Financially Ever After Widowhood

Katherine Miller is the Founder of Miller Law Group and Director in Training of the Center for Understanding and Conflict. She is the host of the radio show and podcast Divorce Dialogues, as well the author of The New Yorker's Guide to Collaborative Divorce and the co-author of the Amazon best-seller, A Cup of Coffee. She has been featured on CBS, NBC, The New York Times and Newsday Money Magazine...

Crystal Levy is a Senior Associate at Lassar & Cowhey LLP and a manager at Marcum LLP. She focuses on making thoughtful estate plans for modern and emerging families as well as high net worth households. Janis Cowhey is a Trusts & Estates and Tax Partner at Marcum LLP, who specializes in estate, gift and income tax planning, as well as working with same-sex couples and unmarried families. They joi...

Renee Bauer is a podcast host, a Connecticut Divorce Attorney at Bauer Law Group and the CEO of Happy Even After, an organization dedicated to family and matrimonial law. She joins Stacy Francis to talk about how your thinking patterns can emotionally and financially affect you during and after your divorce, and shares tools to help you have the right mindset. The type of questions clients ask are...

Dawn Cardi is a founding partner at Cardi & Edgar LLP. She has considerable experience in corporate and securities law, and has spent dozens of years as a matrimonial attorney, representing individuals in divorce and custody proceedings. She joins Stacy Francis to talk about the financial advantages and disadvantages of both formal marriage and common law marriage.  People are often shocked to lea...

Paige Zandri is a Managing Partner and the Lead Mediator of Artese Zandri. She has significant expertise in helping couples create an amicable separation. She joins Stacy Francis to discuss social media, and its effects on divorce. One’s presence on social media can impact alimony, child support, custody, and can be used as evidence in court. Paige advises that parties in divorce act as if there i...

Helene Bernstein is a Divorce Attorney and Mediator of her own firm and has been a family law attorney in Brooklyn, New York for the past 25 years. She sits on the board of Family Kind, a non-profit organization that offers reduced fee mediation services for couples going through divorce or separation. She is also a member of the board of directors of the Family Divorce Mediation Council and chair...

David Perry is a licensed real estate broker and certified Divorce Real Estate Specialist at Brown Harris Stevens. He joins Stacy Francis to talk about how to navigate buying and/or selling one’s home during a divorce. According to David, accounting is the language of business, economics is how you run it, and real estate is the marriage of both. Having a real estate broker as a resource from the...

Emiliya Zhivotovskaya is the CEO of The Flourishing Center, an organization dedicated to “training the change agents of the world” by using science to help people lead more fulfilling lives. She joins Stacy Francis to discuss how to navigate your emotions during divorce and to share three tips on how to change your habits. Self-awareness brings about self-compassion, which brings self-care, which...

Linda Rosenthal is a matrimonial lawyer and partner at McLaughlin & Stern. She joins Stacy Francis to chat about prenups and postnuptial (postnups) agreements, and how the latter may prove beneficial.   Here are a few highlights from their conversation: A prenup is a contract agreed upon by the involved parties before a marriage, in the event of separation, divorce, or death; a postnup is a contra...

Sophie Jacobi-Parisi is a partner at Warshaw Burnstein, LLP and practices matrimonial and family law, representing people in matrimonial, custody and support matters. She joins Stacy Francis to discuss relocation issues and how you can resolve them. Relocation is not automatic; you do not have the right, just because you’re the mother, to take your children and move away from their other parent. M...

Laurie Marchel is a business executive in the financial services industry and the author of The Stepmoms’ Club: How to Be a Stepmom Without Losing Your Money, Your Mind, and Your Marriage. She joins Stacy Francis to share tips for navigating a blended family. When making decisions regarding the safety of your children, their best interest should come first. According to statistics, 1300 stepfamili...

Rich Heller is a conflict coach and trained mediator, with a master’s degree in social work and a certificate in coaching, who works with couples struggling to manage conflict. Whether a couple has decided to separate or divorce, Rich’s goal is to help minimize the friction, so the couple can maximize the support they give to their children.   Rich talks about how, during difficulties in your marr...

