Divorce Mediation and Collaboration

Don Blythe MBA CPA CDFA – Divorce Financial Planner and Mediator

Office: 315 Montgomery, 10th floor, San Francisco, California 94104

Meeting locations: San Francisco, Sausalito, San Rafael, Walnut Creek

Mobile: 913.485.8527

Don is a financial specialist with extensive experience as a divorce financial planner, divorce mediator and a Collaborative divorce financial neutral in helping couples who are separating make sense of often complex divorce financial issues.

The consequences of choices you make during the divorce process are difficult if not impossible to change once the divorce is final. Your financial decisions now will have a powerful impact on your future lives. Don is able to help you each make informed decisions.

He has a diverse financial background spanning over 30 years as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with emphases in divorce financial planning, divorce mediation, Collaborative divorce, forensic accounting, retirement plan and small business valuation as well as income tax preparation and advisory services.

Fear of an uncertain future often makes divorce more difficult than it has to be. And when two households now have to live on the same income that previously supported only one household, the importance of divorce financial planning becomes obvious. As your neutral financial professional, Don will help you identify, document and value your community and separate property and debt, document your income and estimate your expected future expenses. He will help you communicate with each other and document your preferences when it comes to dividing your marital property and debt and provide detailed analyses of the financial impact of various of various alternative divorce settlement strategies by projecting the short-term and long-term effects on cash flow and net worth.

His role as your financial specialist will depend on the complexity of your financial position and your stated objectives but often includes:

*Performing a thorough review of your financial documents to create a complete divorce financial plan.

* Preparing as needed separate property tracing and post-separation accounting achieve clarity between you and your spouse.

*Valuing as needed any closely-held small business that you or your spouse owns by explaining valuation approaches and methods commonly used by valuation analysts.

*Valuing as needed any stock options or defined-benefit pension plans by explaining the factors involved in these kinds of valuations.

*Performing as needed forensic accounting procedures on historic financial information to better understand changes in assets and debt over time.

*Evaluating property divisions to help you understand settlement proposals.

*Analyzing options for the disposition of real estate, other assets, and debt.

* Preparing your budgets and cash flows, and assessing your future needs based on various scenarios.

*Analyzing expected income and expenses for use in spousal and child support discussions.

*Evaluating short-term and long-term effects of proposed divorce settlements based on anticipated needs.

*Preparing the required financial disclosures of assets, debts, income and expenses.

Licenses

Associations

Don is president-elect and member of the Board of Directors  of Collaborative Divorce California and co-chairperson of its Divorce Options committee , a member of  Collaborative Practice San Francisco, Institute of Divorce Financial Analysts, International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, American Institute of Certified Public Accounts and Missouri Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Education

  • Masters of Business Administration from Kansas University
  • BA Journalism Kansas University
  • MCSE Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
  • Associate Degree Information Systems Johnson County Community College