The marital home is where divorce settlements break. Not during negotiation, when it can still be fixed, but after signing, when the language is final, and the lender says no.
This page is a working reference for family law attorneys, mediators, judicial officers, and divorce financial professionals. It is organized by where real property decisions actually fail, not by our services. Everything here is free to read, no form.
The Alignment Series™
Most divorce work happens in disciplines that do not talk to each other. The Alignment Series addresses what happens when the legal, financial, and lending evaluations of the same house disagree, and the agreement is signed before anyone notices.
Accredited for family law attorneys (CLE), mediators (CME), financial professionals (CE) and judicial officers (CJE). Sessions are live, virtual, free to attend, and recorded for registrants.
Upcoming sessions
Start where your case is
Six places the marital home turns a signed agreement into an unexecutable one.
Can this client actually keep the house?
Wanting the house and qualifying to hold it are different questions, and the second is answered by a lender months after the first is decided in mediation.
- The Real Cost of Keeping the House in DivorceWhat the payment, the taxes, the insurance and the deferred maintenance do to a single income budget.
- Why the Divorce Buyout Formula Fails: Four AdjustmentsThe standard equity split, and the four things it leaves out.
- Equity Buyouts Are Not AutomaticWhy an awarded buyout is a financing question, not a property division question.
- The Financial Blind Spots in Divorce Real Property DecisionsWhat tends to be missed on the way to a number everyone agrees on.
Whose name comes off the mortgage, and when?
The most common and most costly misunderstanding in divorce real property work. A deed transfers ownership. It does not remove anyone from the debt.
- Can One Spouse Assume the Mortgage, Releasing the Ex-Spouse?The question itself, and why the answer is two separate acts.
- The Hidden Risk in Loan Assumptions During DivorceWhy an assumption does not automatically release the departing spouse.
- Clarifying the Garn St Germain ActWhat the federal protection covers, and what it does not.
- A Simple Release of Liability Helps Divorcing Veterans with VA LoansWhere the veteran keeps the house, VA does not require an assumption at all.
What is it worth, and worth as of when?
The valuation date, the valuation method, and who selects the appraiser are all negotiable while the agreement is a draft. None of them are afterward.
- Valuing Real Property in Divorce: A Legal Professional's Guide
- The Appraisal Trap: Why Every Settlement Needs an Appraisal Contingency
- What Makes a Divorce Appraisal Different
- Appraisal vs. Comparative Market AnalysisWhy the number a real estate agent gives you is not the number a lender will use.
What income exists, and what will a lender actually count?
A divorce can create several income streams. Some of them qualify; some do not, and the difference often depends on how the agreement is written while it is still a draft.
What the deed does and does not do
Post-decree ownership problems are usually created at signing and discovered years later, when someone tries to sell, refinance, or borrow against the property.
What the agreement can and cannot compel
A court can order a party to refinance. It cannot order a lender to approve one. Most of the damage in this category comes from language that assumed otherwise.
- What a Divorce Settlement Can and Cannot Do About the Mortgage
- Why Hypotheticals Become Unexecutable Decrees
- Language Traps in Divorce Settlement AgreementsSpecific clauses that read cleanly and cannot be performed.
- Mortgage Fraud in Divorce LendingThe occupancy and disclosure exposures nobody raises at the table.
Two reports on assumption and release of liability
We read the statutes, regulations, and agency guidance, quote them, and say plainly what they do and what they do not do. Both reports are free, carry no form, and are free to quote unaltered with attribution.
Written for the professionals who draft the agreements these rules apply to.
The Divorce Assumption Report
Three states have now enacted legislation on divorce-related mortgage assumptions. The statutes read in their enacted form, set against the federal baseline and the investor rules underneath, and what none of them do. Includes a fifty-state status table.
Read the reportThe Military Divorce Assumption Report
VA loans in both directions: the veteran who keeps the house, where VA does not require an assumption at all, and the veteran who leaves, where the entitlement stays encumbered until the loan is paid in full.
Read the reportContinuing education
Accredited coursework, built on divorce mortgage planning rather than on general mortgage material. The Alignment Series is at the top of this page.
Integrating Divorce Mortgage Planning Into Your Financial Case Management
Four CDFA® hours and four and a half CFP® hours, for divorce financial analysts and planners who need the lending side of the marital home to hold up.
Bringing a CDLP® onto a case
A Certified Divorce Lending Professional works the lending side of the marital home while the agreement is still a draft. That means testing whether a proposed buyout or retention can actually be financed, identifying which income the agreement creates will and will not qualify, and flagging language that cannot be performed as written.
The output is a written analysis you can put in front of the other side, the mediator, or the court, rather than a verbal assurance.
What a CDLP® is not. Not your client's advocate, and not a substitute for legal or tax advice. A CDLP® works the financing question and stays inside it. Certification also does not make someone your lender of choice or obligate anyone to originate the loan. If you need a name for a role that does not exist in your case, this is not that role.
Some hold the credential and work only on their own files. Others sit in the room, serve as a financial neutral, or have testified. Those are different levels of engagement, and it is fair to ask which one you are getting.
Find a certified professional. Search the CDLP® directory for a certified professional in your area, and confirm the listing shows current standing.
Prefer an introduction? Send us your details and a certified professional in your market will reach out. No obligation, and you are free to test them against whatever standard you use.
Client-facing tools. The Divorce Strategy Hub provides your clients with calculators and plain-language guidance they can use between meetings.