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Tracy Stewart, CPA

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Peace of mind through financial clarity.

Why Collaborative Law Divorces Save You Time, Money and Hassle

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The collaborative law divorce process is the preferred process of educated couples seeking divorce. Like you, they want to save time, money and hassle. These couples like the benefit of being able to make decisions with the help of experienced collaborative professionals. These couples like being in control.

Collaborative couples don’t have to wait for lawyer responses or court dates. They can wind up their divorce at their own pace. When they have obligations in their “real” lives, they can schedule team meetings around those events. Their professional team works around the couple’s schedules instead of the court dictating their schedules.

Most collaborative alumni tell me they are now communicating better than when they were married. This is because they selected a Mental Health Professional for their team who taught them how to effectively communicate as co-parents.

Collaborative couples select a single neutral CPA who understands their financial situation. The neutral financial professional analyzes the finances to maximize how the redesigned family will cover the children’s expenses and spousal support. The collaboratively trained CPA helps the couple decide how to stretch their limited funds to benefit the entire family.

If you would like to learn more about collaborative law divorce options in Bryan/College Station, just let me know.

Divorce: Watching Out for Your Financial Future

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Bryan/College Station couples in divorce who stay out of court can get ahead financially by choosing the collaborative law divorce process. Unlike all the other divorce processes, collaborative law divorce provides a neutral financial advisor who has particular experience in helping couples move from we to me. You can save divorce costs and have a new financial plan that gets you going in your new life.

Divorce is one of the most stressful transitions you can face. Most individuals just want out, no matter what the cost. Unfortunately, without divorce financial advice, the cost can be very steep indeed. It can include decades of fighting in court and difficultly making ends meet. The usual financial planning structure does not work in divorce.

Your financial considerations hinge on the fact that you are moving from a couple to a couple of individuals. You and your spouse may have always differed in your financial planning opinions, but you had to compromise in some way during your marriage. After the divorce, each of you can make your own choices. This transition in planning is unique to divorce.

In a Bryan/College Station collaborative law divorce, you work with a team of experts trained by the Collaborative Law Institute of Texas. This includes attorneys for both sides, a neutral CPA/financial planner and a neutral divorce coach/child specialist. The neutral CPA develops a plan for splitting your property and is prohibited from taking either of you as a client after the divorce.

In mediation, you usually only have your attorney to advise you, missing the financial expertise of the collaborative law process. If a financial planner is engaged for a mediated divorce, that person can accept either party as a client after the divorce. This is a financial risk to you if your spouse promises to be a paying client after the divorce. Only the collaborative process ensures the protections of a truly neutral financial advisor.

 

I have worked on about 100 collaborative law divorces. If you would like my advice on which collaborative law attorneys to interview, feel free to contact me at stewart@texasdivorcecpa.com.

Know Your Options: Reduce Your Divorce Costs

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Bryan/College Station couples who are contemplating divorce struggle with the fear of running through all their money. You have heard stories of normal people like you having scorch the earth divorces, huge attorney fees and an empty retirement account when it is over.  You can avoid those horrors by understanding your divorce options.

At the basic level there are just three kinds of divorce processes. You and your spouse can choose the best on for you. I’ll give you my take on these from the vantage point of a financial advisor, not an attorney.

Do it yourself

This is the kitchen table option. I have seen this work best when couples have no minor children, no mortgage and no retirement savings. This option can be done without attorneys, if you have a very simple situation. I have seen couples with just one of those attributes (children, mortgage or retirement accounts) try to go the DIY route and crater before they could reach an agreement – but after they argued themselves into a tense situation. Your situation really does need to be simpler than simple for this process to work.

Lawyer up for litigation

This is the traditional route. You hire a lawyer and you start the old fashioned process. Each side demands the same information from each other. Attorney fees climb as each attorney prepares for trial. If you and your spouse don’t agree on everything, you will end up in mediation – and if that fails, you end up court. The cost of that is shocking plus you have lost control of the outcome. As bad as I have made this sound, there are cases that belong in litigation.

Get a collaborative law divorce

A Brazos County collaborative law divorce is one that operates under the protocols of the Collaborative Law Institute of Texas. You want to work with an attorney who has been trained by the Institute.  (I have been in cases with untrained attorneys. The divorces were painful and expensive.) In a collaborative law case, you are in control of the outcome, the speed and the cost. You learn how to co-parent with your ex-spouse. Everything is focused on helping the two of you resolve your differences with dignity and more forward to your newly defined lives. Everyone is sensitive to your costs and work with you to minimize the financial hit.

When you are ready to look for a divorce attorney in the Brazos County, contact me. I can help you find the divorce attorney who best fits your preferences.

 

Use Mutual Interests to Save Money in Divorce

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Understanding your mutual interests will help you and your spouse to negotiate a satisfactory divorce settlement. Traditional litigation does not foster mutual interests. Collaborative law divorces use mutual interests to get couples to quick, lower cost resolution. Savvy couples seek out the Brazos County collaborative law professionals. The lower cost of collaborative divorces means longer financial security for each spouse.

When couples head into divorce, rarely do they chat about their mutual interests. They usually lawyer-up and entrench in their respective positions. Then the long, slow process begins. Attorneys write letters back and forth. In Brazos County, they use snail mail. One begins to wonder if the attorneys are purposely dragging these divorces out as long as they can.

