Divorce Financial Planning

Three settlement offers can each hand both spouses exactly $1,750,000 on paper and still differ by more than $150,000 in real, after-tax value — before considering liquidity or risk. On a $3.5 million marital estate, the difference comes down to three things: where each dollar lives (pre-tax, taxable, or home equity), which specific stock lots each spouse takes, and when the house is sold. Below is the full math on a realistic Florida estate.

If you’re keeping the house after a divorce in 2026, the single most important number is the interest rate on your existing mortgage. With 30-year rates averaging 6.65% (Freddie Mac, August 20, 2026), refinancing away from a pandemic-era 3% loan can add hundreds of dollars a month in interest cost. That’s why loan assumption and recasting — two tools that preserve your current rate — deserve equal billing with the traditional refinance.

In a Florida divorce, RSUs granted for work performed during the marriage are generally marital property subject to equitable distribution, even if they vest later. They are taxed as ordinary W-2 income when they vest, and in 2026 employers withhold only a flat 22% federal — often far less than what is actually owed. Valuing, dividing, and tax-adjusting RSUs correctly can change a settlement by tens of thousands of dollars.

The overall U.S. divorce rate just hit a 50-year low. And yet, among women over 50, divorce is more common than it has ever been. If you are ending a long marriage and a quiet voice keeps asking whether you’ve left this too late, I want to be the one to tell you: you haven’t, and you are not alone.

Long-term marriages dissolve differently than other divorces. The financial stakes are larger, retirement is closer, and the 2023 reform changed the math in ways that matter most when there is the least time to recover.

Jewelry is one of the few assets in divorce that can be emotionally priceless, sentimentally loaded… and financially misunderstood all at the same time.

Is divorce just a high-stakes yard sale where nobody priced anything and everyone’s emotionally attached to the couch? At first, it can feel exactly like that. Emotions run high, uncertainty takes over, and suddenly every object feels urgent and symbolic. But divorce isn’t first-come, first-served.

When couples divide property during a divorce, few assets are as misunderstood, or as valuable, as retirement accounts. Splitting a 401(k), pension, or other employer‑sponsored plan usually requires a Qualified Domestic Relations Order, commonly known as a QDRO. Because QDROs involve legal, financial, and tax considerations, many people feel overwhelmed by the process. To help …

5 Questions Most Often Asked About QDROs Read More »

At some point during a divorce, many people stand in their kitchen, hands on the counter, looking around at the cabinets, the fridge, the familiar dent in the floor… and think: “I’m keeping the house. I can make this work.”

Divorce is often approached as a legal event, but in reality it is a financial decision that will shape everyday life for years to come. Most people are encouraged to focus on reaching an agreement as quickly as possible, even though they have not yet had the opportunity to understand whether that agreement will actually work in practice.