What do financial neutrals do on the Collaborative Divorce team?
Neutral financial professionals, such as Certified Public Accountants (CPA), Certified Financial Planners (CFP™), and Certified Divorce Financial Advisors (CDFA), are trained in the Collaborative Divorce process and join the Collaborative Divorce team as neutrals – they will not be on your side or your spouse’s side. Their overall role is to help you understand enough about your finances to make informed decisions (with your attorney). Because there is only one neutral financial professional in your divorce (as opposed to both of you having your own financial professional in litigation), they can save you money. Neutral financial professionals are usually the most highly trained, experienced and efficient professional to help you accomplish most of the financial tasks for your divorce.
The neutral collaborative financial professional can help you and your spouse:
- Gather and organize required financial information
- Verify information about your estate
- Develop realistic financial goals for the future
- Become educated about financial matters related to the divorce
- Prepare future household cash-flow plans and projections
- Prepare plans to meet current and future expenses for children
- Help you and your spouse develop settlement options
- Analyze the pros and cons of different options to resolve the financial aspects of your case
- Provide specialized tax calculations and analysis
- Identify separate-property or other financial claims
- Help with processes to reach values on businesses, real property or other assets of the marital estate
