There are many ways in which a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA) can save you money, time and stress when evaluating your family financials whether "Pre-Divorce" or at any time during your divorce process. The following summary will help you understand in greater detail how significant cost savings may accrue to your family financial asset picture.
** Pre-Divorce Planning Cost Savings **
1) A Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA) is aware of each document you will need to obtain the fairest marital settlement agreement and to substantiate the Marital Standard of Living for Spousal Support and income available for Child Support.
2) Having these documents ahead of time, eliminates delays you may encounter once the divorce process has begun. These are also documents your attorney or mediator will immediately request of you, so you will have a leg-up when you start the process by being organized, and while you are more likely to still have access to these important documents.
3) You will have a clear idea from the onset of your likely financial ramifications from getting an accurate and comprehensive picture of your family assets, debts, income and expenses, while including specifics as to any tax benefits and/or liabilities. While demystifying the process, many people have found this a useful evaluation tool for evaluating the economic feasibility of proceeding with a divorce action.
** In-Process Cost Savings **
1) Knowing and applying the myriad tax benefits and other cost savings benefits provided by the law, and incident only to divorce, a CDFA can maximize their use. The cost savings can then accrue to the benefit of the parties, rather than going towards a sometimes unwarranted payment of taxes or rather than accruing to one party alone, who will carry the liability into the future to their sole detriment.
2) A CDFA is also skilled at understanding investment features and their costs (sometimes not readily apparent), how these will effect settlement scenarios, and whether they skew the results to one party's benefit or loss.
3) The CDFA can also forecast the effects of any proposed settlement, providing a yr-by-yr picture (and bottom-line number) of its effect on each party's net worth (something a judge likes to see) and on each party's cash flow. This is more telling than a simple statement of the current allocation of assets and present income to each party i.e. what has traditionally been the extent of information provided.
4) The CDFA, by combining both the tax and long-term financial planning knowledge, saves you from having to hire two professionals (an accountant and a financial planner) whose services often overlap in some areas, for an additional area of cost savings.
5) The CDFA's work is recognized by the courts so you won't have to "do-over" with another professional.
** Post - Divorce Cost Savings **
1) The CDFA is not ethically allowed to also benefit financially from selling or promoting investments/investment management services to either party. A good CDFA will however, help you with finding the right professionals to assist you with managing and protecting your assets;planning for your financial future and providing financial security.
Summary: There are many ways to maximize the financial opportunities provided by law. This, combined with knowing exactly how your financial outcomes will play out in scenario compared to another scenario, saves time and money both "pre-during and Post a divorce action, whether you are working with a litigator, mediator, Collaborative process or doing it yourselves. Certain discussions won't even take place, when you have all the facts at your fingertips. Knowing ahead of time exactly what you are agreeing to in your marital settlement agreement, also puts your mind at ease about whether the money will last and knowing exactly how the settlement will impact your lifestyle.
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While divorce is not a pleasant situation to begin with, and sometimes one in which we feel very little control, many have found that by using a CDFA and realizing significant cost savings, they gain comfort from knowing they did the best they could and will skip the part about later regrets.
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