The Complete Guide to Protecting Your Financial Security When Getting a Divorce [Paperback]

Alan Feigenbaum (Author), Heather Linton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 19, 2004

A complete guide to financial self-defense for people facing divorce

Written by two noted divorce planning experts, this book arms readers with the knowledge and tools they need to make it through a divorce with their financial skins intact. Readers learn of all the financial risks and ramifications involved, as well as how to prepare themselves for any eventuality. And they get proven strategies for negotiating the best possible financial solution, along with valuable work sheets, checklists, and sample documents. Among other important lessons, readers learn how to:

• Construct a solid financial action plan when divorce seems imminent
• Get a complete picture of family finances, including the low down on a spouse's small business or intellectual assets
• Negotiate a win-win financial settlement
• Choose the best settlement method, from options including mediated, arbitrated, and collaborative agreements
• Avoid tax penalties and pitfalls and deal with retirement nest egg, 401(k), and SSI issues

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Revolutionary new recipes for dividing the divorce pie

Whether you've been stunned by your spouse's divorce atomic bombshell or have dropped one yourself, you must avoid its potentially fatal financial fallout. The Complete Guide to Protecting Your Financial Security When Getting a Divorce helps both men and women survive economically, and ultimately thrive, with actionable how-to instructions and explanations such as:

• Learn why an even split now is often anything but equitable later, and how to base a fair settlement on cash-flow and net-worth projections appropriate to your marriage's "economic history."
• Find out when and why mediation or arbitration, mostly do-it-yourself, or the new "collaborative-attorneys divorce" are preferable to traditional adversarial-attorney divorce, as well as determine needs for other specialized professional advice.
• Construct sold financial-action plans--for before, during and after the divorce--that control expenses and use optimal tax planning to preserve the maximum marital assets.
• Understand complex property and support issues such as commingled funds, both spouses' rights to pensions and social security, business valuation, creative management of the marital home, and front-loaded spousal support.

About the Author

Alan Feigenbaum, C.F.P. (Chapel Hill, NC) has written regular columns and features for Bloomberg Wealth Manager, CBS Market- Watch, Worth Interactive and Raging Bull.

Heather Linton, C.P.A., C.F.P. (Chapel Hill, NC) is a certified divorce planner with 10 years of experience.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (March 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071410325
• ISBN-13: 978-0071410328
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #344,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Detailed!!, May 23, 2006

By 

Diana Dickinson "Divorce Mediator" (Tulsa, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Guide to Protecting Your Financial Security When Getting a Divorce (Paperback)

Helps you to understand the complexity of marital debt/assets. In doing post-divorce mediation, the aftermath is worse than the initial filing of the divorce petition. Here we have two consenting adults reigning over the financial thrones of the other. Leaving their financial future in the hands of someone bitter will only gain negative results. What makes one think the court order will enforce resolution? The other party may not feel the urge to pay out of malice. This can lead to foreclosures, collection calls, garnishments, jdgements/liens, (ALL in YOUR name!!!) and frustration.

Being obligated on debt/assets and assuming resolution is a narrow-minded field of scope. This book describes the wide range of capacity in which you should consult with your attorney to ensure fair equitable distribution and negotiation. A mediator is usually sought out or court-ordered for disputes such as this.

Support issues such as commingled funds, both spouses' rights to pensions and social security, equitable business, equitable mortgage , child support, spousal support, and other dividends are dissertated in this book.

This book has so much information in it that is very useful to me as a practitioner. Divorcing couples need to get this for the outcome of what is to be.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Protecting Your Financial Security, July 11, 2010

By 

luv2paint "fireflyfirefly2" (usa) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Complete Guide to Protecting Your Financial Security When Getting a Divorce (Paperback)

The book shares some good advice and some of the situations you may encounter. This was very helpful, but no book can anticipate the problematic financial situations one may encounter in their individual divorce. There are situations in which you face not only an unpleasant situation, but the negative, dark side of human nature...in your mate and yourself!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great guidance, August 25, 2009

By 

kbduck - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Guide to Protecting Your Financial Security When Getting a Divorce (Paperback)

This book was written to make you THINK through the process on multiple levels. It is great for those who are simply contemplating divorce, as well as those who've decided to proceed. It suggests a number of additional trustworthy resources. Definitely worth the read before proceeding.