Can You Benefit From A Financial Planner in Your Divorce?

One of the hallmarks of collaborative divorce is the involvement of mental health and financial professionals in your divorce. A recent article in the Huffington Post, "Divorce Financial Planners: Keeping Divorce Costs Down" discusses the cost of traditional divorce methods (including litigation and mediation).

It also offers five factors that can impact the cost of your divorce, including:

• The nature and complexity of the marriage (are there children? substantial assets? a business?)
• The couples' (or either spouse's) lack of financial knowledge or familiarity with his or her own (or the family's) finances (did one couple handle the finances?)
• The need to assess the value of assets (home, other properties, retirement accounts/pensions, businesses, stocks or other holdings)
• Each parties' emotional state, which may affect the duration and cost of the divorce process (the more emotional the process, the higher the cost likely is)
• Turnover with lawyers (your decision to fire your lawyers, or your lawyer's decision to fire you as a client)

Collaborative divorce can be less expensive than a traditional litigation, but that is only one possible benefit from choosing this process. Other benefits can include faster resolution (traditional settlement talks or litigation can takes months or years) and a better relationship between both parties after the divorce (inherent in the process is "collaboration" -- both parties working together to find a mutually agreeable decision).