texas. Harrison is board certified in Family Law by … [Read more...]
Child Support in a Collaborative Divorce (Part One)
This post is from Scott Clarke, a Certified Financial Planner and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst currently in private practice in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, and a Collaborative Law Institute of Texas Board Member. He has been in the financial advising business since the early 1990s and has specialized in the divorce financial aspects for the past 6 years. In my experience, one of the areas in which clients are most creative in the collaborative process is in how they choose to structure … [Read more...]
New Concerns Regarding Health Insurance Coverage
This post is from Tracy Stewart, CPA, PFS, CFF, CFP, CDFA, a College Station and Houston-based financial planner and Collaborative Law Institute of Texas board member. In many households, health insurance is covered with a policy that is tied to one of the spouses. If the other spouse is a homemaker, or employed where no health insurance is provided, that spouse needs to find replacement health insurance. Prior to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the Healthcare Reform Bill), … [Read more...]
What Couples Get from Neutral Financial Advisors
There is a recent article from the Reuters news service that discusses the growing need for professional financial advice during the divorce process, specifically in the Collaborative and mediation processes. The article is directed to financial advisors as a potential niche service to new clients. What's really interesting is how divorcing couples are beginning to use financial advisors during the process. The article refers to the concept that the financial advisor has to look at the … [Read more...]
Top 5 Mistakes in Refinancing During a Divorce
Because equity in a house is often one of the largest assets acquired during a marriage, that equity often becomes the focus of attention by both parties who are trying to favorably divide up their assets. In some cases, there will be little cash available to the parties unless they can find a way to pull out some of the house equity, and that's not always easy. As the parties and their attorneys and financial advisors research the possibilities, they often run into problems that require … [Read more...]
Taking the Time to Make Sound Decisions
Recently the Wall Street Journal ran an excellent article titled, "Splitting Up Nest Eggs." The caption read: "Battles over retirement assets increasingly are the most contentious - and error filled - part of divorce." The article is a good read. It is an interview with a prominent Atlanta divorce attorney. The attorney gives illustrative examples of the biggest mistakes of splitting up retirement accounts. But the most fascinating point is when the journalist describes how the division … [Read more...]
Dealing with Family Businesses in Divorce
We wanted to make sure this didn't escape your attention: Collaborative Law Institute of Texas board trustee Tracy Stewart, a financial professional and CPA based in College Station, wrote a great article for the AICPA Wealth Management Insider last month entitled "Family Business: Avoiding Divorce Disaster." The article details some key dos and don'ts when a family business must be factored into the financial equation for a divorce settlement. This can be a tricky aspect of divorce … [Read more...]
