Nolo's Essential Guide to Divorce - Emily Doskow [180]
Good Noncourt Divorce Websites
Good Noncourt Divorce Websites (continued)
Help With Negotiations
If you and your spouse need help negotiating the terms of your divorce settlement, but aren't beyond the point of being able to communicate or compromise with one another, you might want to try divorce mediation. You'll have the help of a neutral third party, called a mediator, who will sit down with both of you to try to help you resolve all of the issues in your divorce. The mediator doesn't make any decisions; that's up to you and your spouse. But a mediator can be a huge help in communicating with each other and coming to an agreement. Mediation is increasingly popular throughout the legal system, and especially so in family law cases. It's affordable, it's civilized, and it works. Chapter 4 deals with divorce mediation in depth. You can also ask a lawyer to coach you in your negotiations. See "Legal Advice," below.
Financial Advice
There are quite a few types of financial professionals who can get involved in a divorce. You won't need to hire them all, but paying for some expert financial help during divorce is sometimes a very wise investment.
Accountants
Even though a lawyer may be the first kind of professional you think of when it comes to a divorce, you may find just as much occasion to seek help from an accountant. An accountant can help you figure out the tax consequences of:
• spousal support (whether you pay or receive it)
• property division
• filing status on your income tax return, and
• dependent exemptions.
An accountant can also help you prepare your tax returns and keep your finances in order by working with you on budgeting and organization. And a specialized forensic accountant is trained to find hidden assets and financial wrongdoing.
Personal referrals are a great way to locate an accountant you can work with. If you have a lawyer helping you with your divorce, the lawyer will surely know trusted accountants. If neither of these avenues gets you there, you could try a website like www.cpadirectory .com, which lists accountants by area and verifies that their licenses are current.
Actuaries
Actuaries are financial professionals whose job is to evaluate riskin other words, to try to predict the future to the greatest extent possible. In a divorce, the most common job for an actuary is to value retirement benefits by predicting the future return on the marital portion of a spouse's pension. How they do that is pretty technical; that's why you hire them.
The best way to find an actuary to help value your retirement plan is through a lawyer. If you don't have one yet but you're planning on hiring a lawyer to review your settlement agreement or do some other limited task, consider getting a jump on that and asking the lawyer for a referral to an actuary. You can also find referrals on some divorce websites (see "Other Websites," above).
You might want to try to find an actuary who's a member of the American Academy of Actuaries and the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries (ASPPA), so that you'll know the actuary's focus is on retirement benefits.
Credit Counselors
If you have lots of debt and are having difficulty managing it, a credit counselor may be able to help you get back on track. Some nonprofit agencies offer credit counseling services, both locally and through national agencies such as the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. (See www.nfcc.org or call 800-388-2227.) You may also find credit counseling at local universities, military bases, or credit unions.
There are lots of commercial credit counseling services, too, but some charge high fees and not all are reputable. The Federal Trade Commission can help you get started finding a good credit counseling service at www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/fiscal.htm.