Customer Reviews

J.K. Lasser Pro Guide to Tax and Financial Issues in Divorce

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nearly half this book is devoted to valuation of businesses for divorce purposes. If you or your spouse don't own a business, you may be better off with a different guide to divorce finance and taxes. Why spend money on book you'll only use half of?

This book is clearly designed for accountants and tax attorneys. While a layperson might find some of the checklists and so on helpful, there is also a lot of verbiage about sections of the tax code, and terminology a layperson would need to look up in the glossary. (Extra star for having a glossary, though!) I think there is a limit to how much a topic like this can be "simplified" --- it is irreducibly complex.

I was dismayed to see the number of editing errors in the book, especially given the high list price. Some of them are merely annoying, such as missing words or wrong word forms that make a sentence ungrammatical. However, some errors affect the content. In one paragraph about retirement plans, the first sentence was about "defined contribution plans"; the next sentence also started with "defined contribution plans" when it should have said "defined benefit plans". Someone who didn't already know better could be led astray by this error.

My advice: be forewarned that this book is highly technical, and buy it used unless you are a divorce professional who can write off the expense.

My rating: 3 stars, plus an extra star for the glossary

As a financial consultant with many clients who are going through or just been through a divorce, it is extremely important to have a reference book that provides complete information on all of the complex issues relating to this subject. This book does all of this and more. Not only do I intend to keep a copy in my office for reference, but I think this book provides such good information in easy to understand language that I intend to recommend it to my clients too. An excellent resource.

This book was very direct and practical. I found the easy-to-follow tools, checklists, work programs, flow charts, forms to be very helpful. This book makes me feel much more confident to help my clients.