Divorce Rich with Jacki Roessler, CDFA

Send us Fan Mail The fastest way to lose money in divorce is to negotiate based on what you assume is true. We just got back from a national conference of Certified Divorce Financial Analysts, and I’m sharing four takeaways that can help you protect your cash flow, your credit, and your long-term plan before you sign anything. If you’re deciding whether to keep the house, split retirement accounts...

Send us Fan Mail One of the most frustrating divorce moments is looking at your settlement and thinking, “How am I the higher earner and still the one who feels broke?” We get it, and we see it all the time. Jacki Roessler sits down with Nick Defenthaler, CFP and partner at the Center for Financial Planning, to map out the top financial mistakes men make in divorce and the simple blind spots that...

Send us Fan Mail The moment the decree is signed, real life begins. We walk through the first months of financial independence after a divorce and show how small, steady actions create relief fast. Our guest, Angela Cipriano, a financial coach who rebuilt her own life post-divorce, explains how to move from overwhelm to ownership with checklists, simple systems, and a mindset that actually sticks....

Send us Fan Mail We’re joined by Dave Roessler, owner of Divorce Solutions and one of Michigan’s go-to QDRO drafting experts, to unpack the real-world problems he sees each year. We talk about timing mistakes and the language landmines that trigger rejections and unexpected dollar amounts.  We also get specific about loan balances and why “include the loan” can mean the opposite of what you think....

Send us Fan Mail Unlock the secrets to regaining financial control after divorce with insights from our special guest, Karen Schultz-Tarnopol, the mastermind behind Heirloom Consulting. Karen offers her wisdom on the often neglected yet vital realm of estate planning and legacy management, shedding light on the intense responsibilities a trustee carries and the sometimes staggering 500 hours it ca...

Send us Fan Mail Child support sounds like it should “cover everything for the kids,” until prom season hits, it's time to buy your child their first phone, not to mention "back to school" clothes and supplies. I’m Jackie Roessler, a certified divorce financial analyst, and I’m walking you through the gap between what child support guidelines are built to handle and what divorced pa...

Send us Fan Mail The scariest moment in divorce is realizing you might not even know what you’re negotiating. When accounts “disappear,” income suddenly looks smaller, or the lifestyle never matched the paycheck, the problem isn’t just stress, it’s missing data. We want you to have a way to get your footing back. We’re joined by Michele Laws, a highly specialized CDFA and forensic professional who...

Send us Fan Mail Divorce can flip your life overnight, and the scariest part is how fast money, custody, and control can slip away when you are making decisions on the fly. Jacki Roessler, a certified divorce financial analyst, sits down with Texas attorney Hannah Hembree Bell to talk about what it really means to “divorce rich” by building access to resources, solid information, and a plan you ca...

Send us Fan Mail Most people think divorce “has to” look like a court fight, but that assumption can quietly drain your time, money, and emotional bandwidth. Jacki Roessler sits down with Michigan family law attorney and domestic relations mediator Xavier Prather to break down what divorce mediation actually is, how it differs from traditional litigation, and why the best outcomes often come from...

Send us Fan Mail  The first question people ask me, almost without fail, is “How do I pick an attorney?” And I get it. Divorce already feels like your life got flipped, and the legal side can feel like a maze where one wrong turn gets expensive fast. That’s why I brought on Kelsey Minor, Esq. Managing Partner at DAWN in Bingham Farms, Michigan, a firm that has focused on women’s needs for decades....

Send us Fan Mail High-conflict divorce is rarely just “fighting.” Sometimes it’s grief, fear, shutdown, or subtle power dynamics that make every money or parenting decision feel impossible. We’re joined by Siedah Spencer-Ardis , a Michigan mental health professional and the founder of Focus Therapy Clinic, to talk through what really happens inside a collaborative divorce and why the mental health...

Send us Fan Mail Keeping the house after divorce can feel like the last thread of stability, but the numbers do not always cooperate. If you are over 60 and facing a gray divorce, you might be sitting on substantial home equity while struggling to come up with the cash needed for a buyout, repairs, or everyday income. We wanted a real, practical conversation about one of the most misunderstood too...

