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Newsletter for April, 2011A letter from the Editor-In-Chief
So there was once a fellow by the name of Archimedes (c. 287 BC - c. 212 BC), who really liked math. He developed a long list of mathematical breakthroughs, inventions, etc. You might know some of his hits, such as the "The Quadrature of the Parabola", the "Sand Reckoner" (where he postulates just how many grains of sand could fit in the universe), and of course everyone's favorite "On the Equilibrium of Planes". This was one of his most popular and applied mathematical breakthroughs, which was the explanation of the principal of the lever. "Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the earth with a lever". For those of us in the divorce financial planning field, we are going to explore the use of leverage in a divorce; the difficulties and opportunities in the divorce process relative to income disparities between the money and non-moneyed spouse, and, in particular, what type of solutions are being offered to the non-moneyed spouse. I welcome any research, papers, comments and/or commentary from divorce financial planners, therapists, and attorneys. Let's explore how money is traditionally used as a lever in the settlement process, and how is that lever now being intercepted by divorce funding firms such as BalancePoint funding, etc. This will be an ongoing exploration. We welcome your input and we'll publish any and all interesting insight, articles in future newsletters. Andrew Samalin, CFP® Articles
Save the Date Treat yourself and advance your skills. ADFP University will be September 22nd Both at the fabulous Doral Arrowwood resort. Check it out with the link below: There will be something for everyone A great place to relax and network after formal sessions More details to follow We have listened Winners Behavioral Finance and Life Insurance: Emotions play a significant role in life insurance decisions There is one reason to buy most insurance products: aversion to loss. More specifically, aversion to a substantial loss. Term life insurance is what we call a pure insurance policy. If you don't die during the term, the policy pays nothing. Unfortunately, we all die some day. The term life insurance buyer is insuring against a premature death, not death in general. Coming to grips with the possibility of premature death is not easy for some. Luckily, term life insurance is relatively cheap, so the decision to buy might be easier. As you hear on radio commercials all the time "a 40-year-old male in good health can get a $500,000 policy for $35 per month". A whole (permanent) life insurance buyer is insuring against death in general. They know that they will die and so does the insurance company. The gamble is just how long it will take for the eventuality to be realized. Because the insurance company knows it is going to be on the hook someday, the policy is more expensive. Click Here to read the full article on Morningstar.com Divorce and Property Casualty Insurance The process of divorce is often stressful and complicated. It requires each spouse to focus on multiple issues, all of which require the parties to make important and long lasting decisions. One issue that is key, but often left to last or forgotten entirely, is how to properly handle the family's personal property and casualty insurance during the various stages of the divorce. This encompasses coverage for the homes, cars, valuables, collections, boats, and personal excess liability (umbrella). During the initial stages of the divorce process and at its conclusion, it is critical to have an expert insurance broker review all coverages and make recommendations for changes necessary to protect each spouse in the event of property or liability claims. It is also crucial for a knowledgeable broker to coordinate the coverages, so that there are no gaps, no duplicate coverages, and so that the family is not overpaying or underinsured. Here are some examples of events during and after a divorce that require advice from a trusted insurance expert: Q. How does insurance respond when one spouse moves out of the primary home? Is that individual still covered by the liability portion of the homeowners' policy or the umbrella policy? Q. When valuables and fine art collections are divided and moved out of the primary home, how should the policies be adjusted? Q. When children who drive share their time in both households and drive cars belonging to each parent, what is the correct way to handle the auto insurance? Q. When assets, such as property, are placed in a trust for the benefit of the children, how should the policies covering those assets be written? Q. What about the assets that will remain in both names for a period of time and then are phased out to just one name over several years? These are just a few examples of items that need attention and review by an expert insurance advisor during the divorce process. Workshops and Webinars
Upcoming Family Law Software Webinar Series: Tuesday, April 12, 2011: Other "What If" Tools. This session will explore the less-used, but useful and powerful "what if" tools in your Family Law Software arsenal. Alimony Needed, Scenarios, Alimony break-even, Alimony trade-off, and Alimony Present Value (how calculated, discount rate used, marginal vs. average tax rate). Tuesday, May 17, 2011: Accumulate Savings and Liquidation. This session will explore the inner workings of the software with respect to Accumulated Savings and Liquidation. What is Accumulated Savings? How is Accumulated Savings calculated? How do we deal with income and appreciation on accumulated savings? How do we calculate liquidations? Tax payable on liquidations? Tax losses? Tuesday, June 14, 2011: Negotiating Property Division. Again, the screen looks simple, but there are subtleties. Some include: pie chart vs. bar chart. Different ways of dealing with pre-tax vs. tax-advantaged assets. Property settlement. Children's assets. Dealing with 529 plans. Tuesday, July 12, 2011: Real Estate Transactions. Mortgages, sales, refinancing, separate property, short sales, sale and purchase of new residence, using refinancing to achieve property equalization. Cost: $69/module ($59 for Members). $369 ($319) for the entire series, if initially purchased as a package. Modules can be taken in any order. Upcoming Marketing Webinars: April 26: How e-Newsletters remind referral sources, prospective clients and current ones about your expertise. This webinar will walk through creating a quick newsletter from your blog website and promoting it through LinkedIn and Facebook groups and status updates. To learn more about Vikram Rajan, visit his website: phoneBlogger.net. You may also ask him questions about the topics at Vik@phoneBlogger.net. "I found Vik's webinar very helpful in understanding this whole new world (to me) of web marketing. Many of the things Vik talked about I had heard of before, but did not understand. After the webinar I feel as though I received a solid crash course on what I need to be aware of in web marketing and some good - actionable - ideas to begin to tackle it." - Heidi L. Hanson, CFP® News From The ADFP Board of Directors
ADFP Working Together with NAPFA and FPA As part of our efforts to broaden and deepen benefits for our members, we are building strategic affiliations with the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) and the Financial Planning Association (FPA). We are pleased to explore meaningful synergies between organizations and will be announcing news as it develops. To date, Jerry Cohen, CA Chapter Director, Cinda Jones, PR & Marketing Committee Chairperson, and Lili A. Vasileff, President, are invited to present a panel discussion at the National Financial Planning Association's Annual Conference in San Diego this September. The FPA is encouraging community building and we will help raise awareness of and recognition for divorce financial planning practitioners. Lili also was invited by the FPA to be a monthly columnist for their website (www.fpanet.org) on consumer education on the subject of divorce. She joins FPA Members Elaine King, CFP®, CDFATM and Philip Herzberg, CFP®, MSF, from Miami for a 12 month series of articles. We will keep you up to date as these relationships grow. For more information, please visit either www.fpanet.org or www.napfa.org. ADFP Help Wanted
Communications Liaison: Conference Committee The ADFP conference committee is looking for members to help organize your 2011 conference. The September 2010 conference in New York was a big success and we are looking to make the 2011 conference even better. We are looking for volunteers to help with organizing Topics and Speakers, Exhibitors and Sponsors, Agenda and Logistics, and promoting the conference. Please contact Jerry Cohen at jcohen@cdfplanning.com for more information. New ADFP Webmaster Linda Katz (info@divorceplanningassociates.net) has volunteered to serve as our new Webmaster. Please submit all web page updates, information about what you've been up to, information about upcoming meetings, etc. to her, and she will get these posted ASAP! Thank you Linda! There are lots of other opportunities to help out and help make our organization even better. If you are able to volunteer, please let John Patsy (john.patsy@lpl.com), our Matchmaker, know! We encourage our readers to submit articles, events, suggestions, etc. on relevant topics. Please email our Editor-In-Chief, Andrew Samalin at Andrew.Samalin@SICounsel.com for details. Divorce in the News
The ADFP Is Now Social! The Association of Divorce Financial Planners is now forming a presence on social media. We have a LinkedIn Account and a Facebook Page. We created these profiles as a part of our commitment to increase awareness of our industry and to increase referrals to our members. In order to make these profiles successful we need to keep them interesting and engaging. Feel free to post interesting articles or blog posts that you have written that will help people going through divorce. Visit each site frequently to help guide people going through divorce (and potential clients!) understand how divorce financial planning can help them. Before you can participate you need to join each community. Below you will find instructions. NOTE: You must already be in Facebook and LinkedIn to join each group. LinkedIn Facebook Both the Facebook and LinkedIn groups are open so feel free to invite other professionals and anyone else you think may benefit from the information we are sharing there. Family Law Software Webinar Series - Great News! Two Ways to Complete the Entire Series... For those of you who missed Dan Caine's excellent presentation on Real Estate Transactions, we have great news! First, Dan has agreed to repeat this session on July 12th. Second, a recording (both audio and video) of the webinar is available for those of you who would like to listen to it on your own instead of or in addition to listening to it live. If you have already participated in the January session but would like a refresher, you can attend the July repeat session at no additional charge. Click here to register or contact Pam Humbert at 888-838-7773 or ADFP@DivorceAndFinance.org if you would like to sign up for the entire series or for individual future sessions. The next webinar in the Family Law Software series takes place February 15th, the subject Defined Benefit Pensions. Don't miss out on it! Register Now! Special on Divorce & Money, 9th Edition We have a small number of copies of Divorce & Money, 9th edition left over from this year's conference. We are offering these at a special price of $20.95, including shipping. This is a great book. If you would like to purchase a copy, you may do so by going to our bookstore. Other Divorce News: 10 Steps to Avoid Losing Your Shirt in a Divorce Once Rare in Rural America, Divorce is Changing the Face of its Families Company Offers Product to Insure Your Marriage Divorce More Likely for Women Earning More Than Husbands 45% Rise in Divorce by Mutual Consent Facebook & Divorce: Attorneys Pulling Evidence for Divorce Cases Event Calendar
Highlited Events: New York State Council on Divorce Mediation April 2011 Event Calendar:
Any questions? Comments? Please feel free to contact our Editor-In-Chief Andrew Samalin, CFP® Andrew.Samalin@SICounsel.com. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
