5 Reasons Why You Should Partner with A Financial Planner for Your Divorce
You’ve reached a point in your marriage where you have decided it is time to move on or perhaps your partner has made that decision for you. The next several steps in front of you are going to make or break your experience and chances are you aren’t equipped to make well informed decisions.
Which divorce attorney do you choose? Is an alternative mediation style warranted? Can your divorce be collaborative? What even is a collaborative divorce? Armed with a Google search and your own resolve you set out to find a path through this new life transition, but there is another way. Below are five ways NewMaker Financial can help in this situation.
#1 Choosing Your Route
Attorneys used to be one of the only people to help you through a divorce. Today there are more options to look into. Less expensive mediation routes can be found through Certified Divorce Financial Analysts™, but require the divorce to be less contentious. The same can be said about Collaborative Divorce Professionals, which includes lawyers who seek to be as restorative and family centered as possible. These are just two of the options available among many in today’s Divorce industry.
It makes sense to speak to a firm who understands this landscape, understands your unique situation, and can help point you in the right direction. In short, you might need a partner before you choose an attorney.
#2 A Financial Planner Can Help Guide the Division of Assets
The court system wants an equitable split. To do that they will often bring in appraisers or other financial professionals to deal with assets the courts are otherwise unfamiliar with or unable to reach a consensus on. The oversight here is that sometimes these appraisers and financial professionals aren’t equipped to think about your entire picture and the way all these financial assets will combine to make a stark impact on your future.
A financial planner like NewMaker, who specializes in these types of life transitions, can help you understand the whole picture with your finances, which can prepare you to fight for the best outcome.
#3 A Partner After it is All Done
. That first year post divorce is one of the most important times as it will set the pace for you short and midterm future and can have tremendous psychological and financial ramifications. Attorneys can be necessary and fantastic partners through the divorce process, but are not meant to support clients after legal concerns are resolved. The traditional support system through this is friends and family, who are great at the emotional impacts but might not be the best when it comes to practical considerations.
Financial Planning can help build confidence in your decisions, keep you from making costly mistakes, and most importantly it can take some of the chaos of a post-divorce life off your plate and allow you to focus on processing the emotional burdens divorce may have left you with.
#4 A Partner for the Emotional Side
Financial Shame can cause you to ignore important financial decisions, or even cause detrimental behaviors. Emotional Spending can cripple a person’s finances for years to come and even impact the long-term lives of their children. Money Anxiety can make it hard to determine what financial decisions are best for you and often lead to unnecessary feelings of self-reproach. I could go on, but the point is clear: the emotional side of the post-divorce landscape is tremendous and often ignored. A therapist can help tremendously, but many of them are not trained in the financial side of this emotional burden.
A financial planner is aware of these common ailments and can help you overcome them, potentially giving you greater security in a time where your own self-doubts are a “what if” away.
#5 The Process Might be More Efficient
Financial Planners and Certified Divorce Financial Analysts™ are often less expensive than divorce attorneys. But when all you have to rely on is an attorney, financial and entirely non-legal questions don’t have anywhere else to go. Burdening your attorney with questions they aren’t equipped to answer is expensive, but more importantly it can slow down a process most people want to be over quickly.
A financial planner can help build your network of professional support. From CPAs to therapists, if different experts are providing their support on non-legal matters it frees up a divorce attorney to advocate for you in the way they are best equipped for.
- The opinions expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the views of LPL Financial. The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.
