Divorce spawns financial services

By Sandra Block, USA TODAY

Two-income couples on the brink of a breakup are fueling a boom in divorce-related financial services, from specialized financial planners to how-to-divvy-it-up-yourself software.

Large retirement portfolios, employee stock options and a divorce rate hovering at about 50% make divorce planning a high-stakes business.

It's no longer unusual to see divorcing couples come to court with $500,000 to $1 million in assets, says Charles Shainberg, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

With marital assets becoming even more complex, it's no wonder couples are heading to divorce court with more than lawyers in tow.

What couples are using to sort it all out:

• Certified divorce planners. Charging $75 to $200 an hour, they didn't exist 10 years ago but now are a growing force.

  Barbara Shapiro, a divorce planner in Dedham, Mass., says clients seek help in evaluating long-term consequences of a proposed settlement. For example: A 50-50 split of assets isn't equitable if one spouse ends up with a big tax bill, she says.

  Carol Ann Wilson, a financial planner in Boulder, Colo., designed the certified divorce planner program in 1993 for planners, lawyers and accountants. Today, there are 425 CDPs, and Wilson expects certification for 100 to 150 more this year.

• Software. Byzantine tax laws have led millions of Americans to buy tax software to do their tax returns. Now, some companies are betting the complexities of divorce will provide the same boost for divorce-related software.

  Family Law Software, launched last year by two of the creators of Kiplinger's TaxCut software, offers packages that analyze child support, alimony, pensions, taxes and other divorce-related subjects. Prices range from $49 to $199.

  "Other than the purchase or sale of a home, a divorce can be the largest financial transaction of someone's life," says co-founder Daniel Caine.

• Book publishers. Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble's www.bn.com list more than 3,000 titles on divorce. Divorce and Money is one of the most popular titles at Nolo Press, ranking around 20th of the 250 titles sold by the self-help legal publisher. Hungry Minds, publisher of the popular "Dummies" series, says Divorce for Dummies ranks in the top 25 of about 350 consumer books in the series.

And more divorce-related books are in the works. Set for release this month by First Books: The Divorce Process: Empowerment Through Knowledge, by Marlene Browne, an attorney in Westfield, N.J. Browne promises to cover everything from marital debt to stock options.

And there's no sign that divorce will get any easier. Tax publisher CCH lists it as a top tax issue for 2001. The new federal Tax Relief Act added even more complexity. Provisions in the law, such as an increase in the child tax credit, could add new wrinkles to divorce negotiations, says CCH tax analyst Mark Luscombe.