Need to talk to Julie now? Book your call.

“And I should be excited about estate planning because…?”

Divorce is hard. In many cases, it’s brutal. I know. I’m not only a CPA, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER^® professional, and a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst^® professional who provides divorce financial counseling for affluent women like you. I’m also divorced.

All the time, and effort, and stress, that you put into your divorce—dealing with your ex, and your family lawyer—can lead to an intense case of decision fatigue. It’s very real. I get it.

And now here I am, talking to you about estate planning! In a word, What??

Stay with me. This is important. Let me tell you why.

Let me get the bad part out of the way first. Estate planning involves 1) dealing with yet another lawyer (an estate attorney), and 2) having frank conversations about your own death. Cheery, huh?

But if the other side of this isn’t exactly great news, it sure is motivating:

Creating your estate plan ensures that your ex doesn’t get any of the money you’re awarded in your divorce.

Here’s another:

Creating an estate plan ensures that the maximum amount of your money goes to the people you want it to, as quickly as possible.

It helps you avoid what’s called probate: a lengthy legal court process that’s a last-resort option, kind of like going to trial in divorce.

As I work with divorcing women, they actually find the estate-planning process empowering: It’s often the first time they’ve taken charge of any financial decisions since they were married. It lets them plant their flag as their own person, post-divorce.

It entails creating lots of important documents, such as a will, a trust, a revocable living trust, a healthcare power-of-attorney document, a living will, a financial power-of-attorney document, a HIPAA authorization… are your eyes glazing over yet?

There are two big ways I can help:

1) Assuming you don’t know any great estate lawyers, turn to me. I do. I can refer you.

2) The huge overlooked part of estate planning is the implementation of the plan! The attorney helps you make the plan, but it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on unless you do big things like re-titling accounts into your trust, changing the beneficiaries on your accounts, and so on. Let me do all that hard work for you.

Remember: Make sure that money goes to your kids, or wherever you choose. Not your ex.

Contact me and let’s get you started on this important journey.

“And I should be excited about estate planning because…?”