My least favorite task to work through with clients is reviewing their budgets these days. It seems everyone is hemorrhaging cash. Sadly there are few easy solutions-- either the parties 1) increase their income to meet their household budgets; 2) decrease expenses; 3) cash-in assets to meet the deficit; or 4) take on more debt to meet expenses.Everyone needs to be able to afford decent housing, food, clothing, transportation, and medical care. So the painful exercise is cutting the "extras" like travel and entertainment, or country club memberships. It is very hard to tell people which of these expenses should be cut, but obviously it is the discretionary (non-necessary) expenses that have to be carefully reviewed and eliminated wherever possible.For many clients in the DC Area, one of the first big ticket items to consider eliminating is private school tuition for kids under 18. In the DC Area, these tuitions can range from $15,000 to $35,000 per year. Given the choice of being able to save for college and meet the household's necessary expenses, or paying $1000 or more a month on the luxury of a private education, many parents are finding it necessary to eliminate this expense.We all have to make difficult decisions these days, and yet I hope we can all act in a way that takes the [...]

There is nothing worse during a separation process than that horrible feeling of complete uncertainty. Without a time-sharing schedule for the kids, an agreement on finances, or any idea of when either party is going to move out, clients feel completely vulnerable. I have lost count of how many times I have gotten a frantic call because one parent got to the school first and took the kids, or someone went away for the weekend and came home to an empty house. Bank accounts get raided, bills don't get paid, and when people don't communicate about these things, all this can quickly and easily escalate into a very bad situation.It is hard to explain to clients that what a normal citizen might consider an emergency, may not be viewed as one by the courts. Remember, courts see the worst of the worst, so getting an emergency hearing is rare. This means it could take months before certain pressing issues can be addressed in litigation-- but that is NOT the case in Collaborative cases.When clients sign on to the Collaborative process, they agree to maintain the status quo until a new agreement is reached changing the couple's established operating procedures with finances, child-rearing, or living arrangements. Collaborative provides parties with immediate security, unlike any other process, and allows them to set [...]