How to manage a divorce settlement: the first financial decisions to make when the money lands. When a divorce settlement is finalized and the money arrives, the early decisions shape the next several decades. In this episode, Alex Weinberger, a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA), explains what to do first with a divorce settlement, why the headline number is rarely what you can actually spend, and how to build a financial team after divorce.

What this episode covers:

• Why a settlement is worth less than its stated number, and how house equity, retirement accounts, and taxable accounts each carry different taxes and rules
• What to do first with a divorce settlement: why the strongest opening move is to make no large or irreversible decisions
• How cost basis and tax character determine what each asset is really worth to you
• How to find a financial advisor after divorce, and what fee only and fiduciary actually mean
• How to turn a lump sum settlement into income that lasts across your full time horizon

Common questions answered in this episode:

• Is a divorce settlement taxable? Dividing assets between spouses in a divorce is generally not taxable in itself, but the tax comes later and depends on the type of asset.
• How much of a settlement can you safely spend each year? There is no single percentage; a sustainable level depends on your cost of living, time horizon, taxes, and how the money is invested.

Marriage Financial Solutions is a financial consulting firm in Los Angeles that helps individuals and their attorneys understand the financial side of divorce, serving clients across California. Learn more or schedule a confidential consultation at marriagefinancial.com.

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Keeping the marital home can feel less like a financial decision than like keeping your footing. It's also one of the largest, least reversible money decisions in the entire divorce, and the number on the spreadsheet usually isn't the real number.

In this episode, Alex Weinberger explains why a house is not the same as cash, the capital gains exclusion that quietly drops from 500,000 to 250,000 dollars the day a divorce is final, and the embedded basis that travels with the home in a buyout. He walks through what it actually costs to carry a home alone after a refinance, the opportunity cost of locking wealth in the walls, and the middle path of holding jointly and selling later.

Whether you're weighing this in your own divorce or you're an attorney, mediator, or advisor supporting someone who is, this episode gives you the questions to ask before anyone signs.

In this episode:

• Why a house and an investment account of equal value are not interchangeable
• How the capital gains exclusion is cut in half at divorce, with a worked example
• The basis you inherit in a buyout and the tax stapled to the home's value
• The real monthly cost of keeping the home on one income
• A five-question framework for deciding to keep, sell, or hold and sell later

If you're navigating a divorce and want to understand what keeping or selling the home really means for your financial future, Alex Weinberger and the team at Marriage Financial Solutions work directly with individuals and the professionals who support them. A confidential, complimentary consultation can help you see where you stand before anything is signed. Learn more at marriagefinancial.com.

The information provided in this podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. It is not a substitute for working with a qualified professional.

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Most people never see the double dip coming, because it hides in the gap between two different parts of a divorce. The same dollars get counted once when a business or pension is valued and divided, and then again as income when support is calculated. One stream, two bites.

In this episode, Alex Weinberger explains what the double dip actually is, why the valuation method rather than the asset itself determines whether it exists, and how California courts have treated it since Marriage of White in 1987. He works through concrete examples on both the business and retirement sides, separates enterprise goodwill from personal goodwill, and shares the questions that tend to move real money in a settlement.

Whether you're navigating your own divorce or you're an attorney, mediator, or advisor supporting someone through one, this episode shows why the spouse whose team sees the overlap clearly tends to walk away with the better result.

In this episode:

• What the double dip is, in plain language
• Why how you value an asset, not what it is, drives the exposure
• Enterprise goodwill versus personal goodwill, and why the distinction matters
• What California's Marriage of White established about pensions, division, and offsets
• A worked business example and a pension example, both with real numbers
• A practical checklist for spotting and modeling the overlap before anyone signs

If this conversation raised questions about your situation or a client's, Alex Weinberger and the team at Marriage Financial Solutions work directly with individuals navigating divorce, and alongside the attorneys, mediators, therapists, and coaches who support them. Learn more at marriagefinancial.com.

The information provided in this podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. It is not a substitute for working with a qualified professional.

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