Divorce financial analyst looks at long term

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BOULDER — The pressure of deciding everything from who gets the house to who gets the dog can distract a divorcing couple from looking at how today’s decisions will play out down the road.

The results can be especially destructive if those decisions negatively impact how much the wife or husband actually will have to pay the bills after the settlement is complete.

As a financial consultant with Impact Wealth Advisors Ltd. in Boulder, Tara Mohr offers an additional value to her clients: she’s a certified divorce financial analyst.

Working with a couple’s lawyer, Mohr creates long-term financial projections for each person’s working capital and net worth.

The data shows where each individual will be at a chosen future date, based on financial decisions at the time of the divorce settlement.

“For example, if the wife keeps the house and furniture and the husband keeps the 401(k) — both valued at $350,000, the wife would starve,” Mohr said. “It may look good on paper, but with nothing going in and out of the checking account she has no income.”

She defined working capital as what you can actually spend. “And you can’t spend your house.”

Part of Mohr’s service includes inputting a couple’s financial information into a software program to create a graph that shows the net worth and working capital for each person in the coming years. Her projections include tax implications and consequences of keeping or dividing assets.

Once the projections and implications are deciphered, she helps clients adjust as needed the three common areas of control: the division of assets, spousal support calculations and child support.

Impact Wealth Advisors charges a flat hourly rate for Mohr’s work as a certified divorce financial analyst.

“Depending on the complexity of the case, that hourly rate will range from $150 to $300 an hour,” she said. “The range for how much time it takes is from 10 to 30 hours.”

An added benefit is that Mohr is qualified as an expert witness in court in case a divorce ends up going to trial.

Mohr received her certification from the Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts, a national organization founded in 1993 that provides specialized training to accounting, financial, and legal professionals in pre-divorce financial planning field.

Her training focused on three modules: tax, financial issues and advanced financial issues. “It’s basically everything that surrounds the money for division,” she said.

Why would it benefit couples to use her services?

“Taxes change yearly and even mid-year. The tax picture in this country is constantly changing, and a person would need to stay on top of that,” she explained. Staying on top of that, of course, is Mohr’s profession as a financial consultant.

“I don’t think anyone should get divorced without this,” she added, explaining that her interest in getting the certification stemmed in part from her own divorce.

“I saw how difficult this was — navigating through financial aspects of the divorce. And even though I’m a trained financial professional and investment manager, it was difficult.”

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