"There are many designations for a financial expert, including: financial planner, Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®), Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC®), Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Chartered Accountant (CA), Certified General Accountant (CGA), accountant, and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® (CDFA™).

The role of the financial planner, CFP®, or ChFC® is to help people achieve their financial goals regardless of whether they are divorcing or happily married. After determining the client’s goals, the next step is to take an inventory of current assets and liabilities and then the planner looks at what needs to be done to achieve the client’s goals.

These goals can be from one year to 50 years in the future. To look that far into the future, certain assumptions need to be made. Assumptions include income, expenses, inflation rates, interest rates, and rates of return on investments. The assumptions need to be reviewed on a regular basis. If during the review process the planner determines that the client is not on track, the planner will then make recommendations as to what changes need to be made to get back on track. In other words, the financial planner looks at financial results in the future based on certain assumptions made today to see if the client is on track to meet their stated goals and objectives.

Conversely, an accountant typically looks at the details of the scenario as it is today and makes no future projections. In a divorce, they are hired to calculate the tax effect of dividing property and the effect of spousal and child support for one or two years. They typically do not project further into the future. They may also be retained to perform an audit of account activity or to perform forensic accounting functions to help find “hidden assets”.

To best meet the needs of divorcing clients, you need a blend of these two ideologies; the professional designation CDFA™ was created to fill this need. The role of the CDFA™ is to assist the client and his/her attorney to understand how the financial decisions he/she makes today will impact the client’s financial future based on certain assumptions.

A CDFA™ is someone who comes from a financial planning, accounting, or legal background and goes through an intensive training program to become skilled at analyzing and providing expertise on the financial issues of divorce."*

The partners at Fresh Start, are Certified Divorce Financial Analysts and experienced finance industry professionals. Our Fresh Start Financial Services team will provide an easy to understand process and intuitive workbooks to help you gather all your relevant financial information with relative ease.

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*Credit: Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts