In this interview, family law attorney and mediator Scott Levin talks with certified divorce financial analyst (CDFA) Tanya Aure about the optimal timing and value of hiring a CDFA during a divorce. They explain that a CDFA is most useful when a client lacks direct control over the household finances or when the divorce involves complex assets such as RSUs, pensions, multiple retirement accounts, rental properties, or premarital property that must be kept separate. The CDFA provides detailed calculations—e.g., splitting equity in a home owned before marriage—and translates the financial implications of different asset classifications (IRAs, Roth IRAs, taxable accounts) into clear, future‑oriented projections. This clarity helps parties make confident decisions in mediation, where understanding the “playing field” is essential for settlement. The conversation also stresses that a CDFA is not a financial advisor; they offer short‑term, divorce‑specific guidance without a vested interest in post‑divorce investments, ensuring authenticity and straight‑talk. Finally, they provide contact information for listeners seeking CDFA services.
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Hey everybody, this is Scott Levin. I am a family law attorney who mediates, uh, divorce cases, and I am here with Tanya Aray, a certified divorce financial analyst, uh, based in Southern California. Hi, Tanya.
Hi, Scott.
Well, we've had enough of the pleasantries. Let's get to it.
Yeah, great.
Um, I wanted to ask Tanya to come on today and talk to us about when someone should hire a CDFA, a certified Divorce Financial Analyst. So this video assumes that you're navigating a divorce process, uh, and under what circumstances can a divorce— someone that's trained specifically as a divorce finance expert come in and help? When, when is an appropriate time to seek out that help? I have my answers. I'm sure Tanya's answers are better. Tanya, what do you think?
I don't know that my answers are better, but I will tell you, in my experience as a CDFA, the best time to use someone like me or any other CDFA is one, if you weren't necessarily the one to handle the finances, right? There's a little bit of murkiness. You weren't the one that wrote all the checks, where all the accounts are. The CDFA can help you clarify that picture, right? Kind of empower you to really understand where your finances currently sit, right? You need to make these financial decisions in clarity. clarity solely because this is going to be your future, right? We can't be making decisions left and right without really knowing what you have. The second instance where I feel like a CDFA is really helpful is when you have a lot of complicated assets, right? You have RSUs, you've got pensions, a bunch of retirement accounts, rental properties, or if, you know, you've been married a long time but you did have separate property prior to the marriage that you want to preserve and make sure that Keeps out of the whole community property division, right? So we just want to tease all that out, and a CDFA can do that gigantic plan really and say, this is what your financial picture looks like. These are the issues you want to consider. How would you like to proceed?
Yeah, and there are specific calculations that like a CDFA knows how to do that are relevant to all sorts of divorces. So for example, If you or your spouse owned a home prior to marriage, and then there are many circumstances in California by which that property can be still separately owned in part, but also owned in part by the community. And it's not a guessing game. There are ways for— if I refer my clients to Tanya, and she does the math to figure out what the exact breakdown is between the person who owned it before, what equity they have in the house, and what the community or both of you own. There's also just in mediation specifically, because Tanya works in divorce in general, but in mediation, it's hard for people to make settlements when they aren't sure they're understanding the game. And the game is like, what, what's the playing field? The playing field in finances are like, what are all the assets? What are, what are the meaning or impact of different classifications of assets? So there's IRAs, there's Roth IRAs, there's taxable brokerage accounts. Those are not all dollar for dollar the same depending on your age, right? There's implications to certain things. Tanya can basically say, this is what Your settlement proposal means to you now, and this is what it kind of means to you down the road. And that allows you to make confident decisions, which someone like me needs you to make in order for me to be able to help you mediate, because I can't force a settlement out of you. You have to be willing, and, and, and hiring someone like Tanya really gives confidence to people during the mediation process.
You cannot make these decisions and avoid Right? If you do not know all of these answers for your finances, you're not ready to make a decision. That's how I feel about it. Because once the decision is made, you're not going to be able to undo it, right? So when I work with people, I generally look at what's happening now. But then we also look at, OK, so what's going to happen after? What's this look like? What does your budget look like? Is what you are fighting over or what we're going to talk about getting enough for your future? And if it's not, what do we do? Right? Again, CDFAs, our whole purpose is to give you clarity going through the divorce process about your finances and making sure you make well-informed decisions.
Yeah. And one thing I really enjoy about Tanya is that she's not actually trying to, like, link on to you after the divorce, right, Tanya? Like, you're not a financial advisor. So, like, you're not— she's not motivated. Like, in some ways, any professional I refer has to have a bit of authenticity and straight talk.
Mm-hmm.
I don't wanna refer to someone that is gonna fluff around the issue and make the— make their client feel like, you know, to fight for something that they really aren't entitled to, or something like that. They have to be willing to tell the truth to the person too, because that helps people make decisions. And that's, you know, another thing I really like about Tonya is that she's here to help during this process. And then, you know, if you never spoke to her again, I'm sure she would be quite fine with that.
Well, Scott, I agree in the sense that I am not an advisor. I'm not looking to invest your money after the fact, right? I am really here for this specific purpose, and then to give you a sketch or a plan moving forward. At the end of the day, me, you know, sugarcoating everything isn't going to do you any favors. And I do not want you to come back to me and say, you know what, you said this was going to happen. I know I didn't.
Right?
We just need to be straight up, upfront, and honest right from the beginning. And my clients like that. It works out.
Yeah. So I'm gonna put your information in the chat, Tanya. Do you wanna— or is there— you wanna give your website, or how can people reach out?
Information in the chat is fine. I think that's probably the easiest and best way to do it.
