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You know the law. Things like gifts and inheritances are separate, not community, property. If things were only so simple. It’s hard to think of a divorce case in which the separate and community funds were not eventually commingled, thus necessitating the topic of this article: Separate property tracing.

With a headline like “Don’t die on the hill of child support,” you’d think I was a callous individual, a Scrooge-like child-hater.

Know what a 529 Plan is? If you do, read on. If you don’t, read on. Quickly, a 529 Plan account is one that you create for your kids, to help them pay for college when they’re older.

Quick question: An affluent woman calls your office. She’s interested in retaining you as her attorney in her upcoming divorce. What’s the very first thing your front office person asks her?

If you take away nothing else from this article, know this: It doesn’t matter whose name is on that bank account or 401(k) account or whatever. When it comes to divorce, unless there was a prior agreement to the contrary, half of that money will be yours.

“Tax season” would seem to end on April 15th. Right? Well, for a lot of people, that answer is “Yes,” but for the affluent divorcing women that you and I both serve, the answer is more like “Not really.”

The AFI—the Affidavit of Financial Information—is perhaps the quintessential first step of your case with any divorce client. It’s also probably the step where things, all too often, grind to a halt.

There are lots of affluent business-owning men out there, who end up divorcing their wives. In many instances, the wife has spent many years helping to build that business. As a CPA, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional, and a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® professional who provides divorce financial counseling for affluent women, let me try and unpack some of the implications, for you, here.