Silver Divorce

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A Note from the Silver Divorce Consulting Team: Divorce among couples where one or both spouses are over age 50 has increased dramatically in the last few years. The challenges that lawyers and financial advisors face when working with clients going through a “Silver Divorce” can be extremely daunting.

In fact, many professionals on whom the Courts rely simply don’t have the expertise or experience to effectively address the overwhelming complexities that often arise in such cases – particularly those around real estate, taxes, and Qualified Retirement Plans. To fill this gap, we at Silver Divorce Consulting have a team of experts who can support Family Lawyers, CPAs, and Financial Advisors in their efforts to help their clients navigate through a silver divorce without experiencing the devastating financial consequences and/or extremely long timelines associated with so many divorces that involve older couples.

• To watch our webinars (posted below), please click here to send us an email, and we’ll give you the password.
• Please scroll down to read our bios.
• Below, you’ll find videos and articles about Silver Divorce that we hope will help you navigate this important journey.

We look forward to working with you! — Pete, Barry, and Mary Jo

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MEET THE TEAM at SILVER DIVORCE CONSULTING

Actuary Peter J. Neuwirth FSA, FCA, specializes in retirement plan issues. He is a 1979 graduate of Harvard College with a BA in Mathematics and Linguistics. After leaving Harvard, he went to work at Connecticut General Life Insurance, now CIGNA. For the next 38 years, he worked as an actuary in significant leadership positions at Aon, Hewitt Associates, Watson Wyatt, Towers Perrin, and Towers Watson. He spent five years as a chief actuary at Godwins, seven years at Coates Kenney, and a year at Price Waterhouse. In 2016, Pete retired to focus on writing and researching financial wellness issues, including using home equity to generate retirement income. His two current books include Money Mountaineering: Use the Principles of Holistic Financial Wellness to Thrive in a Complex World and What’s Your Future Worth? Using Present Value to Make Better Decisions. Pete is a frequent speaker at conferences around the country including the Conference of Consulting Actuaries, Enrolled Actuaries, and the Western Pension and Benefits Conference. Click here to Meet Pete.

 

Mary Jo Lafaye is a licensed Home Equity Retirement Specialist with Mutual of Omaha Mortgage. With over 20 years as a top-rated specialist in her field, she is focused on educating financial and legal advisors, Realtors, and the retirees they serve. Mary Jo offers monthly in-person educational seminars, webinars, continuing education, CE and MCLE classes for the professionals she serves —and informational seminars for homeowners. Mary Jo assists these professionals and their mature clients to create sustainable *tax-free cash flow for a joyful retirement.

Mary Jo is a nationally recognized public speaker and has co-authored several academic papers, including: Using Housing Wealth to Facilitate the Division of Assets in Silver Divorce for the Institute of Divorce Financial Analysts (IDFA). She has presented to the MCBA, The Tax and Estate Planning Council, NAPFA, FPA, PFAC, and MAR and has been an instructor at the College of San Mateo. She enjoys contributing to teams collaborating to solve complex retirement income issues for older Americans.

Mary Jo focuses on educating Boomers and Seniors —and their families and advisors, on strategies to incorporate housing wealth for improved Lifestyle, Liquidity, Longevity, and Legacy.

A regular speaker on using the FHA-insured Lifestyle Loan, a loan designed specifically to enable home buyers over age 62 to purchase their retirement dream home —without taking on a monthly mortgage, or using all their cash. Mary Jo enjoys helping homeowners downsize, right-size, and maximize cash flow for ongoing retirement and care needs, settling estates, Silver Divorce, and reducing financial and emotional stress for a long and healthy retirement.

Mary Jo and her colleagues are available upon request to speak at your office, or via Zoom, to your associates, professional or study groups, and service organizations.

Learn more: www.MaryJoLafaye.com

*Consult a tax advisor

 

Attorney Barry Sacks  PhD, JD earned his Ph.D. in semiconductor physics from M.I.T., then taught at U.C. Berkeley. He earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School and is a Certified Specialist in Taxation Law from the California Board of Legal Specialization. After spending 35 years as an ERISA attorney specializing in qualified retirement plans, he used his breadth of skills to discover a role for a reverse mortgage to help make a retirement portfolio last longer. Barry now has a law practice providing special services to tax professionals in the area of “Offers in Compromise” for retirees living on 401(k) accounts or securities portfolios. With his brother, Professor Stephen Sacks, Barry published the pioneering research paper modeling a strategy that uses reverse mortgage credit lines to mitigate the effects of adverse sequences of investment returns in retirement accounts (Journal of Financial Planning). Click here to learn more about Barry.