Customer Reviews

Survival Manual for Women in Divorce

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

 

 

I bought this book to learn more about the financial planning aspects of divorcees. I am a financial planner who may target divorced women as one of my target markets.

A few years ago I served as financial and general counselor to one of my siblings who got divorced after 25 years of marriage. It was 18 months of total warfare from the time the intent to divorce was announced until the final divorce decree.

One area I was interested in was the use of present value for valuing the worth of defined benefit pension plans. In my sibling's divorce case, our legal counsel said there was no legal requirement to force the use of net present value. Our legal counsel said the custom in our area is to allow each spouse to keep their respective defined benefit plans....assuming they each have one. I also researched the statutes in our state of Illinois, as well as Illinois divorce appeals cases for precedent. All I found was that any type of valuation of defined benefit pension plans is agreeable as long as the both parties agree, or the judge rules that it an equitable agreement. Although there was a significant disparity in the present value of the defined benefit plans in my sibling's case, I decided it wasn't worth the emotional toll and legal expenses of forcing the use of net present value. This book mentions the use of net present value for determining the worth of defined benefit pension plans, but gives no further information on the subject.

This book also mentions college funding, but skips some major points. In many states, the courts can force the parents to pay for their children's college expenses....even if the parents did not intend to pay prior to the divorce. In Illinois, the practice is to make the three parties each pay a third (spouse 1, spouse 2, and child through work, grants, or loans).

This book also does a good job of pointing out the pitfalls of not realizing you may get an asset in the divorce settlement, but you may also get a huge tax bill on the unrealized capital gains when you sell it. The book mentions this, but forgets to put it on the checklist. I guess the assumption is that your accountant or financial planner will point this out to you.

Over-all, this book is an excellent guide to the divorce process and some of the pitfalls to be aware of.

I would suggest companion books to supplement this book including:
The Richest Man in Babylon
Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor
The Millionaire Next Door
The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio
A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, Ninth Edition

The Coffeehouse Investor: How to Build Wealth, Ignore Wall Street, and Get On With Your Life
The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing, Wealth: Grow It, Protect It, Spend It, and Share It
All About Asset Allocation.