Pinnacle offices in the National Capital region are closed today due to inclement weather. All office and weather updates will be posted to PNFP.com/Weather.
Pinnacle offices in the National Capital region are closed today due to inclement weather. All office and weather updates will be posted to PNFP.com/Weather.
Divorce is one of the most stressful occurrences in a person’s life and the lives of their family members. In fact, on the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale (a historic research study that measured the correlation between stressful life events and future illness), divorce is second only to the death of a spouse as a predictor of future health problems.
Now, with the addition of the COVID-19, many families have experienced lost jobs, illness, closed schools—and forced togetherness. The New York Post reported that all of this led to a 34 percent increase in divorce filings from March through June of 2020, as compared to 2019--with the Southern states being the hardest hit. Historically, couples often waited until the holidays were over, making January the month with the highest number of filings.
While we pray no one ever has to go through a divorce, there is a resource that will provide careful planning and mitigate some of this stress and take the uncertainty out of the financial aspects.
A Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA®) can provide the analysis necessary to ensure that a couple’s divorce is equitable for both parties. An “equitable” divorce doesn’t necessarily mean an “equal” one. To ensure that both parties have financially secure futures 10, 20, even 30 years down the road, a fair division of property must be calculated at the time of the divorce settlement.
Here are some of the things CDFAs are specifically trained to analyze:
With expenses already very high during a divorce, people don’t always think of hiring a CDFA. However, in many cases, clients already have a financial advisor who manages their investments. If that advisory firm has a CDFA on staff, like we do here in The Oakley Group at Pinnacle, the CDFA’s services are already included in the amount you pay to have your money managed.
Bottom line--a CDFA can become the best partner for spouses and their attorneys during a divorce and hopefully help turn a very difficult life event into a manageable one.
"Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future." – Robert H. Schuller
Bev Herbert, CDFA® is a senior vice president with The Oakley Group at Pinnacle Financial Partners and client services director with Raymond James Financial Services. She is based in Nashville, TN, and can be reached by phone at 615-743-8995 or by email at Bev.Herbert@pnfp.com.
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