The choices you make during your divorce will impact your financial future, sometimes indefinitely. Do not face your divorce unprepared. You retain a lawyer to provide legal advice and guide you through the legal process. Similarly, during your time of crisis and anxiety, you are entitled to a highly qualified financial expert who analyses and advocates for your financial needs now and for the future.
The scope of divorce financial planning is integral to every legal process: litigation, mediation, and collaborative divorce. Each party experiences a significant shift in their financial situation. Without assistance, the changes that occur can be a tipping point relative to your financial well being. Understanding the impact of financial decisions in both the short and long-term, as they pertain to your lifestyle, is knowledge you are entitled to and which is priceless. A certified divorce financial planner is a financial expert who assists both the client(s) and the professional in a cost efficient manner throughout the divorce process.
A Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) is the highest mark in the personal financial planning industry. Combined with being certified as a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA™), this financial expert has a strong financial planning background and proven track record, is trained specifically in the financial issues of divorce, and has an interdisciplinary knowledge of practical standards and state divorce laws. A certified divorce financial planner with all of these qualifications can be invaluable and help you by:
- Providing specialized financial planning services within the context of divorce laws specific to your state
- Assisting you with the gathering, organizing and preparing of documentation of income, expenses, assets and liabilities.
- Providing you with on-going financial education, guidance and analysis throughout the divorce process
- Providing you with projections for the long-term impact of financial decisions
- Assisting you with the post divorce asset transfers, estate planning considerations, and long term financial planning goals.
Ultimately, a certified divorce financial planner, can educate you, ensure you make well-informed decisions, give you peace of mind that your settlement is practical, and increase your satisfaction by reducing stress.
Lili A. Vasileff
CFP®, CDFA™
President of the Association of Divorce Financial Planners (ADFP)
www.divorcematters.com
lvasileff@aol.com