Cindy Gunraj is a certified divorce coach, author, and the CEO and Founder of Stillness Blooms- a platform for people going through difficult life changes and in need of support. She joins Stacy Francis to chat about how to draw on your family’s support in your divorce.   Here are some highlights from their conversation: Cindy reached her breaking point, and realized that she would have a better l...

Randi Karmel is the Owner of Randi L. Karmel, PLLC. Randi has been practicing law for over 20 years, acquiring extensive litigation and trial experience. Randi currently represents clients in negotiating prenuptial and mid-nuptial agreements, separation and settlement agreements and actions for divorce that include equitable distribution, maintenance, visitation, support, and custody. She joins St...

This week, we bring you a special episode of Financially Ever After where your host, Stacy Francis, answers your questions on how the impact of COVID-19 may impact your financial situation - especially if you are going through divorce or are recently divorced.   Stacy will answer important questions such as: What should I do with my money now? Will this downturn impact my divorce settlement, child...

Nicole Noonan of New Chapter Capital is a former attorney with years of experience seeing women boxed in with financial challenges during a divorce. Divorce can be expensive; the average divorce in New York costs 17k per person, and can sometimes be much worse. This fact can keep women trapped in marriages they don’t want to be in, and unable to get the kind of legal and financial support they nee...

Lauren Gaynor is a Litigation & Real Estate Partner specializing in Matrimonial Litigation at Teitler & Teitler. She chats with Stacy Francis about custody, child support, and how to make your divorce easier for your children. Here are a few highlights from their conversation: During your divorce, finding the right attorney in matrimonial is important to achieve an emotional fit. The amount of tim...

Turning Divorce into a Positive  This week’s guest is Gabrielle Hartley, a divorce mediator who is known as a case closer. She has been able to keep 99% of her cases out of the courtroom. She chats with Stacy Francis about how she manages to move her clients through the divorce process without using the courts. She also discusses why she believes divorce can be a positive in your life. Gabrielle i...

This week’s guest on Financially Ever After is Dana Stutman, a matrimonial divorce attorney who runs a successful private practice in partnership with her husband Michael Stutman. She brings a unique insight on the topic of being in business with your spouse, and shares important tips women can use to protect themselves and their family in the event of a divorce. A partnership agreement protects y...

In this episode of Financially Every After, Stacy Francis speaks with Bari Tessler, the author of The Art of Money. They talk about how your relationship with money can impact all aspects of your life, the unfortunate fact that many of us had inconsistent, or totally absent financial educations, and the surprising ways our bodies can physically react when it comes to making decisions around money....

Host Stacy Francis welcomes attorney and social worker, Kristen Lyndaker to this week’s show. Kristen holds a Master’s degree in Social Work and has worked in the foster care and adoption field. She is also a practicing matrimonial attorney who specializes in Collaborative Family Law and Mediation. This area, she says, is a niche in law where she could combine her social work skills and family and...

Mia Poppe had a successful 22-year career as a senior-level banker. Her own disastrous first divorce was the catalyst that led her to go to law school at the age of 42 and retrain as a matrimonial attorney. She now runs her own successful private practice. Mia joins Stacy Francis this week to chat about why it’s important to manage your money, knowing your value, and leveraging your capital into f...

Ten years ago, matrimonial attorney Lauren Friend started her own law firm because she wanted to help people through the worst times of their lives. Her clients see her as their support lifeline, which helps them get through the divorce process as healthily as possible. Apart from working with adults however, Lauren also works with children as an attorney for the child. She chats with Stacy Franci...

Claire, this week’s guest on Financially Ever After, has lived through many hardships. She bravely shares her story so that listeners who may be in a similar situation can find some help and hope. Claire has been living month to month for the last year and a half. Her ex-husband decided not to pay alimony this month to spite her, so she has not been able to pay her bills. [2:34] In the beginning,...

Tanya-Marie Dubé is a master of transformation. She has lived through some very traumatic experiences: from being born into the foster care system, to being homeless from ages 12 to 18, to leaving her marriage of 18½ years without her home or any finances. Through each adversity, Tanya was able to change her perspective and come out a stronger, happier person. Now she teaches women around the worl...