Get financial advice before your divorce

Stephanie Fritts is a CEO and founder of a company that provides a virtual assistant for small business and entrepreneurs. She’s business savvy, which is why going to the financial

adviser that she and her soon-to-be ex-husband had used during their marriage seemed the best course to an amicable split. “Neither one of us wanted to go the lawyer route because lawyers

tend to stir things up and make them more difficult. We were both in agreement on that,” says Fritts, 55, of Austin, Texas. “That’s why we initially went to our financial adviser.” The

couple — married for 21 years — learned “it’s not as simple as dividing all assets down the middle when it comes to divorce,” she says. That prompted her to seek a financial adviser with a

divorce specialty known as a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA). She hadn’t heard of it before, but those with the extra training know more about divorce laws and procedures,

including tax issues, marital and separate property, and pensions and retirement plans, as well as child and spousal support. The pair agreed to separate in May 2021, but Fritts says she

didn’t file for divorce until the financial details were completed in September. By the end of the year, the divorce was final. “We could not have done it ourselves,” Fritts says. Fritts is

among the now divorced or those in the midst of divorce after a long marriage who are learning about this divorce specialty. Increasing numbers are opting for financial advisers with extra

training to bypass what can be lengthy and costly negotiations through lawyers. Marital splits are never easy. But because divorce laws differ by state, so much depends on where you live,

how long you’ve been married, what you’ve earned, and your future earnings and benefits. Getting to a workable agreement before lawyers write the divorce decree can well be a money-saving

move. WORKING WITH FINANCIAL PLANNERS IN DIVORCE Michelle Smith, of Manhattan, has been a financial adviser for 29 years and received her CDFA in 2004. It’s offered by the Institute for

Divorce Financial Analysts, based in Durham, North Carolina. “We can uncover the financial hot issues sooner,” she says. “I get started before the lawyers are hired, and then they get the

lawyers involved.” Attorney Brent Cashatt, president of the nonprofit American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, says lawyers don’t view financial experts who are well versed in divorce laws

as competition for a divorcing couple’s dollars. “I don’t do cases now without business advisers,” he says. “It helps through the entire process. I always tell my clients to get a forensic

accountant or business expert to explain to them better than I can.” “The hourly rate and retainer and overall fees of a financial adviser are generally less than an attorney,” says Cashatt,

of Des Moines, Iowa. “I never had a case where someone had spent $10,000 to $15,000 on a financial adviser or a business evaluation expert or a forensic accountant where it wasn’t worth

it.”