When you are generally in good health, you don’t need to see a cardiologist. Your family doctor can handle your needs. However, when you have a serious heart problem, you see a specialist because they have the training and experience to provide you with the best advice. It’s the same thing when it comes to your finances. When everything is fairly status quo, working with a traditional financial advisor is great. However, when you’re going through a divorce or have recently come out on the other side, you need financial advice from a specialist. 

People think their attorneys should know these things to get them the best settlement. The reality of the situation is: the attorney doesn’t necessarily know any better. It isn’t because they’re trying to harm you, many of them truly don’t know any better because they’re not numbers people; that’s not their specialty. You wouldn’t seek out an attorney for medical advice, would...

With quarantine underway, it has created a lot of uncertainty for parents who are experiencing heightened responsibilities outside of their regular routine. And, when you're co-parenting this can amplify your concerns around commuting your children back and forth and deciding what is best for their health. 

Maybe you're asking yourself…

Is it safe to have my children traveling to multiple locations? 

What are the risks of them contracting it if one parent is an essential worker? 

How do I put aside my emotions to do what is best for my children's health right now?

Where should the children spend quarantine?

By law, you and your co-parent will need to abide by your shared parenting agreement. However, some co-parents are making the difficult decision to create a temporary arrangement with clear guidelines, travel restrictions, and proper adjustments to diminish exposure of the virus between pick-ups and drop-offs. With that being said, a large number of...

When people think about infidelity, they typically think about one spouse or the other cheating with another person. However, did you know there's an entirely different type of infidelity that may not even involve another person? It's called financial infidelity.

If you think that your spouse is committing financial infidelity, there are warning signs. From large purchases on their own to small things that can add up to significant issues, here are the top signs of financial infidelity. 

Related post: 3 Key Things You Probably Don't Know About Infidelity

What is Financial Infidelity? 

Financial infidelity occurs when one spouse or partner hides information relating to finances from the other partner. That could include excessive spending, using family funds to help a friend without telling your spouse, increasing credit card balances, or even gambling. Financial infidelity not only has the ability to completely destroy any trust within a marriage or partnership but...

by Laura Miolla, Certified Coach, Mediator and Parentology Coach

Infidelity is a LOADED word. You think you know what it means. You might know how it feels. You definitely don’t want it to happen to you. The very thought of it creates an immediate knee-jerk reaction of fear and anxiety. Like most people, you probably define infidelity as cheating … sexual relations outside of the marriage … and yet, that definition only scratches the surface of what infidelity REALLY is and how it can sabotage your marriage.

1. There are THREE Types Of Infidelity

Infidelity is defined as “the action or state of being UNFAITHFUL to a spouse.”  And there are THREE types of infidelity, not just one: Emotional, Physical and Financial.

• Emotional Infidelity is when your spouse is emotionally intimate with someone else.
• Physical Infidelity is when they are sexually intimate with someone else.
• Financial Infidelity is when they are spending money or...

If you and your spouse are going through the process of a divorce in court, the judge will try to ensure that all of your shared property is divided fairly or equally, depending on the laws in your state. However unpleasant it is to consider, there is a possibility that your spouse could be concealing some of the marital assets in an attempt to keep more for themselves. 

In this post, we’ll go through some of the most common ways someone might try to hide their assets. The better you know what to look out for, the easier it’ll be to spot the inconsistencies and make sure you get your fair share. 

Related post: How to Find Hidden Assets in a Divorce

Tricky Transfers

A relatively simple way a divorcing spouse might hide financial assets is by taking money out of a joint account in both of your names or from a brokerage account. They would then transfer that money to an account only in their name. 

Your spouse could also transfer money to a friend, rather...

Divorce can significantly impact your life in many ways.  One often overlooked area that divorce can affect is your credit score.  Credit bureaus do not report marital status and divorce itself doesn’t necessarily mean your score will drop.  Usually, your credit score is affected indirectly due to divorce. To keep your score from taking a dive, it’s essential to consult with your Certified Divorce Financial Analyst to help you navigate your finances before, during, and after your divorce is final.

Keep Your Divorce from Destroying Your Credit

Maintaining a good credit score isn’t just important when looking to borrow money.  Landlords, utility companies, and current or future employers can use your FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation) credit score to determine if they want to do business with you.  The amount of debt you carry will identify to lenders whether or not you are a low or high-risk borrower and change your score. Your FICO score...

Starting over financially after divorce can feel overwhelming on numerous levels. If you are recently divorced, you could still be handling your legal bills related to the divorce. Besides, you are likely trying to manage your expenses on a lower income than what you're used to while only seeing half your assets when you open your investment statements.

Related post: Tips for Rapidly Rebuilding After a Divorce or Separation

5 Tips for Starting Over Financially After a Divorce:

Eliminate Debt

If you walked away from your marriage with debt, look at ways to reduce your interest rates or reorganize to eliminate it. If you can't eliminate it right away, begin paying it down aggressively. Your monthly cash flow will be so much stronger if you're not paying down debt every month. When I am working with people on their divorce settlement, we often look for creative ways to eliminate the debt for both parties so they can each have a fresh start.

Related post: Debt and Divorce:...

Handling small businesses in divorce mediation presents several challenges and added complexity to the process. For starters, there may be other owners involved in the company, or it could have been a business passed down within a family. The value of the company under consideration for the asset division is typically the value created during the marriage. Sometimes that substantial, and sometimes there is little to no value to divide.

If you were negotiating your divorce settlement through attorneys or at trial, you would likely rely on a business valuation or possibly two competing expert reports. 

Most people who choose mediation to settle their divorce choose it because they don't want to waste marital assets on the divorce itself. Thus, paying $10,000-20,000 for business valuations does not make a lot of sense.

Related post: 10 Ways to Save Money on Your Divorce

Not only does the valuation add quite a bit of cost to the process, but it can also add quite a bit of time to...

It's that time of year again where many of us are considering how we might be better or do better in the new year with New Year's resolutions. If parenting with your ex has been a significant struggle in your life, I want to challenge you to resolve to be a better co-parent this year. If you don't want to do it for yourself, do it for your children.

Divorce not only takes a toll on the divorcing couple, but it also affects the rest of the family. This is especially evident if you have young children. Even though it's tough to hide the negative feelings that surface during a divorce, it's extremely important that you work at managing those feelings constructively if you don't want them to affect the kids.

Avoid the mistake of believing that your adult problems are too complicated for your children to understand. Although young children may not understand words like "irreconcilable differences," they're very intuitive and impressionable. Even babies can tell when their parents are at...

Discernment counseling is a unique approach to helping couples decide what they should do about their marriage. While traditional couples’ therapy typically has an end goal of saving the marriage or saving the relationship, discernment counseling allows couples to work through different processes and determine if staying together is the right choice. 

Irreconcilable Differences

Perhaps one of the biggest reasons for divorce is irreconcilable differences. This is a common cause and probably one of the hardest hurdles to get over for people who are trying to save a marriage. If your partner is unwilling to work with you to even determine whether divorce is the right choice, discernment counseling might be the best way to go.

There are many issues that come up in marriage, from family life to finances and other stressors. Whether you and your partner handle these the same way can have an impact on the success of your marriage. If you feel your marriage is heading toward...