I’ve seen hundreds of divorces in Houston, Bryan, College Station and Austin. I have observed that in the litigation divorce style, the couple cannot see that they have mutual interests. In the collaborative law divorces, the couples use their mutual interests to get to a faster, lower cost settlement.

The collaborative divorce couples got themselves into a better process because they knew what to ask each attorney they interviewed. Each spouse asked attorneys whether they are collaboratively trained. Those attorneys who do both litigated and collaborative divorces have a wider range of tools to help their clients.

Collaboratively trained attorneys also understand that when couples work together in the collaborative process to reach a settlement based on their mutual interests, the case goes faster and their clients reach better settlements. All this means lower cost to the couple. That translates to financial security.

If you are concerned about dropping a lot of money on a divorce, work towards a collaborative settlement that is based on mutual interests. For help in effectively defining and achieving your mutual interests or in finding the best collaborative attorneys for you, contact me at stewart@texasdivorcecpa.com.

Divorce Mediation: Learn from the Boy Scouts

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To increase your odds of getting what you want in mediation, take a tip from the Boys Scouts: Be Prepared. Most of my Brazos County divorces include mediation. When you are prepared, you have a better chance of a successful outcome.

Develop a realistic settlement range. At the low end, know what your worst-case settlement looks like. At the high end, what is your dream settlement? Calculate your break-even point. These steps will prepare you to respond to various proposals that will come from your spouse during the mediation.

Identify what is essential to discuss at mediation. Make a list. Review it with your lawyer a few weeks before the mediation. The issues don’t have to be financial. One of my clients had a strong emotional issue regarding the old videotapes of her daughter’s early childhood. The mediation did not end until she and her husband resolved the issues surrounding those tapes.

Bring your starting offer. If you initiated the divorce, come to mediation with a written offer. Get the settlement discussions started right away. Your starting offer should not be your bottom line settlement scenario. Consult with your lawyer to pull this initial offer from somewhere within your realistic settlement range.

If you are getting a divorce in Brazos County or nearby counties, I can refer you to excellent divorce lawyers and mediators.

Six Steps to Post-Divorce Health Insurance Coverage

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Many of my clients in Houston and College Station are facing a health insurance answer during their divorce. They are unemployed and rely on their soon-to-be-ex spouse for health insurance coverage. What to do if you are in that situation?

  1. Find out if COBRA coverage is available under your spouse’s employer.
  2. In Texas, there are two kinds of COBRA, federal and state. The former offers 36 months of coverage after divorce while the latter offers 18 months. Find out which one is applicable to your situation.
  3. Get a quote on your cost of COBRA coverage from the employer.
  4. Seek quotes on individual policies from an independent health insurance advisor. (If you need a referral in Houston, send me an email at stewart@texasdivorcecpa.com.)
  5. Compare the coverage and costs of the COBRA and the individual policies.
  6. Be very careful with your timing when changing health insurance coverage from your current coverage to either COBRA or individual policy. Do not have even a day of lapse.

Most people want to put off this project. It seems intimidating. Break it down into these six steps. I cannot emphasize enough how important this issue is for your future financial security.

Broken Agreements in Broken Marriages

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Sometimes my College Station divorce clients come to the collaborative case with pre-existing spousal agreements. I am the neutral financial CPA on these cases. That means I am not an attorney and I don’t know the ins and outs of what attorneys do. But I have heard attorneys imply that these agreements don’t survive the entrance to a legal case. (Perhaps those were said by the attorney for the spouse who doesn’t like the agreement.)

By agreements, I am talking about things ranging from promises to give him/her the landscape painting to promises for support payments for “all” his/her living expenses.

If you have any pre-attorney agreements with your spouse, check with your attorney in your first meeting. Be clear about the agreements and what you think both you and your spouse said at the time. Be clear about your current intentions.

  • How will this be handled in my divorce case?
  • I didn’t agree to this, I just kept my mouth shut and now he/she is forcing this on me.
  • He/she promised to pay alimony for life. Can I really get that?
  • Can he/she really get credit for giving me something now that he/she already gave me as a gift years ago?
  • Is this agreement wiped out because we now have attorneys involved?
  • Can I make him/her honor this agreement now that we have started the legal part of this divorce?

In collaborative divorce cases there is a method to talk nicely about these expectations. I have been involved in these discussions dozens of times. It is best to get this resolved up front. Don’t hide from these issues. If you want to keep your costs down and get out as quickly as you can, be assertive about clearing the air on these old agreements.

I would like to hear about any broken agreements that you have experienced in divorce.

Six Rules for Social Security and Divorce

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If you are divorced and were married at least 10 years to your ex-spouse, you are entitled to a spousal or survivors Social Security benefits.

The following is from the 2011 AICPA CPA’s Guide to Social Security Retirement Benefits.

For ex-spouses …

  • You must have been divorced from this ex-spouse for at least 2 years before you can apply for the benefits.
  • You have not remarried before you turn age 60.
  • If you remarry before age 60, you will still qualify for the survivors benefit if your subsequent spouse dies or ends your marriage in divorce before you apply for the survivors benefit.
  • Your benefits as an ex-spouse do not change or affect on what children or new spouse (with your ex) could obtain.
  • As an ex-spouse, you can start collecting spousal benefits before the working spouse has begun taking his/her benefits.
  • If you remarry before age 60, you get to choose the better Social Security spousal benefits. You can compare your benefits under the ex-spouse rules and the current spouse rules and then pick the best.

For more information, check out the Social Security website.