November 19, 2024
If you’re approaching divorce or separation, you’ve probably already consulted a solicitor about how to go about it. Separating from your partner can be a complex and lengthy process, especially where there are children involved, or the marriage or relationship has been a long one. Emotions are often running high, and sorting out the family finances to make sure everyone ends up with their fair share often presents a series of stumbling blocks.
Whether you’re in that situation yourself, or a solicitor acting for a divorcing client, you might want to talk to Neli.
Neli Hogan is a financial adviser for pensions, retirement and IHT, with a particular specialism in working closely with people going through divorce or separation, to help them get their finances in order. She is a member of Resolution – an organisation where solicitors, IFAs and other professionals come together to help people reach mutual agreement for a less stressful divorce.
Neli is experienced at working hand-in-hand with solicitors to help her clients navigate the financial part of the divorce process, preparing the, often complex, financial reports that are part of working to agree a fair split of assets. This includes preparing divorce expert witness reports for pensions, making her a useful ally for clients and their solicitors.
How Neli can help smooth out the divorce process
If you’ve agreed to divorce and now need to negotiate a fair split of your assets, Neli can act for you to help assess what the court might conclude to be fair, and help you with the negotiating process.
She’ll prepare cash flow models, look at each person’s financial arrangements and help you to navigate the complexities of off-setting assets – for example how one asset (like the family home) can be offset against pension arrangements. Having a clear understanding of your assets, and the implications of different splits, will help you to be prepared when you sit down at the negotiating table with your solicitor, your partner, and their solicitor.
If you’ve already started down the negotiating path and are having difficulty agreeing a settlement, Neli can act as an expert witness. Unlike solicitors, who must represent only one party, Neli can act jointly for both sides. She looks only at the financial information, and advises objectively, with no bias towards either side.
She is an independent expert who can receive information from both your and your partner’s solicitors, and prepare a report showing clearly what a particular split would look like in reality, helping you to reach an informed agreement.
The third way that Neli can help is by offering expert financial advice directly to you when you need to make financial arrangements following court proceedings and/or a financial order by the court about how marital assets (particularly pensions) should be split. Neli will help to make the arrangements and put everything in place for the people involved to receive their correct share.
Add your IFA to your divorce team
As with your legal team, it’s advisable to get an IFA like Neli involved as early as possible in the divorce process. Your solicitor is a legal expert, but they may not be fully up-to-speed with the complexities of pensions – especially where there are defined benefit schemes involved, or a large age gap between the divorcing couple.
Talking early on to your IFA, even before you decide to separate, can help you to prepare yourself for what a divorce might mean in practice by getting an idea of what the court could consider to be a fair split of assets. You can work together on what you would consider fair, and create a cashflow forecast to show your solicitor what you would need to live on after separation.
How to talk to Neli
You can contact Neli direct, or ask your solicitor to introduce you.
She finds that female clients in particular value her guidance, as she is empathetic and understands what it feels like to be in such an emotionally charged situation. She supports her clients to distance themselves from those difficult emotions as far as possible, to make more objective, informed decisions that will affect their future.
She also understands that, while everybody is vulnerable in their own way, women can be particularly financially vulnerable where everything has been in their husband’s name, or where they have spent their life bringing up children and have little or no earnings. She has considerable experience of working with women whose former partners have been financially controlling, and using money to continue to wield power over them.
As a member of the Talis IFA team, Neli is committed to offering empathetic, plain-English advice to help her clients to navigate the complexities of divorce and separation, and set them on the path to a more secure financial future.
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