Jeffrey H. Rattiner 
Personal Financial Planning for Divorce 

An insider’s guide on how professionals and consumers canminimize damages in the divorce process

Anyone planning for a divorce needs to learn strategiesnecessary to safeguard assets in advance of filing, how to copewith issues beyond their control, minimize the damage, andeffectively plan going forward after the divorce. Personal Financial Planning for Divorce is an insider’s guide on howboth professionals and consumers can prepare for, work through, negotiate, and plan equitable divorce settlements.

This helpful guide

* Contains all the guidelines for reducing damage throughout thedifficult process of divorce
* Includes examples of how not to handle the divorceprocess and how these issues should be handled
* Provides checklists, planning charts, forms and tables
* Features strategies to safeguard assets in advance of filingfor divorce and how to cope with issues beyond your control

Personal Financial Planning for Divorce covers the manyissues to help you understand exactly how divorce will affect youfinancially.

Table of Content

Preface.

Chapter 1 The Unthinkable.

Divorce from a Personal Financial Planning Perspective.

Divorce Etiquette.

Should You File?

Should You Separate or Divorce?

Types of Divorce.

What Will Others Think?

What to Do First: Looking at the Big Picture.

Taking the High Road.

Regrouping.

Informing the Children.

Coming to Grips with the Reality of the Situation: Representation.

Hiring an Attorney.

Involving Others: Your Support Team.

Becoming Too Passive.

What to Do Before You Leave Home for Good.

Rattiner’s Planning Tips.

Chapter 2 Minimizing the Damage.

Negotiating Your Way out of a Trial.

Early-on Negotiations.

Can You Negotiate What You Want?

Negotiating through Your Lawyer.

Last-Minute Negotiations: The Settlement Conference.

Take Care of Yourself–It’s All About Me.

Take Care of Your Family.

Protect Your Mail.

Protect Your Computer.

Close Joint Accounts.

Utilities.

Establish Your Own Credit.

Protect Your Separate Property.

Filing a Tax Return.

Relief from Joint Liability.

Temporary Support Agreements.

Reentering the Workforce.

Rattiner’s Planning Tips.

Chapter 3 Paying for Divorce.

Costs Involved.

What Should You Pay for in the Divorce?

How Long Will You Have to Pay These Expenses?

Creating a Budget.

Analyzing Your Income.

Going Solo.

Joint Assets.

How to Pay for It: Avoid Paying for Your Ex’s Legal Fees.

Rattiner’s Planning Tips.

Chapter 4 Plan of Attack: Let the Games Begin!

Taking Your Ex Out.

Litigation.

Anything Other Than Litigation.

Mediation.

Collaborative Divorce.

Arbitration.

The Preliminaries: Gathering the Evidence.

Rattiner’s Planning Tips.

Chapter 5 Alimony and Child Support Issues.

Alimony: Maintenance and/or Spousal Support.

Alimony Recapture: Too Much Alimony Paid Too Soon.1

Child Support.

Rattiner’s Planning Tips.

Chapter 6 Divorce Can Be Taxing!

Property Settlements.

Filing Status.

Sale of the Principal Residence.

Like-Kind Exchanges under IRC Section 1031.

Tax Credits Regarding Children.

Rattiner’s Tax Planning Tips.

Chapter 7 Retirement Plans.

Vesting Rules.

Types of Retirement Plans.

Understanding Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (QDRO).

Valuation of Retirement Plans.

Determining How Much of the Valuation Is Your Share.

Using Retirement Assets to Buy Out or Balance Out Equity.

Your Ex’s Remarriage or Death and Your Vested Pension Benefits.

Discovery of Retirement Plans.

Common Mistakes Pertaining to Retirement Plans.

Rattiner’s Planning Tips.

Chapter 8 Valuation Issues.

Property Division Issues.

Common Law versus Community Property.

Closely Held Business Valuation.

Stock Redemptions.

Partner Liquidations.

Stock Options.

Rattiner’s Planning Tips.

Chapter 9 Redesigning Your Personal Financial Plan after the Divorce.

The Personal Financial Process.

The New and Improved Game of Life: Executive Summary.

Designing the Personal Financial Plan.

The Personal Financial Planning Disciplines.

Rattiner’s Financial Planning Tips Checklist.

Chapter 10 Afterward: The 25 Steps to Future Success.

Recap.

Financial Planning Responsibilities That Need to Be Followed Up.

Other Critical Issues That Need Your Follow-up.

Rattiner’s Planning Tips.

Chapter 11 Planning for Same-Sex Couple Divorces: Issues Specific to These Couples.

Domestic Partnership Agreement/Cohabitation Agreement.

Last Will and Testament.

Rattiner’s Planning Tips.

Appendix: Charts and Forms.

About the Author.

Index.

About the author

Jeffrey H. Rattiner, CPA, CFP®, MBA, RFC, is a well-known professional speaker, educator, and author ofnine major financial books, including the bestsellers Rattiner’s Review for the CFP® Certification Examin-ation, Fast Track Study Guide (Wiley) and Getting Started as a Financial Planner. Rattiner is a leading innovator on financial planning educational topics and his program, Rattiner’s Financial Planning Fast Track®, continues to raise the industry bar by training financial services professionals to obtain their Certified Financial Planner® (CFP) certification in an accelerated format nationwide. He lectures to many large financial services organizations, has been a columnist for many of the industry trade publications, has been named to the 2003 CPA All-Stars in Personal Financial Planning by CPA Magazine, and has been quoted in many trade and consumer publications.