Laurie Itkin, The Options Lady, discusses six nasty financial surprises women face during divorce.

Today we're going to be discussing nasty financial surprises for divorcing women. It's a riveting topic, you guys really exciting stuff. And I have two amazing ladies with me today. I'm joined by Laurie it can she is better known as the options lady, and she is a certified divorce financial analyst.

I see that a lot in couples, there tends to be an assignment of duties in terms of financial. So it's really common that one spouse is better at filing taxes, better handling the bills and utilities better about planning for retirement. And the other is more perhaps in the caretaking role. And it's very common that folks will match up and not equally share the burden of all the financial management. But this proves really dangerous in a divorce situation. The person who is intentionally staying a little bit less involved has to re up and get re educated very quickly.

When you're going through a divorce and Anna knows this, the last thing you want is a financial surprise. And so we found that over half are not quite half the women had experienced financial surprises. What was even more interesting is that of the women currently going through a divorce. Almost 60% of them were currently experiencing some sort of financial surprise. So what I thought I would share is as a CDFA. As a certified divorce financial analyst I meet with men and women as they are going through divorce often I work for just one party, sometimes I've worked with a couple, and the women who I meet with and this is going to be relevant to California.

The first surprise is that women are absolutely shocked at how much marital debt they have. That means I know women knew they had a mortgage had no idea they had a second mortgage on the home or a home equity line of credit. They didn't even know the level of student debt for themselves, their husbands or even their children, if their children were going to college. totally unaware if the husband had taken out a loan from the 401 K or credit card credit cards. Yeah, and so when you're getting a divorce, you have to disclose all your assets and debts. And people are constantly surprised about how much debt they have. Because, you know, we see people in very expensive homes, they're driving nice cars, they have nice clothes, they go to nice activities, restaurants, the restaurants are full. So that's the first not being aware of debt.

The second really nasty surprise is we found that only less than 10% of women were able to continue to be stay at home parents after divorce.

Watch the video to find out more!




Key Moments
00:00 Six Nasty Financial Surprises Women Face During Divorce
04:12 The First Nasty Surprise How much debt there is
06:30 The Second Nasty Surprise having to sell the house
06:53 The Third Nasty Surprise child support and spousal support numbers
08:00 The Fourth Nasty Surprise can't qualify to have the mortgage in your own name
08:42 The Fifth Nasty Surprise every single woman is just blown over at the staggering cost of health care insurance
09:56 The Sixth Nasty Surprise the actual cost of getting a divorce.
22:58 How Long Does Spousal Support Last?
27:56 Divorce Mediation
29:44 Prenups and Postnups
29:44 Prenups and Postnups
37:34 Estate Planning