Send us Fan Mail Everyone assumes a prenup is a legal document you sign once and forget about. But when a marriage ends — five years later, or twenty — someone has to go back and figure out what that agreement actually means in today's dollars, today's assets, today's reality. That's where a CDFA comes in. In this solo episode, Jacki breaks down what's really inside a pren...

Send us Fan Mail People don’t usually think they’re going to “lose it” over a lamp, a ring, or a set of dishes, until divorce turns personal property into a power struggle. We sit down with Kelly Knoll of Heritage Appraisals to get brutally clear about what household items, jewelry, art, antiques, and collectibles are actually worth, and when they are not worth the fight. We talk about practical s...

Send us Fan Mail Teens can look like they’re doing great while their world is quietly cracking. When parents divorce during adolescence, kids may keep their grades up, stay active, and joke with friends, yet still feel fear, anger, confusion, and a deep sense of loss about the family they thought they had. We sit down with national board certified mental health professional Sarah Kuretzky Rossingt...

Send us Fan Mail A divorce can expose one truth faster than almost anything: if you don’t have cash you can access today, you don’t have real options tomorrow.   In this episode, I share the idea that has been living rent-free in my head since hearing Jean Chatzky talk about it on Her Money : “her safety net” a personal, liquid account in your name that exists before you ever need it. I walk throu...

Send us Fan Mail A 2.75% mortgage rate sounds like a gift until divorce turns it into a trap. We bring you a real case study from Northville, Michigan where the marital home is valued anywhere from $750,000 to $900,000, one spouse refuses to sell, and the other spouse wants their fair share of the equity. With two minor kids and a massive income gap, the question stops being “Who wants the house?”...

Send us Fan Mail Divorce can make you feel like you’re rebuilding from scratch, but the real challenge is longer than the settlement paperwork: how do you stay stable, independent, and confident for the next 25 to 40 years? We sit down with Logan Dimitrie, associate financial planner at the Center for Financial Planning, to unpack longevity planning in plain language and make it practical for anyo...

Send us Fan Mail You’re finally at the end of your divorce, you sign the agreement, and for a moment you can breathe again. Then the doubt rushes in and it feels like your brain is replaying every conversation, every number, every “what if I went to trial” scenario. We call that finish line whiplash, and it’s one of the most common patterns I see after years of divorce financial analysis and divor...

Send us Fan Mail Your divorce isn’t just happening in courtrooms and conference rooms anymore. It’s happening in your texts, your emails, your payment apps, and the posts you forget you made. We’re joined by Michigan family law attorney, mediator, and collaborative attorney Max Emmer to unpack what a “digital footprint” really means in modern divorce and how one careless message can become expensi...

Send us Fan Mail A pension can look “handled” in your divorce judgment and the former  spouse can still get reduced (or zero) benefits. That is the gut punch behind today’s deep dive on QDROs, the qualified domestic relations orders that actually control pension division in divorce. We walk through what a QDRO does, why plan administrators only follow the approved order, and how a delay can undo a...

Send us Fan Mail One stock can quietly take over your entire financial life and divorce forces you to make a decision before you feel ready. When a concentrated stock position grows out of employer equity, a hot tip, or a long run of gains, it can look like the easiest asset on the spreadsheet. We see the opposite: it can be the riskiest, most emotional, and most misunderstood part of the divorce...

Send us Fan Mail AI is already sitting at the negotiation table in divorce, whether we want it there or not and that’s exactly why we wanted this conversation. I’m joined by Jamie Lima, a financial planner, certified divorce financial analyst, and software developer who’s building Secure Split to modernize how divorce professionals and clients handle the money side of a case. We get honest about t...

Send us Fan Mail Leah Hadley’s Intentional Money invites women to rethink their relationship with money and build wealth in a way that supports the life they truly want. Drawing from years of experience helping women navigate career shifts, divorce, caregiving, and reinvention, Hadley introduces the Intentional Money Method™—a framework built on clarity, values, mindset, strategy, action, and supp...

Send us Fan Mail Taxes changed, and so did the playbook for anyone navigating divorce, parenting costs, or retirement income. We sat down with Michael Brocavich, CFP, MBA Partner and Director of Financial Planning at the Center for Financial Planning in Southfield, Michigan, to break down what actually matters: permanent lower brackets, a larger standard deduction, a new “senior bonus,” and how cr...