As we mentioned back during Divorce Settlement Tip #1, family law isn’t the easiest practice in the world. You’ve often got sniping parties and clients who often take things personally. Very personally.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve posted 10 divorce settlement tips to help you serve your clients better—and reach quicker and more satisfactory settlements. Now it’s time for the granddaddy tip of them all: putting it all together—so that you protect your clients (and yourself), save them money (versus hiring a forensic or matrimonial CPA), and earn their appreciation and (dare we say) adoration for life.
How to do it? It’s simple. Divorce Financials Software. This leading family law software doesn’t make divorce settlements pain-free, but it does facilitate options and planning, so that you can lessen the sting of hurt feelings with quick, viable solutions.
Let’s review our tips.
- Always start with available cash. You start by figuring out what everyone’s net income is—not gross income. This way, you know what you’re dealing with.
- Always work backwards from need. Similarly, you start with a net “need” figure…otherwise known as a budget.
- Disregard absolute numbers (settlement amounts)—in favor or “Net Disposable Income.” You’ve got to plug in the numbers on the table, so that you know what this leaves your client with at the end of the day—after taxes. Only then can your client make a truly informed decision.
- Perform an Alimony v. Child Support calculation—for tax purposes. You can’t play much with the lowest figure of child support. But what you can do is posit different combinations—to take the best advantage of what’s tax deductible (alimony) and what’s not (child support).
- Always perform a present value calculation for a Lump-Sum Settlement. The point isn’t whether one wants to pay or receive a lump-sum settlement. The point is to consider it as a realistic option—and figure out what it’s worth in an apples-to-apples comparison.
- Consider the future value of pensions. Pensions are complicated – but our software will hand you a ballpark figure, so at least you know what you’re up against without having to hire a forensic accountant.
- Calculate your Alimony Recapture figures. You don’t want your client to get a nasty surprise when tax season comes around.
- Consider Equitable Distribution. He wants the cars. She wants the house. Good thing we have a software that keeps an eye on the bottom line at all times—and translates your clients’ preferences into hard-and-fast dollars.
- For high net worth clients, perform a Lifestyle Analysis. Enough said.
- Put it all together – so that you protect yourself, and earn your clients’ adoration. And this brings us to today.
To learn more about how our divorce software for attorneys makes it all happen, call us at 800 905 7638.
