Frank addresses Nashville Bar Association
Brentwood Home Page news reports
Up to 20 percent of all bankruptcy experienced by individuals, who were otherwise financially sound, is a direct fallout of divorce, divorce financial expert Rosemary Frank told the Nashville Bar Association at its annual Family Law Institute on Oct. 6.  

 “Post-divorce bankruptcies can be prevented by completing a financial analysis of proposed settlements during the negotiation process, so as to forecast the long term outcomes of a settlement in advance,” Frank said. “Understanding the likely outcome of a settlement will lead to better negotiations and/or help clients plan for lifestyle modifications that will help avoid the financial wreckage of bankruptcy.”

Frank pointed out that the correlation between bankruptcy and divorce is clear. With the Tennessee divorce rate ranked third highest in the nation, by traditional measures at 67%, and the bankruptcy rate the second highest in the nation, this begs closer examination and preventive processes.

A number of examples were given regarding marital assets that appear to have equal values today, but may not have equitable values in the future and therefore, not be an equitable division of property in divorce. The differences arise from the inherent “behavior” of different assets, and how money really works, or from the impact of future taxes which may be overlooked in divorce. Frank followed through with a case study of a divorce and financial analyses of multiple proposed settlements.

“Divorce is an enduring financial condition. Not a transaction,”  Frank said in closing. “There is no finality to ‘getting it settled.’ Each of the parties must now live the rest of their lives with the financial impact of a divorce settlement. It becomes their new reality and they had better understand what they have been dealt.”

This is the second year Frank has been a member of the faculty of this annual event. She was joined by two prominent Nashville area family law Attorneys and several Judges.