Do I Need a Premarital Agreement?

 A very frequent question I am asked in my practice is do I need premarital (or sometimes referred to as a Prenuptial) Agreement.  A premarital agreement can be important to someone for a variety of different reasons.  The first important aspect of deciding whether...

The Real Difference Between Understanding and Agreement

People often ask how the Collaborative team is able to support divorcing couples to work through their conflict.  As a divorce coach, working with trained collaborative attorneys and other professionals, I believe that one of the keys is helping people understand the...

Why Have One Neutral Financial Professional in Your Divorce?

What I say to the first noted potential clients is that I, as a neutral financial professional, promise them they will know everything financially related to their divorce prior to any decision making.  It is my job to lay out all the assets and debts and income and expenses in simple and understandable form to both clients and any mediator or attorneys.  It is also my job to educate my clients about taxes, tax filing status, health and life insurance, Social Security, pension values, and the consequences of dividing assets that have tax related issues.

Making Sense of Those Divorce Legal Forms, Part 1

Filing a petition for dissolution of marriage (divorce) simply opens a file at the courthouse and gives you a file number to use in the future. Nothing else will ever happen if no one files anything further. In fact in many counties, the court is obligated to close the case if no one files anything else within a 3-5-year period.