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By:
Carl Palatnik, Ph.D., CFP®, CDFA™, AAMS
Executive Vice President, ADFP
This year's recipient of the annual ADFP Pioneering Award, honoring
individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the field of
divorce, will be Carol Ann Wilson, founder of the divorce financial
planning profession.
In the Preface to her book, The Financial Advisor's Guide to
Divorce Settlement, Carol Ann writes:
"In the late 1980's, I was hired by a woman from Connecticut who was getting
divorced. She wanted me to represent her in court. As an expert
witness, I would be able to show why she should get the property and
maintenance award she was requesting. I flew to Connecticut armed with my reports.
When we walked into the courtroom, the husband's attorney said to the
judge, 'Your Honor, we request a continuance so that we can find our
own expert witness to rebut Ms. Wilson's testimony.'
My client's attorney's response was, 'Your Honor, there are no other
experts like Ms. Wilson. She is the only one in the United States.'
I thought to myself, Wow! Why should this judge listen to me if I'm
the only one out there? So, right then, I decided to start teaching
other financial planners how to develop the same expertise I have. . .
.
Well! If I could do it in Colorado,
then others could do it in other states and we could make a
difference. That was an exciting thought.
After the experience in Connecticut,
I felt that if other financial planners all over the nation were doing
the same thing-presenting data that showed the financial results of any
given settlement-it would become an accepted, credible profession. It
would become easier for all financial planners' expertise to be
accepted in court. We would present data that would help people reach
reasonable settlements. In turn, judges could-and would-make clearer
decisions."
My
Own Story
In the spring of 1994, I flew to Colorado to be trained in divorce
planning by Carol Ann Wilson. This was one of her first forays into
making her dream a reality. The training was in a local hotel, and
there were about 8 of us in the room. Carol Ann rented computers for
each of us so we could learn how to use her Divorce Plan™ software,
software she had developed that enabled her to do post-divorce economic
forecasting, which made the divorce process smarter and helped people
arrive at fair and workable outcomes. She was accompanied by a
programmer who was tweaking and working some bugs out of the software
as we studied.
Carol Ann's original work has endured. Iterations of her software and
the course she taught then are still the primary resources used to
train people today to work in this field.
Shortly after I took her course, Carol Ann began to credentialize the
people she had trained to work in this new profession. She labeled
them "Certified Divorce Planners" (CDP), a designation that has
recently evolved into Certified Divorce Financial Analyst™ (CDFA™).
And she established the Institute for Certified Divorce Planners, an
entity designed to educate people to work in the field, help them build
knowledge and skills and help them build their divorce planning
practices. Today, as a consequence of Carol Ann's initial efforts,
several thousand people have been trained to work in this profession
and recognition of the added value divorce financial planners bring to
the divorce process increases daily. This would not have happened
without Carol Ann's initial efforts!
This
Year's Annual ADFP Conference: September 11th and 12th, 2008. Save
the Dates!
I came back from Colorado
in the spring of 1994, excited and armed with my new knowledge, anxious
to make my contributions to the field. I believe I might have been the
first person from New York
that Carol Ann had trained. I was ready to change the way divorce was
being practiced in New York.
I did not get my first divorce case until 1997.
During those 3 quiet years, it became clear Carol Ann was right. Why
would anyone listen to me if I was "the only one out there?" This led
to the establishment of the Association of Divorce Financial Planners,
and the rest is history. I can honestly say the ADFP has helped me
gain the recognition and respect practitioners in this profession
deserve, as well as build relationships with allied divorce
practitioners. In short, the ADFP has helped me build my divorce
planning practice more than any marketing method I have ever tried.
This year's ADFP Annual Conference, our 6th, will be held September
11th and 12th in the Microsoft offices in the AXA building in New York City.
Please make sure you save these dates, as this conference promises to
be our best ever. Carol Ann personally trained many of us and also
helped us plan our 1st conference. We have now come full circle by
making her this year's recipient of our annual Pioneering Award.
Carol Ann will be honored at an all day
conference on September 12th. More details about the conference will
be sent as they evolve in the days and weeks ahead.
On September 11h, we will be holding a
half-day Pre-Conference Institute led by Dan Caine, developer of Family
Law Software, the most comprehensive divorce financial planning
software available. This will be followed by a wine and cheese
reception which should give you the opportunity to meet informally with
colleagues and some of our speakers. We look forward to seeing you
then!
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