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What is a Financial Neutral?  A financial neutral is a member of a collaborative divorce team or a mediator who helps couples find, organize and understand their financial information and facilitates a process of educating, visioning and creating a plan for settlement.  They often have the designation “Certified Divorce Financial Analyst” (or CDFA).

What are the Benefits? 

• Under the best of circumstances gathering financial information is complex, tedious and fraught with emotion, negative habits and fear. This gives a neutral, calm and supportive environment for that task.
• Helps the couple understand their finances in a comprehensive, integrated way without denial or avoidance. Look at it, shine a light on it, organize it and understand it.  These are tasks many of us spend a lifetime avoiding and yet are skills that can begin a process of transformation.
• Helps the couple understand assets, financial issues and the impacts of their decisions, short and long term.
• Helps them identify interests, the elements of a plan and how to assess it.
• Helps them come to reality from the magical thinking we all engage in from time to time, which can be so destructive.

What are the Qualities of Financial Professionals?

• They are trained in Collaborative practice and/or mediation.
• They have a breadth of knowledge in financial matters pertaining to families, including asset valuation, tax, cash management, budgeting, investments and retirement.
• They have a knowledge of fundamental legal concepts regarding financial issues in family law matters including marital and nonmarital property, equitable distribution, spousal support and child support.
• They have facilitative skills, are neutral, open minded, creative and are team players.
• They have an ability to educate persons who have an insufficient knowledge or understanding of the relevant financial concepts and present financial information in a clear and meaningful format.

What are the Tasks of a Financial Neutral?

• To help you identify your high end goals. Do you want each of you to have enough money to live comfortably? Own a home?  Have your respective lifestyles be approximately equal?  Retire early?  Get some education and start a new career?
• To create accurate reports of budgets, cash flow, asset and liability property division reports that are easily adjusted and recalculated for consideration of different options and ideas, including tax ramifications.
• To do long term projections for different options considered for support and property division, including retirement planning.

How Financial Neutrals Benefit Attorneys and Mediators

• They create reports to work with that get the case moving quickly.
• Save staff time and expense collecting and entering client information.
• Save money for clients. One financial neutral gathers information rather than two lawyers doing the same thing.
• Runs reports to show the effect of different settlement options in real time at negotiation meetings.
• Helps guide clients with reality checking as a neutral.