Do You Have the Right People on Your Divorce Team?

"Nothing matters more in winning than getting the right people on the field. All the clever strategies and advanced technologies in the world are nowhere near as effective without great people to put them to work." Jack Welch, Winning

Many times in a divorce, we are more focused on curing the problem at hand, i.e., distributing real property and assets, that we forget there is life after divorce. The biggest challenge is the lack of knowledge, understanding, and preparedness of how the various pieces of the divorce puzzle fit together and indeed overlap.

One of the primary keys to a successful divorce is understanding the various puzzle pieces of a divorce involving real property as well as assembling your professional divorce team. The intersection of family law, financial and tax planning, real property, and mortgage planning is real.

It takes teamwork to bring the typical divorce settlement together. There are usually quite a few people involved from divorcing clients, attorneys, financial planners, mediators, real estate agents, appraisers, and mortgage professionals.

Who's on Your Team Really Does Matter!

In many divorce settings, negotiations break down over financial issues or concerns, oftentimes leading to litigation. The CDLP™ is a trained professional who offers both parties a balanced, thorough financial evaluation of the current mortgage and future mortgage financing requirements and offers realistic solutions to obstacles in negotiations.

Depending on each individual situation, the CDLP™ can perform a variety of functions in a divorce, such as:

Assisting with the collaborative process by offering solutions and needs for both spouses to obtain immediate and future mortgage financing.
Providing guidance on the affordability and financing needs to support an Equity Buy-Out and refinance of the marital home.
Offering an analysis of the ability of one spouse to meet mortgage financing guidelines using support income such as maintenance and/or child support as qualifying income.
Analyzing debt pay-off situations to meet mortgage financing requirements and offering solutions for pay-offs.
Identifying and gathering necessary financial documentation to assist with mortgage financing needs.

In all scenarios, the CDLP™ is focused on assisting clients and lawyers in generating feasible divorce mortgage planning options and understanding the future financial impact of those options. A Divorce Mortgage Planner should not only be savvy when it comes to various mortgage planning issues but also be keen problem solvers and be able to offer realistic solutions to guide decision-making.

The CDLP™ brings tremendous value to the divorce team during the settlement process. Their background knowledge of family law, financial and tax planning, real property, and mortgage financing allows them to better support and assist the divorce team and divorcing homeowners.

Do you have questions about how divorce may impact your ability to obtain mortgage financing? A Certified Divorce Lending Professional's (CDLP™) knowledge and experience can help make the transition much smoother and successful for all parties involved.

Working with a Certified Divorce Lending Professional (CDLP™) and incorporating Divorce Mortgage Planning into the divorce settlement may help both spouses obtain new mortgage financing post-divorce.

Contact a CDLP™ today for a copy of the Divorcing your Mortgage Homeowner Workbook, a guide to credit, real estate, and mortgage financing after divorce. This workbook will help you get organized, be prepared, and understand your mortgage financing position whether you are needing to refinance the marital home in an Equity Buy-Out situation or prepare to sell and purchase a new home post-divorce.

This is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal or tax advice. You should contact an attorney or tax professional to obtain legal and tax advice. Interest rates and fees are estimates provided for informational purposes only and are subject to market changes. This is not a commitment to lend. Rates change daily – call for current quotations. The information contained in this newsletter has been prepared by, or purchased from, an independent third party and is distributed for consumer education purposes.