The goal of financial mediation is to allow you to reach a marital separation agreement that meets your needs with less investment in time and money than is often associated with litigation, or sometimes even with Collaboration, but still with the support of a divorce financial mediator and a limited-scope attorney.
Successful mediation does require a reasonable level of co-operation and essential agreement between you and your spouse on many financial and parenting issues.
The financial mediator can offer information about the divorce process, guide the discussion between you and your spouse and offer options to help resolve financial issues.
The limited-scope attorney can prepare the legal documents required by the court including the parenting plan.
- Phase One: Together, you and your spouse meet with the financial mediator in a series of two-hour meetings (usually 2-4) to
help you:
- document and value your marital assets, future income and expenses:
- detail and document your marital and separate assets and liabilities.
- place values on your marital and separate assets and liabilities.
- determine each spouse's expected future income over a 20-year period.
- determine each spouse's expected future expenses over a 20-year period.
- determine preliminary child support based on custody aggreement if children are involved.
- mediate an agreement resolving the financial issues of the divorce by considering their impact of each spouse's financial future:
- divide your marital assets and liabilities with consideration to relative percentage, each spouse's preference and income tax effect, if any.
- spousal support amounts, if any, based on ability to pay as compared to financial need using long-term projections of your and your spouse's expected future annual cash flow and its cumulative effect on relative net worth.
- Phase Two:In a series of two-hour meetings (usually 2-3), you and your spouse will meet together with a limited-scope attorney to prepare the required parenting plan and the final settlement agreement
that give legal expression to the mediated financial settlement agreed on in phase one and then appear in court, as needed, to file the required documentation.
Expect the entire mediation process to cost between $2,500 and $4,000 depending on the number of issues to be resolved and on the level of co-operation between you and your spouse.
Would you like to arrange a free consultation to explore how mediation or other divorce options would work given your facts and circumstances? Yes
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