When you start out in a team, you have to get the teamwork going and then you get something back – Michael Schumaker
When you and your former partner have both met with the mediator for your MIAM (mediation information and assessment meetings), the mediator will help you prepare for your financial mediation process in several ways, depending on your situation and the level of support you are likely to need.
You and your former partner, as the joint decision-makers, will always be at the heart of the mediation preparation and support plan.
A key question for you and your mediator is:
What support will you and your former partner both need to ensure that you are both able to work together during and in between mediation sessions, making decisions together and reaching fully informed high quality outcomes, in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
The Financial Neutral (‘FN’) can play a key role in this ‘collective’ decision-making process, ensuring that:
- You and your former partner have a sufficient level of knowledge and understanding to be able to reach fully informed decisions and implement them effectively when the time comes, such as with pension sharing.
- Your partner and you both feel fully supported and sufficiently confident to engage and participate in an open, flexible, creative, reasoned, outcome and solution-focused approach, to reaching financial decisions together.
- Both of you gather the correct information for the decisions that need to be made, in the most efficient way, saving you time and money.
- You both feel fully supported in generating and exploring a full range of financial options in mediation, exploring and reality testing these from a variety of perspectives.
Working closely with both of you and the mediator, during and between sessions, the Financial Neutral will help you and your former partner work in a cooperative and collegiate way, saving you a significant amount of time and money- Together you all form the Collective Decision-Making Entity
Here are some of the ways in which a Financial Neutral can help :
Form E (Financial Disclosure Statement)
The mediator will send you various financial documents to complete, relating to the ‘full and frank’ financial disclosure process, covered in much more detail in Chapter 7.
In Chapter 9, the resources section provides a video series explaining how to complete your financial disclosure booklets (Form E), aiming to save your costs.
In straightforward financial situations (around 70% of cases), you should be able to keep the costs you spend on professional support to a minimum by using the video and other resources in this Manual.
However, in more complex situations or where one or both of you require more support, a FN can help with gathering the correct financial information.
Pensions
If you have pensions which are to be included as part of your financial settlements, you may well require the support of a specialist pension expert in order to reach a ‘fair outcome’.
We cover the area of pensions and divorce in much more detail in Chapter 10.
Again, a FN can provide crucial support in helping you work with the Pension on Divorce Expert (PODE) in an efficient and effective way.
Spousal Maintenance
If your situation requires you to consider financial support (maintenance), you may require additional professional support with compiling your monthly expenditure schedule (budget) or, for example, with forecasting future expenditure needs.
We cover the area of maintenance in much more detail in Chapter 8.
The FN and Budget specialists can again provide crucial support with helping you to prepare this.
Business Interests
If there are business interests or, for example, a diverse investment portfolio to consider, you may need additional professional support to understand and properly value the assets so that you can reach a ‘fair outcome’.
We cover the area of business interests in divorce in much more detail in Chapter 11.
We mention these financial aspects because it can be incredibly useful if not essential, in these circumstances, for you and your former partner to work with a Financial Adviser, helping you both work together in the most efficient and cost effective joined-up way (collegiate and collaborative), with a shared objective and common purpose in mind.
The common and shared objective of any professional involved in the ‘mediation team process’ is to support you and your former partner to work together in the most efficient and cost-effective way, maximising your chances of reaching a successful mediated financial outcome.
There are very few separating couples who do not want to reach a fair financial outcome in the most cost effective way !