What is the divorce niche worth in your market?
Most originators compete for the same real estate agents. Family law attorneys, certified financial planners, and the CPAs, CDFAs and mediators around them are a referral channel almost nobody in your market is calling on, and most of what they send is not divorce business at all. This sizes that channel for you, from the real professional counts in your county.
Your market
Your practice
Deliberately conservative: the model assumes 8 working relationships. CDLP® professionals actively working the niche hold about 15, which is also what sets your market’s seat count. What you see here is the floor.
Running a branch? Model your team
Branch totals count loan production only. Fee based advisory revenue is earned individually by each certified originator under a DLA administered engagement, so it appears as a separate per-originator line, never in branch totals.
Loan economics
Fee based advisory revenue you earn per case as a CDLP®, separate from your loan commission, whether or not you also do the loan. Valid fees range from $1,295 to $2,500. Set to 0 to exclude advisory revenue and see the loan origination effect alone.
Referral assumptions
| Referral source | How many in your county |
Divorce cases per year |
Non-divorce referrals per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Family law attorneys | — | ||
| CFP® professionals | — | ||
| CPAs, CDFAs and mediators | — |
Counts come from the county audit and update with your zip. For scale: U.S. filings spread across the nation's family law attorneys average about a dozen divorce cases per attorney a year, roughly eight involving a home. As their go-to divorce lending expert you should see at least half, so the default assumes 4; cases where the client arrives with a lender attached or needs no financing account for the rest. Attorneys refer mostly divorce work because that is their book. Financial professionals refer the reverse: the divorce case is how you meet them, and the rest of their clients is what keeps coming. Relationships are spread across the three groups in proportion to how many of each your county holds.
Where the added volume comes from
Which doors to knock on
| Referral source | In your county | Divorce | Non-divorce |
|---|
Transactions per year at maturity. Your relationships spread across the three groups in proportion to your county's mix. For each group: Divorce = relationships held × divorce cases each sends per year × the share where you do the loan × closed loans per lending case. Non-divorce = relationships held × non-divorce referrals each sends per year × the share of those that close. Every rate is visible and adjustable under “Referral assumptions.”
The numbers behind it
| Line | Year one | At maturity |
|---|
Get these numbers as a personalized report.
We will email your market’s opportunity breakdown, the referral professionals to approach first, plus a link to book a 15-minute strategy call.
How the market size is built. Your zip resolves to your county, and the referral professional counts shown are from the DLA county audit: family law attorney counts modeled from the American Bar Association 2025 National Lawyer Population Survey with a 4.1% family law share, CFP® professional counts from CFP Board 2025 state data, and a labeled allied-professional estimate (CPAs, CDFAs and mediators, 0.5 x attorneys; there is no national registry of divorce mediators, and many are also family law attorneys). County population is from the U.S. Census Bureau 2024 estimates. Divorce filings are estimated from county population and your state's divorce rate (CDC/NCHS 2023; a few states do not report and use the national average). Connecticut figures are DLA estimates pending a registry rebuild. If your county cannot be resolved, a state level estimate from the same sources is used and you can set the population you draw from directly.
What is an assumption. Everything under “Referral assumptions” is a planning estimate you can change, not published data. Defaults are deliberately conservative and model eight working relationships per originator, added loans in the low twenties a year rather than a full book. The attorney referral default assumes their go-to lending expert sees about half of each attorney's home-owning caseload. Two ceilings apply: what you can hold, and the share of counted professionals who are realistic referral sources, set at 40% (not every listed attorney actively works divorce cases, and some professionals are semi retired or already committed elsewhere). In a small county the second one binds first. The same ceilings are what set a market’s certified seat count: each certified originator works a limited number of relationships, so each market area supports a limited number of seats. Seat counts shown apply 40% realistic coverage and fifteen actively worked relationships per certified professional to your market area’s professional count. Year one is discounted for ramp. Nothing here is a promise of production.
What the payback figures cover. Your individual figure compares first year investment, certification plus twelve months of CORE membership ($5,243 at current pricing), to your modeled revenue per case. The branch figure covers the full branch program, certification for the team and a full first year of CORE for every certified originator, all in, against branch loan production only.
Advisory revenue. Loan production and fee based advisory revenue are illustrative and depend on your commission and fee model. Advisory services are delivered under a DLA administered engagement, separate from origination. Branch totals never include advisory revenue; it is earned individually by each certified originator.
Notes on geography. Some zip codes are post office boxes with no residential area and will not resolve; try a nearby zip. The District of Columbia shows an unusually high attorney count relative to population because of federal practice. Estimates are for illustration; actual results vary by market, loan type, and business activity. CDLP® and Certified Divorce Lending Professional® are marks of the Divorce Lending Association.