Blog

27Nov
2019

Understanding the Role of the Financial Professional in a Collaborative Divorce

The process of collaborative divorce helps couples find creative solutions to the problems they face as they divide their assets and make plans for their lives apart from one another. There are many financial challenges that come along with a divorce and each case is different. The couple must navigate taxes, family support, and fairly dividing the value of real estate and business interests. Emotions can run high when it comes to these very important matters, which is why collaborative divorce relies on the help of a neutral financial professional, who helps in a variety of ways. As the name implies, the financial neutral works for both parties in the divorce process and agrees to work for neither party after the divorce.

The financial neutral is often the key to making the collaborative process efficient. Since one skilled professional gathers all the relevant financial information from both sides, cleints do have to pay two legal teams to do the same thing. 

Educating the clients: Sometimes in a marriage, one party is far more involved in financial management and planning than the other. Sometimes neither party has a solid understanding of their financial position. In these cases, the financial professional educated them so that both parties have a clear, honest understanding of where they stand financially.

Budget development: The financial professional helps the divorcing parties develop reasonable budgets for their lives outside the marriage.

Guiding the couple in discussing their settlement options: Before the couple can reach an agreement, they need to know what their options are. The financial professional helps guide these discussions, providing insightful analysis of each possibility, including the ways they would be taxed.

Financial reports: The financial professional creates financial reports for the divorcing couple and the lawyers. These can serve as the clients’ declarations of disclosure, which is a document required by courts.

Business Valuations: Often it is important to place a value on a family’s business interest. Collaborative financial neutrals are available to collaborative teams to offer such services. 

In most collaborative divorces, the role of neutral financial professional is played by a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) or a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or Certified Appraisers. They must have no loyalty to either party so that they can guide the couple in a completely neutral, fair manner.

If you and your spouse are ready to work together to find a win-win solution for the end of your marriage, collaborative divorce may be right for you. At Venick, Kuhn, Byassee, Austin, & Rosen, PLLC, we work with clients to efficiently end their marriages, in the least acrimonious way possible. In fact, Attorney Irwin Kuhn was among the first collaboratively trained family law attorneys in Tennessee. If you are interested in working through your family law matter with our Nashville team, give us a call at (615) 321-5659.