"Bedrock Divorce Advisors was a beacon of light for me while I rode a stormy sea of financial complications during my divorce. Their knowledge and compassion for my situation was exceptional, bringing to light many factors, such as tax implications and long-term repercussions that I otherwise would have overlooked. Bedrock guided me in the right direction each step of the way, from getting asset documentation and values, to nailing down the numbers and facts from my marital situation –they even helped me find a wonderful divorce attorney in my area. As a result, my attorney and I were better prepared to negotiate a settlement that will now secure a solid financial future for my children and me. I will forever be grateful to Bedrock for helping me gain this new sense of control and freedom."

– Ja-Ann Wolsey, Salt Lake City, UT

Divorce financial strategy services

For women in danger of losing the most in a divorce

As a divorce financial strategy firm, Bedrock Divorce Advisors helps affluent women across the nation develop a strategic plan for financial security before, during, and after divorce… and in some cases, when divorce is not even on the radar screen.

Why do we exclusively serve affluent women? We believe that all too often the deck is stacked in favor of the husband during divorce negotiations, especially in a financially complicated divorce. And an affluent woman stands to lose the most in such a divorce.

Her marital property may include complex financial assets such as retirement plans, stock options, restricted stock, real estate, intellectual property, brokerage accounts, and closely held businesses or professional practices… making the advantages or disadvantages of various settlement offers difficult to decipher.

The type of strategic plan we’ll provide you is highly personalized and will depend on many factors, including your age, number of years married, number and age of children if any, your husband’s income and yours, the state where you reside, and the like.

For example, the plan for a 30-something female physician who has been married for five years and has two young children will be quite different than the plan for a 58-year-old woman who has been out of the workforce since her marriage more than three decades earlier, and whose children are all grown.

We work with a very diverse group of women, including:

Female executives, professionals, stay-at-home moms, and other women who are undergoing divorce now, and need an expert financial advocate who will help level the playing field during divorce settlement negotiations
Female celebrities and other prominent women who are facing the financial complexity of divorce—with or without a prenup—right along with unwanted media attention, and need an expert thoroughly attuned to the fine details of divorce finance and able to handle matters with the utmost of confidentiality and discretion
Women who’ve seen their friends blindsided by a divorce initiated by their husbands and wonder (wisely) how financially vulnerable they’d be in that situation. We developed the nation’s first Just in Case™: Secure Your Financial Future program (referred to by CBS News as our Divorce 101 program) for these women.
Successful women business owners who benefit from divorce-proofing their businesses

Financial strategy during a divorce: our services

At Bedrock, we take care of the critical financial evaluations that are beyond the scope of your divorce attorney's expertise, from preparing a Lifestyle Analysis for you to projecting the financial and tax implications of each divorce settlement option.

Your divorce attorney, meanwhile, handles all legal matters, including the actual settlement negotiations, using our analyses and projections as “ammunition” to substantiate your position at the negotiating table or if necessary, in the courtroom. (If you don’t have a divorce attorney, we’ll be happy to recommend several excellent divorce attorneys for your consideration.)

“Someone once said that marriage is all about love, and divorce is all about money. They were right, and you must negotiate a divorce settlement agreement that financially protects you both now and far into the future.”

– Jeff Landers, founder of Bedrock Divorce Advisors

Our financial services during a divorce include the following (click any service for more information):

Your Lifestyle Analysis and financial evaluations

Our process is comprehensive. After conducting an in-depth financial assessment, we’ll provide a detailed Lifestyle Analysis and other evaluations, answering such questions as:

How will our assets likely be divided?
What funds will I have after the divorce, and how long will they last?
Will I be able to maintain the standard of living I enjoyed during my marriage?
Can I keep the house? Should I keep the house?
How much alimony should be paid, by whom, and for how long?

Included in our analyses are a complete review of complex financial assets such as pensions and other retirement plans, stock options, restricted stock, real estate, intellectual property, brokerage accounts, closely held businesses and professional practices… even hidden assets your husband may not want to disclose.

Your financial affidavit and statement of net worth

We create personalized reports that illustrate your financial status, cash flow, and net worth, now and many years into the future… including the financial affidavit and statement of net worth that will be required by your divorce attorney and the court.

Financial affidavit: A sworn written statement containing comprehensive information about your income, expenses, assets, and liabilities

Financial projections for each divorce settlement option

To evaluate proposed divorce settlement terms, Bedrock provides financial analyses and projections that show the full financial and tax implications of each proposed settlement offer: critical information your divorce attorney can use to substantiate your position at the negotiating table or if necessary, in the courtroom.

We also analyze the need for alimony and the amount and duration of those payments. If you will be the recipient of alimony, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of negotiating an upfront lump sum payment from your husband in lieu of ongoing alimony payments.

Why are these analyses and projections so important? On the surface, a divorce settlement offer might appear entirely fair and reasonable even to an experienced divorce attorney, but delving more deeply can reveal a different picture.

For instance, we encounter many cases where a woman has stayed home or put her career on the back burner in order to support her husband’s goals. A woman who has been out of the workforce for many years or earns substantially less than her husband will likely have to start liquidating her assets almost immediately after the divorce to maintain anything close to her pre-divorce lifestyle. After years of such asset liquidations, she may very well find herself in dire straits, while her ex-husband—with his earning power unaffected or increasing—is likely to be doing more than fine.

Unfortunately, this is all too common. And without conducting our analyses, there’s no way to predict it.

Proactive divorce expertise

During the turmoil of a divorce, it’s hard to maintain a firm footing, much less consider methods to proactively protect yourself during and after the divorce.

