divorce financial planners

[Janibel]

I've searched the site and came up empty. Have any of you had experience in dealing with divorce financial planners? I'm not very savy when it comes to finances and am uncomfortable with leaving all the details of my settlement to my lawyer - he is overworked as it is.

Seems it would be worth the expense. I have so many questions with regards to understanding my post-retirement options?

I would appreciate your thoughts on this?

[Rioe]

As long as they charge less per hour than your lawyer, I would think it would be very advantageous.

[caranna]

I agree with Rioe. Before hiring my present lawyer (who also has an accounting degree), I had also searched for a divorce financial planner.

[HappyDays]

Let the family lawyer deal with divorce and equalization. Then go see a regular financial planner/accountant to find out how best to use the money in order to prepare for your retirement.

[stripes]

My employer offers consultation with a financial planner as a free benefit. Might be worth checking with HR at your workplace to see if your benefits cover something similar. It was very useful for me to sit down with a knowledgable professional and spreadsheet and realize that I wasn't going to have to spend my retirement eating cat food, despite the financial hit of divorce, if I made some good choices now. I agree with other posters, let your lawyer sort out the equalization and let someone else advise you on how to manage your share of it.

[Janibel]

Thank you all above for the good advice.

[frustratedwithex]

I've searched the site and came up empty. Have any of you had experience in dealing with divorce financial planners? I'm not very savy when it comes to finances and am uncomfortable with leaving all the details of my settlement to my lawyer - he is overworked as it is.

Seems it would be worth the expense. I have so many questions with regards to understanding my post-retirement options?

I would appreciate your thoughts on this?

I also considered myself not very savy with finances. I saw a financial planner and honestly, I didn't understand what he was saying.

I found a Certified Divorce Financial Planner that was close and it ended up being the best money I spent. She had a different approach to explaining, she also had software that, for me, made it easier to understand and she was much cheaper than my lawyer.

She was no nonsense, straight forward, told me when I needed to look at things differently, didn't sugar coat anything. If I seemed dazed, she said take a pen and write this down, find out the answer, ask your lawyer this, go through your finances and do this, etc. In the three years it took to settle the finances, I saw her a number of times.

At the end, when we were close to settlement, she told me she had never had a client like me before. She said I new very little when I first saw her and the amount of research and work I did in order to understand was more than she had ever seen. She said she often used me as an example to other clients when they said they couldn't do it.



For me, this enlightenment came from a number of sources;

• This site.
• The library.<LI style="RIGHT: auto">The Internet.
• A Financial adviser.
• And her. The Certified Divorce Financial Planner.

So, at the end of the day, do your research and then do some more.

[Janibel]

'no nonsense, straight forward, told me when I needed to look at things differently, didn't sugar coat anything...

Agreed, especially about this site - I've learned more here in a month then in a year of asking friends, browsing internet etc.

The best lesson of all was in adjusting my attitude towards the whole divorce process. I went from being a clueless nervous wreck to a more confident participant. The rapport with my lawyer has improved as well - I get better answers when asking better questions

Thanks again.

[Mess]

I just want to point out that one can become a Certified Financial Planner with a grade 12 diploma and 2 semesters at a community college, or some continuing education night courses.

That doesn't mean that you will always get bad advice or vague explanations, but it is certainly no guarantee of good advice. Financial planners that work for banks or other financial institutions are mainly just going to sell you on their own mutual funds.

[Tayken]

I just want to point out that one can become a Certified Financial Planner with a grade 12 diploma and 2 semesters at a community college, or some continuing education night courses.

That doesn't mean that you will always get bad advice or vague explanations, but it is certainly no guarantee of good advice. Financial planners that work for banks or other financial institutions are mainly just going to sell you on their own mutual funds.

In addition, the same can be said about private Family Mediators and Arbitrators as well.

There are many professionals in the "divorce industry" and industry in general that offer bad advice. The best advice any professional can give to a client is to not rely upon their "advice" as the only relevant advice and encourage their clients to seek out the solutions themselves.

Any good professional (mediator, financial adviser, arbitrator, lawyer, clinician, custody and access assessor) will in my opinion guide their clients to other reliable sources of information in support of their advice. They not only help their clients directly but often work to educate their clients so their clients can grow to be independent of their services.

Good Luck!
Tayken

[Janibel]

There are many professionals in the "divorce industry" and industry in general that offer bad advice. The best advice any professional can give to a client is to not rely upon their "advice" as the only relevant advice and encourage their clients to seek out the solutions themselves.

Bad advice you say? how about very conflicting advice? At the end of the day it all boils down to what a person can live with in the long term - all within the limits of the ''divorce industry''.

Learning when to fight and when to simply let go has been my greatest challenge so far. As my lawyer often pointed out: 'What is considered a fair settlement to one person may seem like undue hardship to another, our job is to work out an agreement where neither party feels that they are being taken advantage of'.