How are women entrepreneurs… as divorce clients?
Julie Kern, CPA, CFP®, CDFA®
Book a no-obligation chat with Julie right now
In this issue:
- New: Settlement Assurance Review
- How are women entrepreneurs… as divorce clients?
- AFI service
New: Settlement Assurance Review
For every time you’ve been faced with a complex case—such as one with a lump-sum spousal-maintenance payout, or a complicated asset mix with hidden tax implications—and told your client, “You should talk to your tax or financial advisor,” I have a new service for them… and you.It’s simple. When you and your client are considering a settlement, I can review it from a financial-expert perspective, for a nominal fee, and “bless it” (or not) before you go to court or mediation. The Settlement Assurance Review scrutinizes your client’s divorce settlement terms before finalization, providing:
- Equitability analysis: A detailed evaluation to ensure the proposed settlement terms are fair and well-balanced.
- Tax impact assessment: Identification and explanation of any potential negative tax implications.
- Risk mitigation review: Detection of any hidden financial risks or liabilities that could impact your client’s financial well-being, post-divorce.
During these reviews, I often discover hidden negative tax implications and other undesirable outcomes and risks that would be detrimental to your client. This can significantly reduce your liability exposure, while giving your client added confidence, and making you look even better in the process!
By partnering with us, you can confidently assure your clients that their financial interests are fully protected and their settlements optimized for both fairness and financial clarity.
Contact me and I can help you easily get your clients started with this.
How are women entrepreneurs… as divorce clients?
In most of these articles—and most of the cases I handle as a CPA, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional, and a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® professional —the divorcing woman is the “out spouse,” financially.
Sometimes they’re not. There could be, say, a big inheritance. But I’d like to discuss a very specific type of affluent women here: Entrepreneurs.
These women have unique personalities and needs. And there are pros and cons to both, from your perspective as an attorney—and from my perspective as a financial pro who’s here to help the two of you.
Not your stereotype Type A
A successful woman entrepreneur is an active person. She’s used to delegating. Calling the shots. Driving things to completion.
So the good news is that she’ll be motivated to see the case through to its completion, as soon as possible. While she’ll expect regular updates from you, she’ll generally leave you alone between them.
As a person who’s used to getting paid well for what she does, she can appreciate others, like you, who get paid well for their expertise. So she won’t be as fee-sensitive as many other divorcing-women clients.
She’ll also know her stuff. She’ll be well-versed in things like stock options, business entities, high-level executive compensation, and taxes. And like men (at least in my experience), she’ll be better than most women at “compartmentalizing” her divorce: That is, she won’t be sitting in her corner office crying all day. CEOs don’t do that.
So far, so good. But there are down sides. As someone who’s used to delegating, she may well treat you like an employee: “You work for me; what’s going on?” She can be high-maintenance and prone to conflict. You’ll need thick skin.
Of course, her ability to push the divorce through quickly can be limited by other factors… such as her husband! I’ve seen plenty of successful women entrepreneurs whose husbands are—I’ll be blunt—lazy hangers-on. (I’ve got a great article I wrote about one of these guys whom I nicknamed “Barnacle Bill.” Check it out.)
How I can help
An executive woman like this will want to know, “How much am I going to have to pay to get rid of this guy, and how much will I have left?”
Here, I can step in and give her—and you—the information you both crave. She’s an executive; let me serve her up with an executive summary. I excel (pun intended) at organizing data so it’s easily understood—with both the big-picture summary and the drill-down into the supporting details.
Remember that there are three parties in any divorce: The husband, the wife, and the IRS. I can help with the tax implications, because, now that she’s divorcing, this woman likely won’t want to use the same tax advisor who had served both her and her husband all these years. With me in the picture, it creates an added level of confidentiality that the husband isn’t party to.
For example, her spousal-maintenance payments are no longer tax-deductible, so I can help craft a buyout that not only costs less (since it’s discounted as an upfront lump-sum payment), but also eliminates the psychological pain of “paying him every single month.”
For high-power entrepreneurs—or any woman in a high-asset divorce case—I can help you craft the best possible settlement, look like an even bigger hero to your client, and move your case load along.
Contact me today and let’s chat.
AFI service
Seeing how often improperly-completed AFIs can frustrate attorneys like you, I’ve created an all-new service: I’ll help your divorcing-women clients complete their AFI, within one week of getting the supporting documents (bank and credit-card statements, etc.). And I’ll do it for them for a flat fee of just $495.
So they—and you—will have a good, solid AFI that opposing counsel can’t poke holes in, for a flat fee, in fast time.
Contact me today to get started!