We advise our clients to take such easily overlooked steps, from opening a post office box that will allow you to receive important financial and legal mail in a secure box only you can access to changing your will, trusts, healthcare directives, and retirement plan beneficiaries now, to the extent your state’s law allow it. Most states won’t allow you to disinherit your husband completely until the divorce is final, but you can take steps to prevent him from making medical decisions on your behalf or inheriting all your assets.

We can also help you secure a life insurance policy on your husband before your divorce has been finalized—and arrange it so you’re both owner and beneficiary of the policy, ensuring premiums are paid on time and the beneficiary won’t be changed without your knowledge and consent.

Without such a policy your alimony payments—and possibly other divorce settlement payments—will end if your ex-husband passes away, but with this protection you’ll receive a tax-free, lump-sum payment of what you would have received over time from the alimony and settlement payments. It’s important to set this up before your divorce is finalized so if your husband refuses to cooperate or is uninsurable, you can find other ways to secure your future payments.

Think Financially, Not Emotionally®

Because some of the worst decisions are made during times of emotional upheaval, one of our primary goals is to help women embroiled in a divorce look past their anger, distress, betrayal, shock, or numbness so they can focus on making the best financial decisions now—decisions that will directly impact the rest of their lives.

Is divorce in your picture?

Contact us to request a confidential consultation in person or over the phone. For your initial one-hour consultation we charge a flat fee of $400. We work with women across the United States and treat all our clients with the utmost of privacy and discretion.

Before a divorce is in the picture

Just in Case™: Secure Your Financial Future

Just as a smart homeowner takes out property insurance to protect herself in the event of a natural disaster even as she hopes her home will remain unharmed, we also work with happily married women savvy enough to financially protect themselves in the event of a future divorce.

Most have been married for many years and have begun to notice divorce popping up among friends with similarly long marriages—divorces for which the female partner is often thoroughly unprepared.

Our one-hour Just in Case™: Secure Your Financial Future session (referred to by CBS News as our Divorce 101 program; see the video here) quickly shows married women how to be prepared in the event of a future divorce. We’ll recommend immediate, practical steps you can take to not only guard against the risk of divorce but to strengthen your current and future financial position.

Don’t let yourself be blindsided

Too many women have been blindsided by a husband’s request for a divorce, seemingly out of the blue. The last thing you want to do under those circumstances is scramble around in a panic, trying to figure out what to do and where to begin, even as you struggle to take in the news.

Insure yourself and strengthen your current financial situation. Our one-hour Just in Case™: Secure Your Financial Future session may be the best $400 you’ve spent in years, setting yourself and your family up for success whether or not you encounter divorce. Sign up with a friend and you’ll each save $50 off your private, one-on-one session.

Contact us to schedule your session today. We work with both single and married women across the United States and treat all our clients with the utmost of privacy and discretion.

Divorce-proofing your business

Many successful women business owners don’t realize that divorce proceedings can put their businesses at substantial risk.

In fact, if your business grew in value while you were married, under most circumstances the amount of increased value will be included in the assets to be divided between you and your husband, no matter how the business is titled or who operated it. Many woman business owners have been forced to sell their businesses in order to comply with court orders.

During our two-step divorce-proofing process, we’ll recommend practical steps you can take to guard against this risk. And if divorce never enters the picture, your business will still benefit from a strengthened financial position.

Our divorce-proofing process includes:

Initial analyses

First, we’ll delve into the financial setup and other details of your business and personal financial situation to pinpoint the potential risks your specific business could face in the event of a future divorce.

As part of this, we’ll conduct a detailed review of your business and financial documents, which may include prenuptial or postnuptial agreements, operating agreements, partnerships or shareholder contracts, buy/sell agreements, profit-and-loss statements, and the like. We’ll then follow up to clarify any issues we’ve uncovered.

Divorce-proofing recommendations

Our recommendations are highly customized to each business, but they hold one aspect in common: we’ll supply immediate, practical steps you can take to not only guard against the risk of divorce but to strengthen your ownership and financial position.

A written report

At the end of our divorce-proofing process, we’ll put it all in writing.

We provide each woman business owner with a detailed report including instructions and recommendations of qualified, ethical professionals to carry out any recommendation beyond our scope. For instance, if we recommend a particular legal agreement, we’ll be happy to suggest any number of excellent attorneys who can draft it for you.

Protect yourself, your business, and your employees

Chances are you haven’t done so well in business by leaving things to fate! For the successful business owner, our Divorce-Proofing service is an important first step towards protecting what might be your most important and valuable asset.

Contact us to request a confidential consultation in person or over the phone. For your initial one-hour consultation we charge a flat fee of $400. We work with women business owners across America and treat all our clients with the utmost of privacy and discretion.

After a divorce

Once a divorce is complete, our focus turns to making each client’s divorce settlement last as long as possible, no matter where they live.

Through our sister company, Bedrock Wealth Management LLC, we’ll explore your new goals together and work to find ways to make them happen financially. For instance, despite their significant wealth, some of our clients fear outliving their money. Others are concerned about leaving a legacy to their children, grandchildren, or favorite charities.

Whatever your objectives, we’ll do our best to help you get there.

Using our many years of experience and specialized training, we assist with the following items among others:

Budgeting
Retirement planning
Asset protection and insurance
Estate planning
Investments
College savings

The women we’ve helped through the ups and downs of their divorces are no longer just clients or business acquaintances to us; most have become close personal friends. All have earned our respect and support.

If you come to us first through our Just in Case™ or Divorce-Proofing services, we’d also be delighted to continue to assist you in the areas above.

Contact us today

We continue to treat each and every client with the utmost of confidentiality, discretion, and understanding. Let’s talk.

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