Category Archives: Featured

Groundbreaking Workshop: How To Assist Clients To Become Agreement Ready

By Bart Carey, J.D., Cathleen Collinsworth, CDFA®, MAFF®and Carol Hughes, Ph.D., LMFT

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s the final meeting in your client’s Collaborative Divorce process. You are looking around the table and see that each client and professional appears ready to proceed. You have thoroughly prepared your client to be able to reach agreement with his spouse. Alas! Within the first half hour of this final meeting you realize that both your client and the other client are tenaciously clinging to their positions! You ask yourself how this could happen?

It’s important for everyone to become Agreement Ready.

Even experienced collaborative divorce practitioners often fail to understand how all professionals on an interdisciplinary team can assist clients, even high-conflict clients, to become Agreement Ready.  At CP Cal’s Celebration XIV on Sunday, on April 28, 2019, in San Diego, trainers Bart Carey, Cathleen Collinsworth and … Read More

Power and Empowerment: The Collaborative Child Specialist

By Bart J. Carey, Esq.

Bart Carey Collaborative Divorce Attorney

In speaking with a parent contemplating divorce, I always speak with the understanding that it is most likely the parents who best understand their children and what is best for themselves and the family. I assume parents are the best people to shepherd their children through life’s toughest challenges, including divorce.

Divorce is  a tough time for the whole family, parents and children – of all ages. It’s a crisis like they’ve never faced before, challenging their very identity as parents, children, family and each of their places/roles/futures in and as a family. But I also know, empowered to do so, parents will do their best to meet these challenges in consideration of the best interests of their children.

For these and many other reasons, I always assure parents I am confident, with the best advice and counsel available, they will make the best decisions Read More

Divorce Mortgage Advisors presenting Workshop at CP Cal Conference XIII

Come to CP Cal Conference XIII!

CP Cal Conference XIII, scheduled for April 27-29, 2018 in San Mateo, California, is getting closer.  Please join us at the conference for a workshop on “Divorce Mortgage Financing Strategies”, presented by Divorce Mortgage Advisors.

Register Now!

Divorce Mortgage Advisors

Divorce Mortgage Advisors was founded under the premise that family law professionals and their clients deserve expert guidance on how to achieve mortgage related goals within the divorce settlement process. The company’s co-founders, Ross Garcia, a Certified Divorce Lending Professional, and Jason Crowley, CFA, CFP, CDFA, bring a wealth of experience in divorce finance.

Divorce Mortgage Financing Strategies Workshop

In this presentation “Divorce Mortgage Financing Strategies”, Ross Garcia and Jason Crowley will address the common questions they receive about divorcing clients and their ability (or inability) to qualify for a mortgage pre- or post-settlement.

The up-front analysis that the company offers applies to all … Read More

Dividing Pensions in California Divorces: Not all Pensions are Created Equal

Beth McClelland expert on dividing a pension in California divorceBy Collaborative Practice California Board Member and Financial Specialist Beth McClelland, MBA, CDFA, CFP®

Dividing Pensions Is Not Necessarily Easy

It is wonderful to have a pension as part of the marital assets.  It’s very easy to think, “OK, we will split the marital portion of the pension in half, have someone create a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) and go along our merry way.” Sounds good, but maybe not so easy. Your collaborative team will want to fully understand your pension before the plan to divide it and the QDRO is developed. QDRO’s require precise detailed legal language specific to the pension you are dividing. And they don’t happen automagically!

Hire a Collaborative Financial Specialist to Read the Pension Documents’ Fine Print

To start, it is not very exciting reading, but someone needs to read the pension documents and evaluate what is and is not possible. That probably should … Read More

Collaborative Practice Showcased on Real Talk San Diego

Representatives of the Collaborative Family Law Group of San Diego (CFLGSD) appeared on Real Talk San Diego’s Facebook Live program to preview the new Divorce Talk San Diego program that is being launched in November 2017. San Diego Collaborative Practitioners  Cinda Jones, CDFA, CFP, Lynn Waldman, LCSW and Frank Nageotte, CLS-F discussed how Collaborative Practice is a smarter, family-centered approach to divorce.  With Collaborative Divorce, families can choose a team of lawyers, mental health professionals and financial specialists to work together to find a peaceful solution to their legal issues.

Click here to watch the video: https://www.facebook.com/realtalksandiego/videos/822905484544852/Read More

CP Cal Conference XIII – Save the date!

April 27-29, 2018
  • Networking with other Collaborative practitioners
  • Learn about how to get case
  • Recharge your batteries
  • Training with practical tips you can implement in your practice immediately
CP Cal is excitedly preparing for our annual Conference and we don’t want you to miss it! Mark your calendars and be on the lookout for the conference brochure in early 2018.
Mark your calendars and be on the lookout for the Conference brochure in early 2018!Updates and information to follow.

Updates and information to follow.

save the date CP Cal Conference XIII
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Getting Out Of Your Right Brain During Your Divorce

Getting Out of your Right Brain

By Jann Glasser, Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT), Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), Coach/Psychotherapist, and Collaborative Coach – Collaborative Divorce Solutions of Orange County

Whether or not you’ve navigated emotional stress in your life before, you are in for a whole new experience during a divorce. Once the decision to divorce is made and the process is underway, don’t be surprised to find your heart pounding and your thoughts racing as if you were driving in the Indy 500. Fear and dread can grab you the instant you get an email, text or voicemail from your attorney, accountant or spouse.

It is all happening because you are being ruled not by your everyday brain, but by your brain on divorce; easily triggered, distraught and overwhelmed. You are reacting as if you are under attack, trying to function while stressed, sad, and sleep deprived. It’s not going so well, is it?… Read More

How a Collaborative Divorce Coach Can Help You Through This Life Transition With Less Trauma

Collaborative Coach helping with life transition

by Jann Glasser, LSCW, LMFT

Divorce is a major life transition, at least as significant as getting married. But too often, couples spend far less time preparing for this change than they do planning their wedding reception. When they do, their energy goes toward decision about the division of property, instead of the far more important division of two lives.

Couples believe everything will be tidied up and finished when a court issues their decree of dissolution. But it rarely feels this way, making individuals anxious there will be no end to the disorientation and emotional pain they feel.

Closure can come more easily when couples make the conscious decision to pursue a Collaborative Divorce, where a professional team including legal, financial, and mental health experts facilitates peacemaking instead of helping the transitioning couple to wage war on each other.

Depending upon the needs of the couple, various professionals are … Read More

Child Specialists Help Your Kids Understand Their Feelings During Your Divorce

If you think divorce is rough on you (and it most certainly is a difficult experience), imagine coping with divorce when you are a child who lacks the emotional maturity and understanding to grasp what it happening and who is powerless to do anything about it.

Child specialists are an invaluable resource during your divorce. Sadly, child specialists are an unrecognized resource not used as effectively as they could be as part of the Collaborative Divorce process.

Here are four ways you can benefit from working with a trained Child Specialist during your Collaborative Divorce.

1. Your children have a “voice” in the divorce process

Experienced Collaborative professionals agree that children benefit from having their own “voice” in the process. Older children appreciate being able to express their concerns and needs. The Child Specialist is the conduit for the child’s participation in the process. These meetings offer children of any … Read More